The AFL's night of nights is quickly approaching, with the winner of the league's most prestigious individual award soon to be announced for the 2025 season.
However, the Brownlow Medal is no longer the only top individual award handed out by a department of the AFL.
Joining the umpires in nominating the league's best player on a game-by-game basis is the AFL Coaches Association, with the senior coaches of each club deciding the player they consider to be best-on-ground in the game in which their team plays, using a 5-4-3-2-1 voting system.
The AFLPA also hands out a Most Valuable Player award at the conclusion of the home-and-away season, the league's best player determined by his peers.
Since 2003, when all three awards have been in existence simultaneously, the umpires, coaches, and players have unanimously agreed on the AFL's best player just four times; Gary Ablett Jnr in 2009, Patrick Dangerfield in 2016, Dustin Martin in 2017 and Lachie Neale in 2020.
There have been eight separate occasions when the three associations have failed to agree on the league's best player for a respective season, which could become nine times should Nick Daicos, Bailey Smith, or Noah Anderson all fail to win the Brownlow on Monday night.
In fact, if neither of those three claim the Brownlow Medal this year, it'll be the fourth consecutive season where the umpires, coaches and players have all disagreed on who the game's best player is.
So, who gets it right more often? While a subjective question, it's important to note that the Brownlow Medal winner has also won an AFLCA Champion Player of the Year or AFLPA MVP award 12 times since 2003.
Meanwhile, an AFLCA Champion Player has also won either a Brownlow or AFLPA MVP in the same season just 10 times since 2003, and an AFLPA MVP has also been recognised with another award 11 times since then.
Therefore, while it is a very fine margin, it could be argued that the Brownlow Medal is the best representation of the game's best player during a season.
Take a look at the winners list for the three awards since 2003 below and decide for yourself!
