Relive Lachie Neale’s Brownlow Medal Win on the Betfair Exchange

Brisbane on-baller Lachie Neale has become the 16th player to win multiple Brownlow Medals after edging out Bulldogs champion Marcus Bontempelli and Collingwood young gun Nick Daicos.

Daicos led the count going into the final round before eventually being overrun, having missed the last month of the year with a knee injury.

It seemed inevitable that the second year star would get run down in the later rounds, but the punters still had faith he could hold on for an unlikely win.

Daicos hit a low of $1.60 on the Betfair Exchange in Round 18 just prior to his injury, but it was testament to his dominance that he remained favourite heading into Brownlow night despite missing five games.

Entering the count at $2.96 the 20-year-old shortened in to $2.35 after some early votes, but the count would see four players hit favouritism in the opening six rounds of the season.

Christian Petracca’s unexpected votes in Round 1 cut him instantly from $6.40 to $3.60 and he would be favourite on the Betfair Exchange by Round 3.

Marcus Bontempelli would grab a share of favouritism in the opening month after getting his season going against the Lions in their third round clash.

But Lachie Neale was hiding in plain sight.

As mentioned repeatedly on AFL Trade Talk during the year the 2020 winner seemed over the odds with wild fluctuations all year.

Neale would bounce from the low 20s to the mid teens week to week depending on predicted votes, with the Joel Cashman’s modelling predicting him to finish within two votes of favourite Nick Daicos.

Despite his history of polling votes, the Lions strong season and the modelling he would enter the count at $15.50 on the Betfair Exchange.

Two votes against Melbourne in Round Two cut him to $9, and by the end of Round 5 he was a $3 favourite to take home the medal.

As he took the lead through the middle of the count he would get as low as $1.27.

Lachie Neale became the second player in consecutive years to be matched at $500 during a season before going on to win the medal.

Neale briefly touched that mark and hit a staggering $190 in early August. Even within the count he peaked at $18 in the opening round.

Patrick Cripps had also been matched at $500 last year during the three days he was suspended, before having that charge overturned. Ironically his suspension occurred against Brisbane and had it been upheld Lachie Neale would have again won the Brownlow Medal.

The 2023 Brownlow Medal was the busiest on the Betfair Exchange in the last seven years with over $1.5 million matched overall on the event.

Neale himself had the highest volume matched on a winner in that time, with $436,205 surpassing the previous record set by Tom Mitchell (an opponent in this week’s Grand Final) when he was a Hawk in 2018.

Another late bolter was Errol Gulden of Sydney, who despite being robbed of votes in the final round when he had 42 touches and kicked two goals against Melbourne, still flew home to finish on 27 votes in equal fourth.

Gulden was $3.40 to finish top five at the start of the count and was $5 after Round four. He was briefly second favourite to win the medal itself heading in to Round 22.

Another notable performer were Noah Anderson who polled 22 votes, and was one vote off the lead in Round 16, but was still a staggering $420 to win the medal at that stage.

The count threw up surprises and some odd vote games, such as Jason Horne Francis’s three votes in Round 14 despite champion data rating him the 40th best player on the ground for his 13 disposals and five clangers.

Marcus Bontempelli also joins former Bulldog great Scott West in finishing runner up more than once in a Brownlow count.

Lachie Neale will now look to emulate Jason Akermanis (2001) and Simon Black (2002) in the 2023 AFL Grand Final, attempting to win a Brownlow and a premiership in the same week.