2012 Brownlow Medal

Leading vote-getters

• Watson was retroactively deemed ineligible to win the Brownlow due to his involvement in the Essendon supplements saga. ** Pavlich was ineligible for the medal after being suspended during the home-and-away season.

Voting procedure

The three field umpires (those umpires who control the flow of the game, as opposed to goal or boundary umpires) confer after each match and award three votes, two votes, and one vote to the players they regard as the best, second-best and third-best in the match, respectively. The votes are kept secret until the awards night, and they are read and tallied on the evening.

As the medal is awarded to the fairest and best player in the league, those who have been suspended during the season by the AFL Tribunal (or, who avoided suspension only because of a discount for a good record or an early guilty plea) are ineligible to win the award; however, they may still continue to poll votes. Notable players who were ineligible entering the count this season included, among others: former Brownlow Medallists Jimmy Bartel, Simon Black, Chris Judd and Adam Goodes, as well as captain Matthew Pavlich.

Effect of Essendon supplements saga

Main article: Essendon Football Club supplements saga

In February 2013, the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) began an investigation into the legality of Essendon's supplements program during the 2012 AFL season and the preceding preseason. Thirty-four Essendon players—including Watson—were suspected of taking the banned peptide Thymosin beta-4. This quickly led to debate over whether or not a guilty verdict would see Watson stripped of the medal. The investigation and court action stretched over the following four years. Initially, the AFL Tribunal delivered a not guilty verdict in March 2015, but on appeal in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the players were found guilty in January 2016, resulting in the suspensions of all thirty-four players. An appeal lodged against that decision in the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland was dismissed in October 2016.

Following the guilty verdict handed down by the CAS in January, it was announced the AFL Commission would meet in February to determine whether Watson would retain his Brownlow Medal; however, this decision was delayed until the outcome of the Federal Supreme Court appeal. The final decision regarding Jobe Watson's Brownlow medal win was decided by the AFL Commission in late November 2016, with Watson retrospectively ruled ineligible for the award, and the medal then awarded to the next highest vote-getters, Cotchin and Mitchell, under the normal rules regarding ineligible players; Watson had pre-empted the decision by announcing on 11 November 2016 that he would hand back the medal. The medals were presented to Cotchin and Mitchell in a small ceremony in Melbourne on 13 December 2016. Watson's physical medal was handed back to the AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan in early 2017, with no plans in place to re-present or display it as of February 2017.

References

References

1. "AFL Record Season Guide 2016". Slattery Media Group.
2. Blake, Martin. (24 September 2012). "Reward at last for Dons skipper". [[Fairfax Media]].
3. Nicholson, Larissa. (11 November 2016). "Essendon player Jobe Watson hands back Brownlow Medal". [[Fairfax Media]].
4. (15 November 2016). "2012 Brownlow Medal to go to Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin". [[Fairfax Media]].
5. "Brownlow Medal history and winners - AFL.com.au".
6. (15 September 2012). "2012 Brownlow Medal: ineligible players". [[Bigpond]].
7. Lane, Samantha. (12 October 2016). "Essendon Swiss Court decision: Judgment reveals appeal success not even 'entertained'". [[Fairfax Media]].
8. Pierik, Jon. (12 January 2016). "Essendon CAS verdict: Jobe Watson could be stripped of Brownlow Medal, review in February". [[Fairfax Media]].
9. Matt Thompson. (11 February 2016). "The Essendon 34 appeal: Frequently asked questions".
10. (15 November 2016). "AFL Commission statement on 2012 Brownlow Medal". Australian Football League.
11. King, Travis. (11 November 2016). "Jobe Watson to hand back 2012 Brownlow Medal". [[Bigpond]].
12. Liam Twomey. (13 December 2016). "Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin presented with 2012 Brownlow Medals in special ceremony". Herald Sun.
13. Gerard Whateley. (8 February 2017). "Jobe Watson's 2012 Brownlow medal mystery solved". ABC News Australia.