For the real football hard-heads, the 2024 Merrett/Murray Medal vote count was one for the ages. It all came down to the grand final. Lachie Neale was considered to be “elite” in the win over Sydney, and Dayne Zorko was just “outstanding”.
Just outstanding? There are two words that don’t ordinarily go together but that’s how tight it was. And it’s why Neale (73 votes) won the ultimate club award – a club championship in a premiership year - from Zorko (72) and Josh Dunkley (71).
Neale is the third Brisbane player to do so after Michael Voss and Simon Black won one each in the 2001-02-03 premiership hat-trick and shared the other.
The 2024 Merrett/Murray Medal was decided on the round-by-round votes of coach Chris Fagan and his match committee, which collectively rate each player from 0-4. The guidelines are:-
4 – Elite performance – delivered on all team criteria and executed the team trademark to the highest level.
3 – Outstanding performance – delivered on all team criteria and executed the team trademark to a high level.
2 – Delivered on all team criteria and executed the team trademark and beating opponent.
1 – Delivered on all team criteria and executed the team trademark, breaking even with opponent.
At the Club Championship dinner, where a monster crowd of more than 1000 people gathered to salute the 2024 premiership side on 3 October, votes were unveiled in blocks at Round 6, Round 12, Round 18, Round 24 and the end of the season.
But lions.com.au, armed with round-by-round votes in an excel spreadsheet, conducted a full count. It was a thriller which unearthed an unlikely equal leader at the lowest point of the season, when the Lions were 13th on the ladder with a 2-5 record after the 54-point Round 7 loss to GWS in Canberra.
Knee reconstruction victim Lincoln McCarthy had polled 3-2-3-2-2-2-2 and shared the lead at that point with Zorko, Dunkley and Ryan Lester. Each had 16 votes to lead by one from Neale, Harris Andrews and McCluggage on 15. Almost a quarter of the way through the season one vote separated eight players.
Sadly, McCarthy’s season ended the following week against Gold Coast at the Gabba when he blew out his knee in the most innocuous of circumstances.
It’s a heart-breaking story but if nothing else it supports Chris Fagan’s belief that every listed player at the premiership club should receive a premiership medal.
Excluding the Round 8 game when McCarthy blew out his knee in the first five minutes he averaged 2.29 votes per game. Only Neale (2.81), Zorko (2.67), Dunkley (2.63), Hugh McCluggage (2.37) and Will Ashcroft (2.31) averaged more.
In a season in which the average team votes per game was 44.8, three of the first seven games were the lowest – 28 votes in Round 7 against GWS (away), 29 votes in Round 1 against Fremantle (away) 31 votes in Round 3 against Collingwood (home). And the average to this point was 37.9 despite the Round 5 MCG win over Melbourne receiving 54 votes to rank equal-third best all season.
Zorko shared top spot in the count from Round 5 to Round 10 in a titanic struggle with Dunkley. Four times in this stretch they were level and twice Zorko had a one-vote edge.
But Neale, who had missed the Round 1 game against Fremantle in Perth, was never further than two votes back, and in Round 11 it was a three-way tie. Zorko, Dunkley and Neale each had 27 votes to lead Andrews (25), Lester (24), McCluggage (23) and Wilmot and Berry (22).
It was the next turning point of the season. At 4-1-7 the Lions were 13th and three games outside the top eight. A welcome bye provided an opportunity for coach Fagan and his men to regroup. And, as it turned out, not look back. They went on a 14-2 run, and in each of the two losses to GWS and Collingwood led by five goals.
Neale led by a vote from Zorko and Dunkley at Round 13, slipped one vote behind Zorko in Round 14, and shared the lead with him at Round 15. It was as close as it can get. Zorko led by a vote at Round 16, having polled 3-4-3-3 after the bye.
It was Zorko (40) from Neale (39) and Dunkley (39). Lester (34) was fourth but the heavyweights had staked their claim and were set to fight it out.
In a season in which the match committee awarded only 19 four-vote ratings and Neale picked up eight of them he made what turned out to be the big move when he went 4-4 in Rounds 17-18 against Adelaide at the Gabba and West Coast in Perth.
It was the only time a player polled back-to-back fours, and suddenly he was two clear of Dunkley and three clear of Zorko. It was Neale (47) from Dunkley (45) and Zorko (44).
Having finished runner-up to Andrews by a vote in the 2023 Merrett/Murray Medal Neale knew what a tight finished looked like, and he was right in the middle of another one. And it got tighter still. He led by a solitary vote at Rounds 19-20-21.
In Round 22 Zorko pulled level. It was Neale (56) and Zorko (56) from Dunkley (54). And in Round 23 Dunkley polled ‘3’ to close the gap to one …. Neale (58), Zorko (58). Dunkley (57).
Amazingly, in the next four games the leaders polled precisely the same. They got ‘3’ in Round 24 against Essendon and the elimination final against Carlton at the Gabba, ‘2’ against GWS in the semi-final in Sydney, and ‘3’ in the preliminary final against Geelong at the MCG.
The top 10 – or top 11 as it turned out – was locked in. Going into the grand final it was Neale (69), Zorko (69), Dunkley (68), McCluggage (61), Wilmot (58), Lester (57), the injured Oscar McInerney (54), Andrews (53), Berry (53), Daniher (53) and Rayner (51).
The team vote in the preliminary final was 58 – the highest of the Fagan era. But it was a record that lasted all of seven days until the most complete team performance imaginable in the grand final.
The team vote was a whopping 67.
Neale’s 35 possessions (18 contested) and nine clearances earned him a ‘4’ that clinched the Merrett/Murray Medal. Will Ashcroft’s 30 possessions (9 contested), five clearances and a goal, which earned him the Norm Smith Medal, earned him a ‘4’. And Brandon Starcevich’s brutal shut-down job on #1 Swans forward line dangerman Tom Papley, earned him a ‘4’.
The Neale ‘4’ was his eighth of the season. He had twice as many as Zorko (4) and more than the rest of the team combined. Dunkley (2) was the only other multiple, while Ashcroft, McInerney, Starcevich, Daniher and Eric Hipwood had one each.
After Neale, Ashcroft and Starcevich, who shared the best finals player award with Callum Ah Chee, the match committee gave a staggering 16 players a ‘3’ rating in the grand final as ‘outstanding’ contributors – Ah Chee, Andrews, Noah Answerth, Berry, Charlie Cameron, Daniher, Dunkley, Jaspa Fletcher, Darcy Fort, Lester, Kai Lohmann, McCluggage, Jack Payne, Rayner, Wilmot and Zorko.
Neale was rated the Lions’ best or equal best player 15 times and Zorko 12 times. In a count were 21 different players were rated the team’s best or equal best at least once, Dunkley (9) and McCluggage (8) were next from Daniher and Starcevich (6), Andrews (5), Ah Chee, Ashcroft, Lester, Lohmann and Wilmot (4), Answerth, Berry, McInerney and Payne (3), Cameron (2) Bailey, Hipwood, McCarthy and Morris (1).
In the four finals, Neale, Ashcroft and Starcevich received top votes three times, and Ah Chee, Answerth, Dunkley, McCluggage, Rayner and Zorko twice.
So the final leaderboard in the 2024 Merrett/Murray Medal was:-
73 – Lachie Neale
72 – Dayne Zorko
71 – Josh Dunkley
64 – Hugh McCluggage
61 – Darcy Wilmot
60 – Ryan Lester
56 – Harris Andrews, Jarrod Berry, Joe Daniher
54 – Oscar McInerney, Cam Rayner
51 – Callum Ah Chee
47 – Charlie Cameron, Jaspa Fletcher
46 – Kai Lohmann
44 – Brandon Starcevich
39 – Eric Hipwood
37 – Zac Bailey
33 – Jack Payne
30 – Will Ashcroft, Logan Morris
26 – Noah Answerth
23 – Conor McKenna
16 – Lincoln McCarthy
15 – Bruce Reville
9 – Shadeau Brain, Darragh Joyce
8 – Darcy Gardiner
5 – Darcy Fort, Harry Sharp, Henry Smith
3 – Jarryd Lyons, Jaxon Prior, Deven Robertson, Jimmy Tunstill
Who Polled What When?
Whichever way you look at it, Neale, Zorko and Dunkley were the standout trio, but there were some interesting variations in who polled when and where.
In wins it was Neale (42) from Dunkley (38), Zorko (37), Daniher (35), McCluggage (34), Andrews (33), Wilmot, Lester and Berry (32), and in losses it was Dunkley and Lester (17), Neale, Wilmot, Zorko (15), Andrews, McCluggage (14), Berry, Fletcher and McCarthy (12).
At the Gabba it was Zorko (35) from Dunkley (33), Neale (31), McCluggage (30), Wilmot (29), Lester (28), McInerney (25), Rayner (24), Andrews (23), Daniher (21) and AhChee (20). And, in a telling statistic, Neale (42) topped the ‘away’ votes from Dunkley (38), Zorko (37), Daniher (35), McCluggage (34), Andrews (33), Wilmot, Lester and Berry (32).
In a comparison between ‘home’ votes and ‘away’ votes, Zorko was ‘plus 0.45’ at the Gabba, Ashcroft plus 0.36, Wilmot plus 0.28, McCluggage plus 0.23, Dunkley plus 0.22 and Lester plus 0.20.
Conversely, Payne was plus 0.83 away, Answerth plus 0.63, Daniher plus 0.58, Andrews plus 0.44, Fletcher plus 0.43, Neale plus 0.42, Lohmann plus 0.37, Cameron plus 0.28, Ah Chee plus 0.25 and Bailey plus 0.21.
On a votes-per-game basis which identified the Ashcroft contribution after his return from a knee reconstruction, it was Neale (2.81), Zorko (2.67), Dunkley (2.63), McCluggage (2.37), Ashcroft (2.31), Wilmot (2.26), Lester (2.22), McInerney (2.16), Andrews (2.15), Starcevich (2.10), Daniher and Berry (2.07), Rayner and McCarthy (2.00).
In games against the other finals teams, Neale (30) and Dunkley (30) topped the vote from Zorko (29), Wilmot (29), Lester (28), Andrews (27), McCluggage and Berry (25), Starcevich (24), McInerney and Daniher (22), Cameron and Lohmann (20).
And in games against the non-finalists, it was Neale (43) and Zorko (43), Dunkley (41), McCluggage (39), Daniher (34), Lester, McInerney and Wilmot (32), Berry (31), Andrews and Rayner (29), Fletcher (28), Ah Chee and Cameron (27) and Lohmann (26).
As close as the finish was, it wasn’t the closest in club history. In 2003 Michael Voss (71) won from Simon Black and Luke Power (70), and in 1988 it was Mark Withers (22) from Geoff Raines (21) and Scott McIvor (20).
In the four-way tie of 2015 it was Zorko, Dayne Beams, Stefan Martin and Mitch Robinson (130) from Allen Christensen (128), and in 2023 it was Andrews (62) from Neale (61) and McCluggage (59).
In other one-vote results at the very top of the leaderboard, Zorko (250) beat Beams (249) in 2018, Joel Patfull (31.5) beat Pearce Hanley (30.5) in 2013, Jonathan Brown (57.5) beat Black (56.5) in 2009, and John Gastev (21) beat McIvor (20) in 1989.
Chris Scott’s 1994 win was the most one-sided. He polled 114 votes and was 75% clear of runner-up Marcus Ashcroft on 65. In 1994 Craig Lambert (105) was 50% clear of runner-up Matthew Clarke (70), and in 1991 Michael McLean (31) was 48% up on Roger Merrett (21).
