* The player was ineligible to win the medal due to suspension by the AFL Tribunal during the year.
Voting procedure
The three field umpires (those umpires who control the flow of the game, as opposed to goal or boundary umpires) confer after each match and award three votes, two votes, and one vote to the players they regard as the best, second-best and third-best in the match, respectively. The votes are kept secret until the awards night, and they are read and tallied on the evening.[3]
A change was made in 2015 to the rules under which players could become ineligible for the Brownlow Medal. Under previous rules, players were ineligible if found guilty at the AFL Tribunal of an offence with a base penalty equal to or greater than a one-match suspension, even if the player then avoided suspension by taking an early guilty plea after the Match Review Panel's findings. Under the rules:[4]
The penalty for all low-end offences for which a player could previously have received a reprimand but avoided suspension was changed to a $1000 fine for the first offence within a season, a $1500 fine for the second offence within a season, and a one-match suspension for the third offence within a season
Players would become ineligible for the Brownlow medal only if they incurred a suspension
References
^Lovett, Michael (ed.). AFL Record Season Guide 2016. Docklands, Victoria: Slattery Media Group. p. 593.
