Nat Fyfe: One of the Brownlow's Best ever

Fremantle captain Nat Fyfe last night become the first Docker to win multiple Brownlow Medals and only the fifth player to do so in the AFL era (alongside Robert Harvey, Adam Goodes, Chris Judd and Gary Ablett Jr). However, the legendary Fremantle midfielder joined even more illustrious - and exclusive - company during last night's count that secured Fyfe his second Brownlow Medal after first winning the award in 2015. Fyfe, who also won the MVP in 2014 and 2015, now has more Brownlow Medal votes than games played.

Throughout his 173 game AFL career to date, Nat Fyfe has polled a remarkable 174 Brownlow votes (including totals of 31 and 33 respectively in winning years of 2015 and 2019). Only Australian Football Hall of Fame Legend Haydn Bunton Sr, regarded by many historians as the game's greatest player, also boasts averaging more than 1 vote per game across his entire VFL/AFL career.

Haydn Bunton was awarded an equal record three Brownlow Medals (1931-1932 and 1935) during his VFL career with Fitzroy. However, what is even more extraordinary is that he too won three Sandover Medals (1938-1939, 1941), for the WAFL's fairest and best, during his time at Subiaco. No player in the history of the game other than Bunton has won six league Best and Fairests, and you suspect nobody else ever will.

Bunton's average Brownlow votes per game, still is marginally greater than Fyfe's. Bunton played only 117 VFL games before moving to Subiaco in the WAFL and to Port Adelaide in the SANFL. In that time he polled 122 Brownlow votes for an average of 1.04 votes per game compared to Nat Fyfe's 1.01 votes per game. Bunton's second stint at Fitzroy has been discounted from the tally as the 2 games he played in 1942 occurred during World War II, a period in which the Brownlow was suspended.

Moreover, Nat Fyfe clearly has the greatest average in the AFL era ahead of Geelong's Patrick Dangerfield who was also this year's runner up.

HIGHEST AVERAGE BROWNLOW VOTES PER VFL/AFL GAME

1. Haydn Bunton Sr - 1.04 votes

2. Nat Fyfe - 1.01 votes

3. Graham Moss - 0.94 votes

4. Harold Bray - 0.88 votes

5. Patrick Dangerfield - 0.84 votes

50 VFL/AFL games has been used as the cut off when measuring this metric.

Copyright free image accessed at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_Brownlow_Medal.jpg