Will Schofield: “This isn’t new. This happens every year”
Will Schofield has voiced his confusion over the uproar surrounding Lachie Neale’s brownlow medal win last night.
Speaking during his regular Tuesday night spot on Wide World of Sports, Schofield was far less bothered by some of the umpires’ peculiar voting selections than many other AFL pundits.
“This isn’t new. This happens every year.”
Press PLAY to hear Schoey’s take on the Brownlow Medal
“There’s been a lot of blowing up but this has been happening for 30 years.”
With umpires no longer allowed to view stats when lodging their votes, there were some peculiar votes posted, as well as some equally baffling omissions.
But Schofield has questioned why there is so much uproar this year given that this isn’t a new issue.
“This award is what the umpires see. And nothing has changed. What’s the issue?”
Perhaps the most perplexing instance was Port Adelaide’s Jason Horne-Francis polling three votes in round 14 against Geelong.
Despite gathering just 13 disposals, two of them being clangers, four of them ineffective, and a further four either being short or backwards, the Port youngster was adjudged best-on-ground.
An instance which was equally baffling and ultimately impacted the result of the count came in round six when eventual winner Neale was awarded three votes for his 20-disposal effort. Teammate Charlie Cameron kicked seven goals whilst Josh Kelly (41 disposals) and Stephen Coniglio (39 disposals) didn’t feature in the votes.