The Brownlow Medal - the AFL's highest individual accolade.
You know a player was special when you look back at the code's history and see they've taken home 'Charlie'.
The award only goes to the best of the best, and in 2018, it's unlikely to be any different.
Sporting News has all the information you need on the 2018 Brownlow Medal, and its glorious black-tie ceremony.
MORE: The Rover's club-by-club Brownlow predictor
Read on below to understand the history of the award, and who is likely to take the chocolates this year.
WHEN IS THE BROWNLOW MEDAL CEREMONY?
The 2018 Brownlow Medal Ceremony will be held on Monday, September 24th. The count starts around 8.30pm AEST but there's plenty to watch before then - in fact some may even argue the three and a half hours of Gill McLachlan reading out votes is the boring bit of the night. Sacrilege!
WHERE IS THE BROWNLOW MEDAL CEREMONY HELD?
The ceremony will be held at the Crown Casino, Melbourne, which you don't really need to know unless you've been invited, and if you've been invited then the address should be somewhere on the actual piece of card that came in the mail. It's not really one of those events where groupies get to hang out on the red carpet screaming for autographs and selfies, so you're better off grabbing a cold drink and analysing which player's missus has got the best gown/shoes combination. Yeah, that's right, they only get the girls to give a twirl so we can appreciate their fashion sense, and not their ... anything else.
HOW CAN I WATCH THE BROWNLOW MEDAL CEREMONY?
'How can you not watch the Brownlow Medal count' should be the question. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Channel 7 from 7.30pm AEST. All you need to do is either score an invite to a mate's house/pub/sporting club, or send out the invites to your own 'do' and start stockpiling Burger Rings and French onion dip. Coverage starts with footage of Patrick Dangerfield and his wife getting frocked up while drinking champagne and enjoying the view of Melbourne from the Honeymoon Suite on level 24 of Crown Towers. The cameras normally follow around the previous year's winner as he gets ready for the big night, but broadcast regulations in Australia can be strict and Channel 7 doesn't want to risk losing its licence, so no Dustin Martin until he's sitting down at his designated seat.
BREAKING: Richmond star @DustinMartin4 has set a new votes record to win the 2017 #Brownlow Medal. https://t.co/GLvMBJB1k7 #AFL #7News pic.twitter.com/hvTZ1lASZV
— 7 News Melbourne (@7NewsMelbourne) September 25, 2017
2018 BROWNLOW MEDAL ODDS
| Player | Sportsbet* | Bet365* | TAB* | Ladbrokes* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Mitchell | $1.45 | $1.45 | $1.50 | $1.40 |
| Dustin Martin | $9.00 | $9.00 | $9.00 | $8.00 |
| Max Gawn | $9.00 | $10.00 | $8.00 | $10.00 |
| Patrick Cripps | $18.00 | $17.00 | $15.00 | $17.00 |
| Brodie Grundy | $18.00 | $23.00 | $15.00 | $21.00 |
*Odds as at 24/09.
THE ROVER'S 2018 BROWNLOW MEDAL FAVOURITES
The home-and-away season is in the books and nobody watched it more closely than our man The Rover.
Was it all a fantasy, or were his thankless hours spent in front of the TV giving an early prediction into who'll be the Brownlow winner for 2018?
Click here to see the Rover's Brownlow winner for 2018.
BROWNLOW MEDAL HISTORY
The Brownlow Medal, or 'The Charles Brownlow Trophy', is awarded to the AFL's best and fairest player.
It was first awarded in 1924, and has been awarded every season since, barring 1942-45 because of World War I.
The medal is named after Charles Brownlow, a former Geelong Football Club footballer (1880–1891), club secretary (1885–1923), and VFL president (1918–19), who died in January 1924 after an extended illness.
Cats player Edward 'Carji' Greeves won the inaugarul medal on a total of seven votes, with just a single vote given from each game to the player the umpire thought was best on ground.
The lowest winning tally has been four which secured Richmond's Stan Judkins the medal in 1930 (later shared with Allan Hopkins of Footscray and Collingwood's Harry Collier on countback), while Dustin Martin's 36 votes last year is the record highest total under the current system.
Four players have won the medal three times: Haydn Bunton (Fitzroy 1931, '32, '35), Dick Reynolds (Essendon 1934, '37, '38), Bob Skilton (South Melbourne 1959, '63, '68) and Ian Stewart (St Kilda 1965, '66, Richmond 1971).
Gary Ablett Jnr is the only current player to have won more than once.
HOW DOES THE VOTING WORK FOR THE BROWNLOW MEDAL?
At the end of each match in the home-and-away season, the umpires award three votes to the best player, two to the second-best player, and one to the third-best player.
The votes are tallied and revealed on the night of the ceremony, with the player with the most votes receiving the Brownlow Medal (subject to eligibility).
The fairest component of the medal is achieved by making any player ineligible who is suspended by the AFL Tribunal during the home-and-away season. An ineligible player cannot win the Brownlow Medal, regardless of the number of votes he has received.
WHO ARE PREVIOUS WINNERS OF THE BROWNLOW MEDAL?
Here are the stars who have won the Brownlow Medal since 2010.
| Player | Year | Votes |
|---|---|---|
| Dustin Martin | 2017 | 36 |
| Patrick Dangerfield | 2016 | 35 |
| Nat Fyfe | 2015 | 31 |
| Matt Priddis | 2014 | 26 |
| Gary Ablett Jnr | 2013 | 28 |
| Trent Cotchin/Sam Mitchell | 2012 | 26 |
| Dane Swan | 2011 | 34 |
| Chris Judd | 2010 | 30 |
For a full list of the winners, click here.
