A Six-Pack Of IPA (Interesting Points, Allegedly): Caleb Serong among three players in exclusive Brownlow club

Rare air Gary Ablett Jr never did it. Neither did Chris Judd or Dustin Martin. Until Monday night, only one man had polled 24+ votes in three consecutive seasons: Dane Swan (who actually did it for four straight seasons between 2010 and 2013). Caleb Serong and Nick Daicos have now joined the Collingwood great with a hat-trick of 24-plus campaigns, with Serong displaying remarkable consistency to poll 24, 28 and now 25 across his past three years. Handy Andy Andrew Brayshaw surprisingly pipped Serong for most Fremantle votes, with his total of 26 among the most-ever in a season for a player who failed to make the All-Australian side. Only 2023 winner Lachie Neale – who polled 31 votes – and Tom Green with 27 last year polled more than Brayshaw having been overlooked for All-Australian honours. Brayshaw boosting his career vote tally to 103 launched him above Aaron Sandilands and Peter Bell into fourth on Fremantle’s all-time polling list, behind only Nat Fyfe (190), Matthew Pavlich (126) and David Mundy (120). MOST BROWNLOW VOTES WITHOUT MAKING ALL-AUSTRALIAN SIDE THAT YEAR Still waiting For a second straight year, we saw a new champion crowned in the career ‘most games without a vote’ category. Taylor Duryea took the record off Jordan Roughead at the end of last season, but Sydney’s Harry Cunningham now owns the title. Cunningham has played 204 home-and-away matches without ever earning love from the umpires, two more games than Duryea, who has now retired. Danger: High voltage At the other end of the polling spectrum is Dangerfield, who added to a memorable month by snatching the Brownlow’s three-vote record off a legendary former teammate. Dangerfield picked up two best-on-ground nods to take his career tally to 56, one greater than Gary Ablett Jr. But Dangerfield will need another season to get the three extra votes he needs to match Ablett Jr’s mark of 262 votes that is also the most in AFL history. Hundred in a hundred Move over, Nat Fyfe: You’ve got company. The retired Freo legend had been the only man in the AFL era to earn 100 votes inside his first 100 home-and-away games, but Daicos has now joined him. Despite not polling in his final season, Fyfe finishes his career with the best Brownlow vote average of any player for a completed career, with his 0.81 votes per game shading Judd (0.80) and Ablett Jr (0.79). One medal without the other Daicos falling short of victory on Monday night continued a surprising recent trend of Rising Star winners being unable to go on and snare the Brownlow later in their career. None of the past 22 Rising Star winners have achieved Brownlow glory, with Sam Mitchell (Rising Star 2003, Brownlow 2012) the most recent player to achieve the double.