AFL apologises for Brownlow error after Mitchell memorabilia goes live

In a potential Brownlow Medal night blunder, the AFL website has apparently crowned Hawthorn midfielder Sam Mitchell as the victor of the award before the end of the count.

Nat Fyfe has won the Brownlow Medal as the AFL’s most valuable player – but a disastrous error on the league’s website led many to believe the victor was someone else.

Fyfe was voted best on ground a record-equalling nine times throughout the year.

Fyfe’s incredible first half of the season continued as he racked up 29 votes after 15 Rounds, but last year’s victor, Matt Priddis remained hot on his tail.

“I’m a bit blown away to be honest”, Fyfe said.

“We are going to give it our absolute best and I’m sure we’ll all speak to Xavier, Sharrod and Sam for a bit of advice because they have been there and actually won premierships before”.

Fyfe is the first Docker to win the award.

Fyfe was parked on 31 votes for the final six rounds, and he said he was feeling nervous as the challengers closed.

“I think he’ll go really close”.

“But the nerves started to come late”.

Gaff and Shuey were both heavily tagged in the preliminary final win over North Melbourne at Domain Stadium, but they still made strong contributions to help West Coast in to the AFL grand final.

Fyfe’s tally of 31 votes is the third-highest haul in the modern era, behind Dane Swan’s 34 in 2011 and Robert Harvey in 1998, who polled 32.