AFL in a muddle over Brownlow presentationCaroline Wilson
The Age
23 November 2016Even allowing for the appropriate sensitivity afforded Essendon's devastated Jobe Watson, the inescapable impression is that the AFL has danced around the practical details of how to manage the handover to Sam Mitchell and Trent Cotchin.
Having negotiated the most palatable outcome for the player and the competition in what has clearly been everything but; too much of the accompanying fall-out feels uncomfortable where the new winners are concerned.
While Brownlow Medallists are usually honoured at the glamorous awards ceremony, it was a bit different when Trent Cotchin and Sam Mitchell received news of their joint win four years later. Courtesy Seven News Melbourne.
The AFL is expected to outline details of the retrospective Brownlow presentation on Wednesday or Thursday at the latest. It will take place next month and will prove a low key but, according to the game's commissioners, respectful presentation in which both players will be attending with hand-picked friends, relatives and supporters.
But you can't help but conclude such decisions should have been made at least a week ago and not placed the players concerned in such a difficult position.
First Cotchin and Mitchell were given the chance to put forward to AFL Commission their own thoughts on the eventual outcome of the 2012 Brownlow result. League bosses defended that ridiculous move saying they felt forced to do so for legal reasons. The pair was told those submissions would be shown to Watson.
Either way neither player had any intention of putting forward their thoughts and neither should they have.
Once Watson handed back the medal, the joint runners-up from the 2012 count had to endure four days of speculation before the final decision that could have been handled by telephone hook-up.
This is not to compare their discomfort to Watson's heartbreak but for the AFL the rules were clear after all. Instead Mitchell in particular, having landed at his new club, was repeatedly interrogated while former Brownlow winners were publicly canvassed and some former champions even suggested the pair should not accept the medals given the heartbreaking circumstances.
Even their joint press conference felt like an afterthought. If it is correct that it was partly held up due to Cotchin being interstate surely the AFL could have flown him home to end the speculation media doorstops.
Then the negotiations continued. The accepted version is that the AFL have designed a ceremony for Mitchell and Cotchin in the first half of December. Again the ball landed back in the players' court with the competition's governors asking them what shape they would like that occasion should take.
Asking two retrospective Brownlow medallists how they would like to receive what is a momentous honour for them is not the way to go about it. Both clearly would have been happy to have the AFL draw up the details.
The situation was made even trickier for Mitchell because he has become a Hawthorn Brownlow medallist at a time when he is moving to West Coast and therefore the Hawks have not thrown themselves into supporting or assisting him.
Where Cotchin is concerned he could not lean upon his manager Craig Kelly for advice nor practical support because Kelly is clearly conflicted and trying support his heartbroken other client Watson.
Nobody wants to inflict more pain on Watson than he has already suffered. Gillon McLachlan refused to even entertain the topic of when and if his Brownlow was returned to the AFL and appears shattered by the turn of events.
But it is one thing for Watson's teammates and other greats of the game to say they will always consider him the Brownlow winner. It is another for the AFL to continue to show such hesitance in completing what clearly was a difficult task but a task that swiftly required closure.
Rules are rules and having reached the only decision open to them it was incumbent upon the game's governors to act decisively. No one is suggesting the retrospective Brownlow Medal presentation should in anyway be flaunted in front of Watson or that the celebrations be over the top.
But neither should Cotchin nor Mitchell be made to feel guilty about winning it when all they have done was finished second to a player ultimately deemed ineligible. The worst of what took place at Essendon was clearly done without the unfortunate Watson's knowledge but it was done.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/afl/afl-news/afl-in-a-muddle-over-brownlow-presentation-20161122-gsv8fd.html
