ON the Tuesday before the grand final, discussion always turns to the quirks of Brownlow Medal night and this year is no different.

Kangaroos fans were pondering how Brent Harvey, joint runner-up to Geelong's runaway winner Jimmy Bartel, could not extract a single vote from the umpires for his game against the Western Bulldogs in round 22.

Richmond supporters were wondering aloud how Simon Black, the brilliant Brisbane Lions' midfielder, extracted three votes for his 16 touches in a quiet game against the Tigers. They might not have known that Black was also dudded for a couple of votes, getting none despite a fine match against Collingwood in round 17.

Geelong fans would wonder why "Little Gazza" Ablett could get so few best-afield ticks (only two).

And in Port Adelaide, they might be musing about the failure of Chad Cornes to attract much attention from the officiating umpires, Cornes getting only 12 despite starting as second-favourite.

Ben Cousins' almost unbelievable return from drug rehabilitation, against Sydney at Subiaco when he gathered 38 disposals, earned him only one vote.

Kangaroo Corey Jones' seven-goal haul against Hawthorn in Tasmania did not get him on the board; Matthew Pavlich's 30 disposals and six goals against Essendon drew only one.

All of which are decent topics for debate. But the biggest quirk of all continues to be the outright refusal of umpires to acknowledge defenders nowadays.

When Darren Glass was awarded two votes for his game against Adelaide in round 13, the venerable West Coast full-back opened his career account in Brownlow voting. This ought to be an astonishing statistic for a player of Glass' stature. Instructively, hardly anyone bats an eyelid.

Geelong's All-Australian full-back Matthew Scarlett, having a career-best year, got a monumental three votes. James Clement, Collingwood's erstwhile backman, managed one, as did Sydney's Craig Bolton, who had such a good year he was nominated for All-Australian selection.

Bartel's tally of 29 outstripped the entire back six of the All-Australian team, which recorded a combined 23 — 15 of those to Andrew McLeod, who is more of a running back anyway. It is surely the "midfielders' medal" these days, and not even the big-ticket forwards get a look in.

Jonathan Brown's 76 goals from deep centre half-forward for the Lions was only enough to sneak him into the top 10. The other nine players in the top bracket were all midfielders.

None of which is particularly new, but then again, it is not necessarily right, either.

Fred Goldsmith and Verdun Howell, two full-backs who won Brownlows, were in the audience at Crown the other night.

On current trends, they are the likes of which we will never see again.

Actually, it's not just the umpires who think this way. We in the media are equally as guilty if you look at the winners' lists each year. It is a reflection of the modern way of leaning on statistics to back up an argument. If a midfielder has had 30 touches, then how can anyone argue if he gets the top votes?

Watch a television broadcast of a game or listen to radio and they will continually refer to the number of possessions (or more correctly, disposals) a player has had. Yet, it is a fact that pure numbers like this have been made virtually meaningless by the modern game, where teams often congregate in the back half of the ground, leaving the team with the football to chip it around and rack up personal statistics.

It is an anomaly of Australian football that while key backs do not get proper acknowledgement in individual awards, they are keenly sought and proudly held. At club level — and in the eyes of supporters — their importance is known well.

Leo Barry's shutdown on the taller Michael Gardiner helped win the 2005 grand final for Sydney, but he did not win the Norm Smith Medal. The 31 disposals of West Coast's Chris Judd did the trick for the midfielder. When Sydney coach Paul Roos was asked later whom he would have voted for, he replied with Barry's name.

Last year, Glass performed the most significant act of the grand final by obliterating and humiliating Barry Hall, who almost single-handedly had won the preliminary final for Sydney the previous weekend. Glass missed out; Andrew Embley won the medal for his hard-running game on the wing.

Not long after that match, I met a group of friends and relatives in a pub. "Why didn't Glass win the medal?" was one of the first questions I was asked. The relative had a point. Maybe it's time we all had a good think about how football games are won.