Why bother with defenders? After all, they were worth only one-seventh of a good midfielder according to my weird metric.
Read on to find out how.
It has been 33 years since a defender stood on the dais and received the Brownlow Medal. It is still the highest individual honour in football, despite the popularity of other awards, such as the AFL Coaches Association Champion Player of the Year, and the AFL Players Association MVP awards.
Gavin Wanganeen was that final defender, and as the AFL continues to glorify the midfielders of the game it warrants discussion as to whether defenders, and forwards for that matter, get token votes.
In 1992, Jason Dunstall kicked 139 goals in the home and away season (and six in the only final the Hawks played). It was good enough for second place, but since then, forwards have not been as close.
To me, the question should never be “which player can win the Brownlow?” because before one vote is counted, we’re already discounting two thirds of the league.
One of footy’s best writers, Matt Zurbo, has a piece over on The Footy Almanac, depicting a conversation between the union of AFL defenders, and how they felt about being shunned when it came to what the umpires (and the league) deem as important. Great read, if you’d like to clink the link HERE.
It got me thinking – how many votes did the 2025 All-Australian back six receive in 2025? And how did it compare to the All-Australian midfield selections?
So, I got the trusty calculator out and starting using the most difficult of all mathematical equations – addition – to check things out.
I’ll start with the five who played in defence for the entire season.
Josh Battle received five votes.
Sam Taylor got two.
Jordan Clark picked up four.
Bailey Dale got seven.
And Harris Andrews managed five.
So, from those five, we have a total of 23 votes.
Then we have to add in the role of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, who started in defence and moved into the role of full-time midfielder from Round 17 onwards. Up until that point of the season, he had collected 11 votes.
That puts the total number of votes accrued by defenders at 34 in total.
Keep in mind as we work through the next bit, that Matt Rowell won… with 39 votes, all by himself. Ready?
The midfielder totals looked as follows.
Bailey Smith – 29
Jordan Dawson – 27
Hugh McCluggage – 21
Noah Anderson – 25
Ed Richards – 11
Nick Daicos – 32
Caleb Serong – 25
And Rowell with his 39
The total number of votes for this cohort is a staggering 234.
But wait, there’s more!
If Nasiah stopped accruing votes as a defender in Round 17, he picked them up as a midfielder from then on. So, that’s another 12 votes to the midfielders. Yay for midfielders. They now total 246 total votes in 2025… and that is only from those selected to the All-Australian team.
Now, using the magic of division, this group of mids collected 7.23 votes for every one vote that a defender managed.
Given the old saying that premierships are built on defence, does this seem out of whack to you? Midfielders are seven times more likely to be recognised for their efforts than a defender?
Something is wrong with the way we assess who the best players in the league are.
If we were looking at things objectively, we probably should have had Harris Andrews included in the discussion as one of the Most Valuable Players in the AFL last season. Some of his efforts to hold the Lions’ back six together, even with injuries and a series of other players cycling through, was Herculean.
But here you go, Harris – have five votes in the Brownlow. Enjoy them.
We run our own Defensive Player of the Year award – now into its seventh season here at The Mongrel Punt, but really, I can see it for what it is. We’re not one of the big boys in the AFL Media, and as we prefer being on the outside looking in, it is not given any recognition. Fair enough, I suppose, but should not the AFL, at the very least, be looking at instituting some form of recognition for the best defender of the year?
There was a groundswell of support for the concept soon after Danny Frawley passed, with many proclaiming an award should be named in his honour. Nothing came of it, unfortunately. However, with the incredible bias shown to midfielders in the AFL’s most prestigious award, basically every season, isn’t it about time those boffins at AFL House actually did something positive for the game and started recognising players who do their best work behind the footy?
This season, we’re seeing some standout performers in defence.
Wayne Milera is having a blinder for the Crows. John Noble has been huge for the Suns. Nick Blakey,. Tom McCartin, Cal Wilkie, and Tom Stewart are all having massive impacts on games. They probably deserve a lot better than being awarded one-seventh of the recognition of their midfield counterparts.
And it is probably about time the AFL did something about it, too.
For the record, the winners of our Defensive Player of the Year Award are listed below.
2020- Luke Ryan
2021 – Jacob Weitering
2022 – James Sicily
2023 – Harris Andrews
2024 – Sam Collins/Lachie Whitfield
2025 – Harris Andrews
As always, massive thanks to those who support this work. You can see the amount of care that goes into it. I love footy, I love writing about it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Without you, this whole thing falls over. Sincerely… thank you – HB
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