Brownlow Medal 2022

[Mav]

No, Cripps is fine, it's not about the overall result it's about gambling / odds and spot betting on round bye round votes, etc., etc..

That’s mostly true. But when he gave Cripps votes, did he believe he deserved them? Giving surprise votes to a player would definitely be of interest to punters and would tell them that the odds of that player winning are better than the market odds. I’m not saying this happened but that’s the concern.

For instance, if sports betting had been in vogue when Diesel was pipped at the post by Wanganeen, punters would have been very interested to know that the umpires gave Diesel no votes in the last game despite racking up over 40 possessions. Punters would have pencilled in 3 votes for Diesel in that game, so knowing the way the umpires voted would give a punter a massive advantage over other punters.

If Pell gave Cripps 3 votes in a game in which he was clearly best on ground, that wouldn’t have given the punters who were told this much, if any, advantage.

So, was this just a leak or an attempt to put a finger on the scales?