Nick Daicos has won the 2026 Brownlow Medal, finally winning the AFL’s highest individual honour after finishing runner-up on two previous occasions.
The Collingwood superstar was the overwhelming favourite and he won comfortably in the end with 47 votes, setting a new record for the most votes by a player in a single season.
On a night where the AFL and broadcaster Channel 7 did its best to deal with an awkward elephant in the room – the ongoing Sydney Swans scandal – Daicos added the league’s top honour to his 2023 premiership medal, two AFL MVP awards and four All-Australian honours. All at the age of 23.
Geelong’s Bailey Smith finished second on 36 votes and Marcus Bontempelli was third with 33 votes.
Daicos also broke the record for the most three-vote games and and the most consecutive three-vote games in Brownlow history.
The two grand finalists, Fremantle and the Lions, held functions in Perth and Brisbane as they prepare for this weekend’s decider.
Preliminary final loser Sydney was snubbed all night at Crown Palladium in an awkward subplot.
Whenever any of the suspended Swans – Isaac Heeney, Chad Warner, Nick Blakey or Riley Bice – received votes, there was silence in the room. James Jordon did not poll.
The players were banned from attending the count and the table of their Sydney teammates who did were largely ignored during Seven’s broadcast.
Whenever a suspended player’s name was read out – most often Heeney, who finished ninth with 26 votes – the TV cameras panned to a wide shot of the room.
Recap all the action below.