Did the umpires accidentally give Brownlow votes to the wrong Daicos?
That’s the question everyone was asking after AFL CEO Andrew Dillon read the votes out for Round 13 on Monday night.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Daicos brothers confused over strange Brownlow vote.
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The King’s Birthday clash between Melbourne and Collingwood — infamous for Christian Petracca’s horrific spleen injury — saw older and less heralded Daicos brother Josh dominate with one of his best games of the year.
Josh had 34 disposals, 10 marks, six clearances and 130 fantasy points to help lift his side to a 38-point win over the Demons.
Nick, meantime, was hit with a hard tag from Melbourne midfielder Alex Neal-Bullen, who kept the Magpies superstar to just 15 touches and little impact on the game before he was subbed out in the third quarter after copping a knee to his shin from Neal-Bullen.
It was comfortably Nick’s lowest output for the season, with 22 his next fewest number of disposals in a game for the year.
But it was revealed on Monday night that the umpires somehow still saw him as one of the best three players on the ground.
Daicos got one vote for the game, while John Noble (24 disposals) got two, and Jack Crisp (27) got the three.
The brothers couldn’t hide their shock at the decision at the Brownlow on Monday night.
As cameras cut to Josh and Nick when the votes were being read out, they both had to have a double take to make sure they heard correctly.
They looked at each other, both in complete confusion.
Josh then pointed towards himself with a baffled smile on his face, as if to suggest his brother had taken his vote off him.
And the footy world agreed.
“Nick Daicos just got a Brownlow vote in Round 13 against Melbourne in a game he was subbed out of after 15 disposals, and a goal. Josh Daicos had 34 touches. No votes. Lol,” 7NEWS Melbourne’s Theo Doropoulos said.
“Nick Daicos polls a vote on King’s Birthday for 15 disposals before being subbed off — 16th-best on ground per player ratings. Josh Daicos does not poll on King’s Birthday after a game-high 34 disposals and seven coaches votes (second behind three-vote getter Jack Crisp). Surely not …” Fox Footy’s Max Laughton said.
“Nick Daicos polled a vote against Melbourne with 15 touches and a goal (64 ranking points) then only polled one vote against the Roos with 29 touches, 18 contested possessions, two goals, 10 score involvements (129 ranking points),” News Corp’s Jon Ralph said.
It’s fair to say either the umpires made a human error by writing down the name of the wrong Daicos, or that they just see the game very differently to everyone else, and clearly didn’t rate the tagging job of Neal-Bullen.