Best Players Never to Win a Brownlow

[Scraggers]

You don't have to look far from our backyard to find some absolute guns that never took home Charlie. EJ, Hawk, Grant, Bont to name a few. But there a number of players who we would consider legends that never got adorned with the medal ... Leigh Matthews and Wayne Carey are the first two to spring to mind.

Who do you think was stiff to not win the Brownlow??

[Twodogs]

Dempsey won a Brownlow

[Scraggers]

Dempsey won a Brownlow

Doh !! editing now (Face-palm)

[Twodogs]

Doh !! editing now (Face-palm)

There weren't many highlights back in those days so any sort of success stuck in the memory.


As to your question about the best players not to win one I still think that the most dominant player I saw was Royce Hart. He would be a very deserving Brownlow medal winner.

[Dry Rot]

Dempsey won a Brownlow

I know that you are thinking Ben Harrison, but are too afraid to post that

[bornadog]

Leigh Matthews never deserved a Brownlow because he was a thug. May have been one of the best to play, but not the fairest.

EJ Whitten also played it hard, but often not the fairest, but wasn't a thug like Matthews.

[Twodogs]

Leigh Matthews never deserved a Brownlow because he was a thug. May have been one of the best to play, but not the fairest.

EJ Whitten also played it hard, but often not the fairest, but wasn't a thig like Matthews.

Completely agree.

[Sedat]

Leigh Matthews never deserved a Brownlow because he was a thug. May have been one of the best to play, but not the fairest.

EJ Whitten also played it hard, but often not the fairest, but wasn't a thug like Matthews.

Matthews was certainly a dirty player later in his career but was he all that dirty in the 70's at his peak? I missed his 70's imperial phase as a player - his stats throughout the 70's were pretty amazing for a rover/small forward.

Would you class Dipper and Lockett as cleanskins? Greg Williams as well?

[Twodogs]

Matthews was certainly a dirty player later in his career but was he all that dirty in the 70's at his peak? I missed his 70's imperial phase as a player - his stats throughout the 70's were pretty amazing for a rover/small forward.

Would you class Dipper and Lockett as cleanskins? Greg Williams as well?

Matthews was a thug from day one. He destroyed Barrie Robran's knee from behind in 1974 in a state game

Have a look at some of his he man acts. Punching blokes from behind, whacking them when they were watching the ball, clothes lining them when they were running past not expecting physical contact. They say he took it and handed it out but from what I saw he was a cowardly sniper. Giving him any award with "fairest" in the description would have been a sick joke

[jeemak]

Matthews was a thug from day one. He destroyed Barrie Robran's knee from behind in 1974 in a state game

Have a look at some of his he man acts. Punching blokes from behind, whacking them when they were watching the ball, clothes lining them when they were running past not expecting physical contact. They say he took it and handed it out but from what I saw he was a cowardly sniper. Giving him any award with "fairest" in the description would have been a sick joke

A nasty arsehole given leeway because he was also an amazing footballer.

[Twodogs]

A nasty arsehole given leeway because he was also an amazing footballer.

Yep. He was a great player, but an arsehole is the best description of him.

[bornadog]

A nasty arsehole given leeway because he was also an amazing footballer.

When you look at that footage, you can see what a thug he was. All unnecessary given he was a good player. Don't forget he was also charged by Police for what he did to Neville Bruns.

Yep. He was a great player, but an arsehole is the best description of him.

and still is.

[Axe Man]

Slightly off track but related - just saw that Bont is 10th on the all time list of average Brownlow votes per game.

The only player ahead of him to never win a Brownlow is Harold Bray who must have been unlucky not to claim the medal in the 1940/50s for St Kilda.

It's quite possible that Bont surpasses Gary Ablett Juniors all time votes record of 262 (he is just 93 behind), yet never wins the Brownlow, which would be a travesty.

[GVGjr]

Surely Pendlebury and Brent Harvey were both good enough to win brownlows?
For us Grant obviously got enough votes one year but missed out with a dodgy suspension

[ledge]

Pendlebury by a mile . Smooth , clean, the absolute model of the perfect footballer.
Bont much the same but he still has 3 or 4 years to win one.
Natanui would be in that category too.
How the hell Pavlich never won one is beyond belief.