Although Trent Cotchin’s bold finish had him finishing just short of Essendon’s Jobe Watson in the race for the 2012 Brownlow Medal, he rewrote the Richmond record books as equal-runner-up . . .

Cotchin’s 26 votes were the second-highest ever polled by a Tiger player under the customary 3-2-1 system, and the most since champion ruckman, Roy Wright, won his second Brownlow in 1954, with 29 votes.

Richmond ‘Immortals’, Francis Bourke, 36 votes in 1976, and Kevin Bartlett, 45 votes in 1977, both polled more, but that was under a system, which was in place for only two seasons, whereby the two officiating field umpires at each match provided separate votes.

The 26 votes polled by Cotchin in 2012 were five more than champion Richmond centreman Ian Stewart received when he won the Brownlow in 1971 (the last Tiger to do so).

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In fact, Cotchin’s 26 votes either equalled or bettered the winning totals of 60 of the 76 Brownlows decided under the traditional 3-2-1 system, since its introduction in 1931 (the Medal was suspended for four years during World War 2).

Cotchin also equalled the Richmond record for polling Brownlow Medal votes in the most number of games in a season.

He polled votes in 11 games this season, which is the same as what Bill Morris achieved in 1948, when he won the Brownlow, and Roy Wright, when he won his second Medal, in 1954.