{"id":899517,"date":"2026-09-21T01:14:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899517\/"},"modified":"2026-09-21T01:14:22","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T01:14:22","slug":"afls-contingency-plan-for-shock-isaac-heeney-brownlow-victory-revealed-ahead-of-2026-count","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/899517\/","title":{"rendered":"AFL\u2019s contingency plan for shock Isaac Heeney Brownlow victory revealed ahead of 2026 count"},"content":{"rendered":"

The AFL<\/a>\u2019s contingency plan in the event of a shock Isaac Heeney victory in the Brownlow Medal count on Monday night has been revealed.<\/p>\n

Reports last week claimed league officials were refusing to plan for a scenario in which the Sydney Swans star, who will not attend the count, polls the most votes on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Heeney had a strong season to help Sydney<\/a> to a top-two finish, and he remains eligible for the AFL\u2019s top individual award despite being suspended by the Swans for breaching club standards<\/a> on the eve of the finals.<\/p>\n

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Arrow<\/a><\/p>\n

Chad Warner, one of the other four Sydney players sidelined following the alleged Pullman hotel scandal, is also expected to poll well, having pulled in 44 over the last two seasons to Heeney\u2019s 45.<\/p>\n

But it is Heeney at the centre of the debate around how the AFL will handle the night.<\/p>\n

Channel 7 expert Kane Cornes has now revealed it is \u201cnot correct\u201d that the AFL, and the Brownlow\u2019s exclusive broadcaster Channel 7, did not want to acknowledge the Heeney possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is actually a plan for what happens if Isaac Heeney wins the Brownlow Medal tonight,\u201d he said on SEN.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can tell you that Matthew Pavlich will accept Heeney\u2019s Brownlow Medal tonight, and Matthew Pavlich will also read out the speech should \u2014 and it\u2019s very unlikely \u2014 Isaac Heeney be the Brownlow medallist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornes said the speech would be written by Heeney.<\/p>\n

\"IsaacIsaac Heeney, pictured here on the 2025 red carpet, is tipped to be among the top Swans in Monday night\u2019s Brownlow count. Credit: Getty<\/p>\n

Sydney CEO Pavlich will be in attendance at Crown Palladium, alongside the likes of Brodie Grundy and Charlie Curnow, after the Swans lost their preliminary final to Fremantle on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a first, wouldn\u2019t it?\u201d Cornes asked of a club representative accepting the award for an absent winner.<\/p>\n

Channel 7\u2019s Tom Morris replied: \u201cThat would be amazing. Can you imagine that? Pav up there reading a statement. Highly unlikely but nevertheless they need to have it ready just in case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cornes said there are expectations Heeney will finish with a vote tally in the mid-20s.<\/p>\n

But the competition is tipped to be blown away by Collingwood star Nick Daicos, who could go close to breaking Patrick Cripps\u2019 record of 45 votes on his way to what would be his first Brownlow.<\/p>\n

Daicos polled 11 in his first season before becoming a juggernaut from his second season onwards.<\/p>\n

He picked up 28 to finish third in 2023, then had 38 as a clear runner-up to Cripps\u2019 historic 2024 win.<\/p>\n

Daicos then missed out again last year despite nabbing 32 votes as Gold Coast\u2019s Matt Rowell romped to the win with 39.<\/p>\n

\"DaicosDaicos is expected to easily win the 2026 Brownlow medal. Credit: AAP<\/p>\n

The Magpies star is likely to poll in the majority of games despite Collingwood\u2019s mixed season.<\/p>\n

The likes of Bailey Smith (Geelong) and Marcus Bontempelli (Bulldogs) are also tipped to poll well with numbers that would have comfortably secured a Brownlow in prior years.<\/p>\n

Heeney will likely record a handful of three-vote games with Grundy and Errol Gulden set to be among the top Sydney players.<\/p>\n

Heeney, Warner, Nick Blakey, Riley Bice and James Jordon \u2014 the five Swans suspended for breaching club standards \u2014 were ruled ineligible for the All-Australian squad in the wake of the alleged hotel scandal.<\/p>\n

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon also confirmed they would not be invited to Brownlow night, while remaining eligible to win.<\/p>\n

Only players suspended under AFL match review and tribunal guidelines are scratched from contention.<\/p>\n

Sydney are yet to publicise how they will deal with their best-and-fairest award.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018Manipulation\u2019 question emerges over Lachie Neale\u2019s get-out-of-jail-free card<\/p>\n

3 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

AFL to hit bottle throwers with monster MCG bans<\/p>\n

4 min read<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The AFL\u2019s contingency plan in the event of a shock Isaac Heeney victory in the Brownlow Medal count…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":899518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,1625,588,85,7200,438546],"class_list":["post-899517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-lifestyle","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-sydney-swans","tag-your-feed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}