Mid West players rack up votes during AFL’s night of nights at Brownlow Medal count

The AFL’s biggest stars were out on Monday night for the Brownlow medal count, and while Northampton’s Patrick Cripps didn’t go back-to-back with the award, Mid West players still polled votes through the season. Coming off his Brownlow winning season last year, Cripps backed it up with an impressive showing at this year’s count trying to defend his medal. The Carlton captain finished in the top 10, polling 22 votes in a highly competitive race after a strong start to the year and was at the helm of Carlton’s late season winning streak. Cripps had five games from he polled full votes. The first came from the Blues’ round three win against the Giants in which he had a career high 42 disposals, with 17 kicks and 13 clearances. The Northampton product had three votes in a round-six loss to St Kilda, but the most significant might have been from the round 14 win against the Suns, the turning point for Carlton’s season. Blues teammate and former Towns gun Jack Martin had an impressive season during the Blues’ second-half run and earnt one vote during Carlton’s big win against Collingwood in round 20. Martin kicked a-season high 3.1 in the win, with 12 disposals, five marks, two tackles and had one goal assist. Another member of the Northampton footy factory earnt some votes on the night and cousin of Carlton star, Jamie Cripps, earnt all three votes in the Eagles upset round 23 victory over the Bulldogs. Cripps put the team on his back during the win with five goals, 17 disposals, three marks, eight tackles, four clearances and one goal assist. In his first season in the purple-and-white, former Railways star Jaeger O’Meara managed to nab himself one vote in the Dockers round 10 win against Geelong. In the win, O’Meara had 26 disposals, took two marks, made six tackles and had nine clearances. In Sydney’s round two thumping over Hawthorn, Coorow-Latham’s Logan McDonald, was given one vote in his best game of the season, where he kicked 5.1, with 13 disposals, took five marks and played 84 per cent time on ground.