Fremantle senior coach Ross Lyon says this season is not the first impressive year by star midfielder Nat Fyfe, despite constant media hype.
One betting agency is already paying-out bets on Fyfe winning his first Brownlow Medal, just eight weeks into the year.
Lyon said Fyfe was the club’s back-to-back best and fairest and had performed consistently in recent years.
“He’s won the last two Doig Medals, so he’s played to a very high level,” he said.
Lyon said Fyfe dealt with Brownlow hype last year too.
“It’s a prestigious award…I know it’s not a priority for Nathan,” he said.
He's won the past two Doigs (Fremantle's best and fairest medal) so he's played to a very high level and all the Brownlow hype was there last year.
“It's a prestigious award, but not something that really interests me, and I know it's not a priority for Nathan.
“Team success is what will ultimately define this football club. We've got numerous multiple best and fairest winners but I look over at the cabinet and it's empty.”
Fyfe has enjoyed a remarkable start to the season.
He's polled 68 out of a possible 80 votes in the AFL Coaches Association Player of the Year Award to lead by 22 after eight rounds. He was unanimously best on ground according to both coaches in four of the eight games.
It’s realistic that he has polled Brownlow votes in each of the first eight games this season and top votes in as many as seven.
Fyfe polled the fourth-highest tally of any ineligible player ever in a single season last year when he polled 25, one short of Priddis' winning total of 26.
Prior to the start of this season he had the second-highest ratio of Brownlow votes per game in history. He had polled 0.904 votes per game in his 83 home and away matches to that point. Only three-time winner Haydn Bunton had a better ratio with 1.025.
The highest number of votes ever polled in a season under the 3-2-1 voting system is 34 by Collingwood's Dane Swan in 2011. Greg Williams holds the record for the most number of three-vote games in a season with nine for Carlton in 1994.
Five players have polled in 14 games in a single season, including Swan, Jobe Watson (2012), Robert Harvey (1998), J. Herbie Matthews (1940) and Des Fothergill (1940).
Fremantle play the Crows at Adelaide Oval on Saturday 30 May. Bounce down is at 7.10pm local time.
