When the Brisbane Lions snared Lachie Neale from Fremantle heading into the 2019 AFL season they knew they were getting a very good player. But one who would re-wrote Brownlow Medal history? Probably not!

But write Brownlow history Neale has done, adding an extra layer as he topped the Lions vote in Monday night’s 2024 count.

His 22 votes, equal 12th on the leaderboard and equal 11th in the count after the ineligible Isaac Heeney was excluded, saw him become the 10th player in AFL history to top 200 career votes.

Now with 209 votes, he sits behind all-time leader Gary Ablett Jnr (262), Patrick Dangerfield (251), Gary Dempsey (246), Sam Mitchell (227), Scott Pendlebury (223), Robert Harvey (215), Joel Selwood (214), Dustin Martin (213) and Chris Judd (210).

But that’s only a part of Neale’s Brownlow story.

Averaging 0.84 votes per game, he trails only 2022-24 winner Patrick Cripps (0.92) and 1952-53 winner Bill Hutchinson (0.86), and heads 2015-19 winner Nat Fyfe and Marcus Bontempelli (0.83), 2016 winner Dangerfield (0.81), 2004-10 winner Judd (0.80), 2009-13 winner Ablett Jnr (0.79), 2011 winner Dane Swan (0.78), 1959-63-68 winner Bob Skilton (0.76), 2012 winner Mitchell (0.75) and 2017 winner Dustin Martin (0.74).

It's an astonishing record …. But in isolation his Brisbane record is even better. Much better.

01:37

Nifty Neale racks up footy for fun

Lachie Neale amasses 40 possessions and snares a goal in a polished performance to round out the home and away season

In 123 voting games in Lions colors the now 31-year-old midfield ace has polled 146 votes at a mind-blowing 1.19 votes per game. He’s polled in 61 games, picking up three votes 37 times, two votes 11 times and one vote 13 times.

And that despite an injury-disrupted 2021 season in which he polled just three times for eight votes in 15 games.

Certainly, it makes the trade for Neale, in which the Lions gave up pick #6, pick #19 and pick #55 for the Fremantle gun and pick #30, look like a gift from heaven.

In his time in Brisbane Neale has finished tied for 3rd in the Brownlow in 2019, 1st in 2020, 2nd in 2022, 1st in 2023 and tied for 11th in 2024.

And while the football world was in raptures when Cripps polled 45 votes and runner-up Nick Daicos polled 38 votes on Monday night to annihilate the previous best of 36 votes by Martin (2017) and Port’s Ollie Wines (2021), Neale’s 2020 effort has been forgotten.

But in a 17-game season he polled 31 votes at 1.82 votes per game, which equates to a 23-game total of 41.9 votes – second only to Cripps’ mark this year.

Across his career, Neale has polled three votes 52 times in 249 voting games. From available data, only Ablett Jnr (55) and Dangerfield (54) have polled more three’s.

Neale has polled three votes in 21% of his games, while Ablett has done so in 16.6% of games and Dangerfield in 17.5%.

00:33

Silky Neale has his say with beautiful bender

Lachie Neale steps inside and nails a super snap as Brisbane gains momentum

Neale’s 22 votes on Monday night saw him top the Lions count from Dayne Zorko (12), Hugh McCluggage (12), Josh Dunkley (11), Joe Daniher (8), Cam Rayner (6), Eric Hipwood (4), Harris Andrews (3), Oscar McInerney (2),, Charlie Cameron (1) and Kai Lohmann (1).

They finished equal 7th in the team vote behind Sydney (103), Western Bulldogs (91), Fremantle and Carlton (87), GWS (85) and Port Adelaide (84), level with Hawthorn (82), and ahead of Geelong and Collingwood (68), Melbourne and Essendon (67), Gold Coast and St.Kilda (64), Adelaide (52), North Melbourne (42), West Coast (30) and Richmond (19).

They polled two votes in the first three games, 26 votes in the next eight games, and 54 votes in the last 12 games.

In a 14-1-8 home-and-away season they polled three votes in each of the 14 wins - Neale (6), Zorko, Dunkley and Daniher (2), and McCluggage and Hipwood (1).

There were no games where the Brownlow votes varied drastically from the coaches votes.

Lohmann polled in the medal for the first time in his 18th game in the 119-point Gabba slaughter of Richmond in Round 10 when his five goals were rewarded with one vote.

Neale’s 22 votes and his elevated Lions total of 146 sees him now third on the Lions’ all-time vote list behind Simon Black (186) and Michael Voss (150), while Zorko’s 12 votes gives him a total of 97 and outright fifth behind this trio and Jonathan Brown (97). He leap-frogged Nigel Lappin (93), and Jason Akermanis (91).

McCluggage now has 49 career votes to sit 11th on the all-time list, behind this group plus Luke Power (83), Tom Rockliff (68) and the retiring Jarryd Lyons (52). He’s gone past Dayne Beams (44) and Adrian Fletcher (39).