The 2023 Brownlow Medal awaits on Monday evening, with the league's best and fairest competitor set to be recognised at Melbourne's Crown Palladium.
This year's count appears likely to go right down to the wire, with Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli and Collingwood father-son gun Nick Daicos representing the two main favourites to take out the prestigious award.
Daicos was considered the runaway winner prior to injuring his knee in Round 21, leaving the door open to a potential Bontempelli swoop, with the likes of Melbourne's Christian Petracca, Port Adelaide's Zak Butters, and Sydney's Errol Gulden also slated to press for consideration on Monday.
The question is, though, did 'Bont' do enough in Daicos' three-game absence to get over the top of the magnificent Magpie in the umpires' unpredictable voting?
We made our top-three prediction in anticipation of Monday night's count.
2. Second place: Nick Daicos (Collingwood)
Daicos, if he doesn't prevail over Bontempelli, is a near-certainty to finish the count in second position on the leaderboard, having capped an almighty second AFL season at 20 regular season games.
The youngest son of the 'Macedonian Marvel' averaged a staggering 31.1 possessions per contest in 2023, as well as ranking first in the AFL in effective disposals per game, second in disposals per game, and sixth in uncontested possessions per game.
Midfielder
Disposals
Tackles
Clearances
While he only finished fifth in our MVP voting (197 votes) behind the likes of Bontempelli, Petracca, Gulden, and Brisbane's Lachie Neale, the difference in sheer weight of votes cast between Brownlow voting (3, 2, 1) and that of the Zero Hanger MVPย (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) meant there was more opportunity for Daicos to be overrun.
In addition to the consistent and undeniable season-long prowess of Bontempelli, Daicos' Round 21 knee injury against Hawthorn is likely the key factor that costs him his first Brownlow.
The 20-year-old, as well as anyone supporting his favourable triumph, will be hoping Bontempelli's influence wasn't felt as strongly in those pair of late-season Bulldogs defeats to the Hawks and Eagles, otherwise, he'll be wearing Charlie come Monday.
