Former St Kilda captain Aaron Hamill believes the Brownlow Medal is a 'beat up' and there are several other awards seen as more prestigious within the industry.
The 2021 Brownlow Medal, the competition's award for the best player as voted by the umpires, will be presented on Sunday evening in Perth, with Port Adelaide's Ollie Wines, Melbourne's Clayton Oliver and Bulldogs' Marcus Bontempelli among the favourites.
However, Hamill feels the Brownlow isn't of the same standing as two of the other peer-driven awards and he thinks player would rather win one of them instead of 'Charlie'.
"The Brownlow for me is a real beat up, given who votes for it, being the umpires," Hamill told Sporting News. "But the peers and coaches and the accolades that stem off that are more significant for me.
"It’s a real build-up to the Brownlow of umpires voting. For me it’s always been a real surprise. The award that I would want is the one Bontempelli won - the players’ MVP. Which is the respect from your peers. And you think about all the players who play in the AFL, and he is rated the highest of them all [by his peers].
"Also the Coaches award, those two stand head and shoulders above the Brownlow for me purely because of who selects it. [The Coaches award] is selected by all 18 coaches. It’s 800-plus players playing at the elite level for the MVP. Both of these hold greater regard for me than the umpires.
"The Brownlow medal is hyped up to be this big amazing event, which is great. The AFL celebrate it and so it should. But a little example I remember when Brett Ratten won the best-and-fairest in a premiership year but hardly polled any Brownlow medal votes.
"Generally it’s a midfielders’ medal. We’ll see how it unfolds.
"The umpires look at the stats, it’s a stats number and it’s a stats game. But there is lots to play into it. You look at [Josh] Schache - what he was able to do against [Aliir] Aliir. I know internally, he would feature really highly but if it was a round 1-23 game, the umpires wouldn’t be giving him a vote. There are roles within the team that are rated enormously high."
As for the result of this year's Brownlow medal, Hamill thinks Bontempelli's slow end to the season could cost him, in what he believes is a three-horse race between the favourites.
"My instinct and looking at the stats is Bontempelli, but I feel he won’t poll in the last three rounds," Hamill said.
"The Saints didn’t win enough games for Jack [Steele] to poll enough. But [Ollie] Wines and [Clayton] Oliver will have to be up there.
"I don’t feel there is going to be a smokey come from anywhere else. I feel you can toss a coin between Bontempelli, Wines and Oliver.
"Had Bontempelli finished the season off well, I would definitely pick him."
