Bontempelli claims at least two records - one less coveted than another
With his tally of 34 on Monday night, Marcus Bontempelli overtook Collingwood legend Scott Pendlebury by having the most career votes without winning the medal (347).
It was the seventh time of his career that 'the Bont' finished in the top-eight of the count, and the third time in four years after being runner-up to Lachie in 2023 and sixth behind Matt Rowell last year.
The Bulldogs captain earned his fourth consecutive All-Australian selection this year and the eighth of his career for another stellar campaign that included eight best on grounds, which saw him overtake Gary Ablett Jr (55), Patrick Dangerfield (56) and Lachie Neale (57) for the most three-vote games in a career - 60.
It's cold consolation for a man that hasn't tasted the success of kissing the medal on-stage, but if there's ever a non-winner who deserves to be invited to future counts post-playing career, it has to be Bontempelli.
Daicos' 47 votes the most of the 3-2-1 era
Patrick Cripps' not-so-longstanding record of 45 votes in 2024 was knocked over after just two years as we continue to march through an era of phenomenal tallies from elite midfielders.
The Brownlow has perhaps never been so midfielder-dominated as it is now, illustrated by the three-highest tallies of the current era coming from the last three winners.
Matt Rowell's 39 in 2025 is next in third, but seems dwarfed in comparison to those of Daicos and Cripps.
The next three on the list also came from the last decade: Dustin Martin and Ollie Wines both polled 36 each in 2017 and 2021, with Martin breaking a record that Patrick Dangerfield set in 2016 when he scored 35. We remember the days when that was a mammoth count.
The only man of the 20th century to poll more than 30 votes, at least under the current system, was Robert Harvey's 32 in 1998, when he finished eight ahead of Nathan Buckley.
Dangerfield reaches the summit - but for how long?
Patrick Dangerfield long left the Geelong midfield engine room for the next generation and is happy to play a support role in the forward 50, showing in the elimination final against Carlton that he's still got a match-winning performance in him at age 36.
That might have been his only best on ground performance of the year, but we'll never know with finals games not polled.
The veteran polled in just two games this year for a total of three votes, and it seems fitting that he equalled Gary Ablett Jnr's record career tally of 262 votes in the process given it's hard to separate the two as AFL greats.
Extraordinary circumstances notwithstanding, it's likely that Bontempelli will overtake the two of them this time next year, whilst Daicos' current average of 1.42 votes per match means he could claim the record from all of them well before turning 30.
Daicos gallops to the 'MVP trifecta'
The 23-year-old had practically already been crowned as the Brownlow Medallist weeks before the count, such was his undisputed favouritism, and both the Players Association and Coaches Association did not think twice about awarding him their MVP medals for 2026.
By sweeping the board and winning the ultimate individual honours from the coaches, the players and the umpires, Daicos joined just four other players to have done so in one season.
Lachie Neale (2020), Dustin Martin (2017), Patrick Dangerfield (2016) and Gary Ablett (2009) all did so themselves.
For reference, the coaches' award began in 2003 with Nathan Buckley and the players' award in 1982 with Leigh Matthews (the man it is now named after), so there likely would have been some more triple-medallists in earlier years - such as Robert Harvey in 1997 - had the coaches' award gone back further.