Star Richmond midfielder Trent Cotchin was the leading vote-getter among all players in the competition aged under 23 at last night’s 2011 Brownlow Medal count.
Cotchin, 21 years and five months, polled 15 votes - two best-on-ground performances, four twos and a one - to finish equal 16th overall in the Medal count won by Collingwood’s Dane Swan (with a record 34 votes under the 3-2-1 system).
He was Richmond’s leading vote-getter and became the youngest Tiger to poll that many votes in the game’s highest individual award since a 21-year-old Mark Coughlan (16 votes) in 2003.
Another Tiger young gun, Dustin Martin, at just 20 years and three months of age, also caught the eye of the umpires in 2011, polling 12 Brownlow votes (two threes, two twos and two ones), the second highest at the Club, in just his second season of AFL football. That was double his 2010 tally of six votes.
Total Richmond 2011 Brownlow votes
15 - Trent Cotchin
12 - Dustin Martin
6 - Nathan Foley
5 - Brett Deledio
3 - Bachar Houli
2 - Jack Riewoldt
2 - Robin Nahas
2 - Ty Vickery
1 - Chris Newman
1 - Shaun Grigg
