AFL fans have gone into meltdown on social media amid claims the Brownlow Medal winner had accidently been leaked in a now-deleted post.
A screenshot of the AFL store website shared to Twitter before the code’s night of nights got underway on Monday shows an image of some surprising Collingwood Magpies memorabilia.
The item is labelled ‘Nick Daicos 2024 Brownlow medalist signed guernsey’.
Daicos was one of the hot favourites to take out this year’s Brownlow Medal, which is awarded to the fairest and best player in the AFL during the home-and-away season.
It was swiftly deleted, but not before it was spotted by eagled-eyed fans and quickly went viral.
‘I got a screenshot before they took it down,’ one wrote.
Fans were outraged that the winner may have been accidentally been revealed before a single vote had been cast.
Collingwood superstar Nick Daicos (pictured with partner Arlette Amor) was a hot favourite to win this year’s Brownlow Medal but ended up runners-up
This screenshot of the AFL online store went viral before it was swiftly deleted
‘If true and the AFL f’d up revealing the winner before the count, the AFL can stop with the Armaguard charade & just be open that they know the result and check the votes before the night,’ one fumed.
Another pundit added: ‘Interesting that Daicos just took favouritism on Betfair for the Brownlow Medal following this tweet doing the rounds. Surely this is a mistake?’
But others weren’t convinced that Daicos will be the winner.
‘They do it every year, getting ready the different favourites so they can start flogging the merchandise as soon as the winner is known,’ one fan wrote.
Another added: ‘This same thing happened a few years ago. Wrong then, wrong again!’
A third commented: ‘This is either the greatest troll of all time or the biggest screw up by the AFL since employing Andrew Dillon.’
Earlier in the day, Daicos and Carlton Blues superstar Patrick Cripps were tied in first on AFL.com.au’s Brownlow Predictor.
Brisbane Lions superstar Lachie Neale (with wife Julie) was also hot favourite
Patrick Cripps (pictured with wife Monique on the red carpet) won his second Brownlow
Cripps ($2.40) took out the award in 2022 and has had an exceptional season for the Blues and was tied with Daicos on 33 points in the system.
Cripps went on to win his second Brownlow Medal, polling a record 45 votes to claim the honour convincingly.
The Blues captain had an unbeatable lead with four rounds left leaving Daicos to finish runners-up on 38 points, while Port Adelaide’s Zak Butters polled 29 for third.
Daicos also broke the old votes record of 36, jointly held previously by Richmond’s Dustin Martin (2017) and Port Adelaide’s Ollie Wines (’21).
