By Peter Ryan
The AFL has confirmed that St Kilda’s Jimmy Webster remains eligible to win this year’s Brownlow Medal, despite him receiving the longest suspension handed out in 2024.
Webster was given a seven-match ban for his bump in the pre-season that concussed North Melbourne skipper Jy Simpkin, but under the rules he remains eligible because the incident did not occur in a match where Brownlow votes were awarded.
Swan Isaac Heeney is ineligible to win the Brownlow Medal in 2024. Credit: AFL Photos
Swans star Isaac Heeney, who was a Brownlow fancy leading into the round 17, became one of 29 players now ineligible to win the 2024 medal when he failed to have his one-match suspension for striking Webster overturned at the tribunal and the AFL appeals board this week.
AFL rules and regulations relating to the Brownlow Medal only deem a player ineligible to win the award if his offence occurs in a match where votes are given for that year’s medal.
The AFL confirmed, after an enquiry in relation to Webster’s eligibility, that the 31-year-old remained eligible, stating: “The effect of those provisions (and additionally, the definition of “home and away matches” in AFL Regulation 1.1, which is a match for which premiership points are awarded and specifically excludes a pre-season competition match) is that a player that is suspended for conduct in [a] pre-season competition match is still eligible to win the Brownlow Medal.”
Contained in section 21 of the AFL rules and regulations are “those provisions”, which state the offence needed to occur in a home and away match in which Brownlow votes are cast.
The ruling means players suspended for offences that occur in the pre-season, the finals, or a home and away match from the season before remain eligible to win the award. Players charged by the MRO who receive a financial sanction, rather than a suspension, are also eligible.
Jimmy Webster was suspended for seven matches after an incident in the pre-season. Credit: Getty Images
No one considers Webster – who showed great remorse after he injured Simpkin and accepted his penalty – a realistic chance in this year’s Brownlow, given he has played just eight games this year and never polled a vote in the 150 matches he played before this season.
However, his eligibility does highlight the anomaly in the rules that are supposed to uphold the “fairest” element of the award, which has been debated this week with Brownlow medallists Gerard Healy and Patrick Cripps, as well as coaches Simon Goodwin and Brad Scott, saying the eligibility criteria should be reviewed at season’s end.
Healy told this masthead “change has to happen, and the only debate is what that change should be”. Removing the fairest element may cause issues with how to manage previous medals lost due to ineligibility in both 1996 and 1997, while the AFL rules must have a cut-off point for when suspension makes a player ineligible.
Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper, who played just three games before suffering a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury, also remains eligible, despite having received a four-match suspension in the pre-season for a bump on Adelaide’s Mark Keane.
Although the eligibility of Webster and Powell-Pepper will have no impact on the results of this year’s medal, there are growing calls for the league to review the conditions of eligibility at season’s end.
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