Can’t beat the algorithm: The one Brownlow bet that didn’t land

The arrest of a field umpire for allegedly passing on information about voting for the 2022 Brownlow Medal represents the most serious betting scandal to have engulfed the AFL since the code became commercially enmeshed with the betting industry.

Some allegations involving umpire Michael Pell are relatively straightforward. Others are murky and yet to be detailed by police or the AFL.

As a field umpire, Pell was bound to keep the Brownlow voting secret, under the umpire’s Omerta, for a host of reasons. The risks of impugning the integrity of the medal are considerable and the potential for a betting leak have long existed.

Field umpire Michael Pell was one of four men arrested following a Victoria Police investigation into suspicious Brownlow betting.Credit:The Age

For the Brownlow Medal is a rare sporting contest – an individual award shrouded in secrecy – in which it is possible to bet on the outcome after the race has been run and won.

Thus, there is more potential for skulduggery if an umpire is corrupted, or even just loose with the company he keeps and what he says; a blithe casual comment about possible votes could trigger bets.

Previous AFL betting scandals have centred largely on players, such as those involving Collingwood’s Heath Shaw and Jaidyn Stephenson (2011 and 2019 respectively), or relatively minor betting breaches by officials, such as ex-Essendon official Dean Wallis. Stephenson was viewed as the most serious, given that he received a 10-match ban for placing bets that included exotics on the Collingwood-St Kilda game in which he played.

One of the AFL’s hands is raking in gambling dollars while the other is trying to police the activity to make sure the code isn’t corrupted.

Pell’s alleged breach is of another order of magnitude, given that a) it involves the police, he has been arrested and is being questioned, b) he is an umpire, and umpires have the responsibility of enforcing the rules and are held to high standards of integrity and conduct, c) the allegations suggest some level of organised activity, not simply some random bets, and d) the amounts of money total several thousand dollars, not pocket change.

AFL sources suggest that the umpiring fraternity, while cognisant of Pell’s welfare and the need for care, are filthy about what’s alleged, since it damages the reputation of umpires as a collective. Regrettably, due to the game’s savage tribalism, they have never been as respected as they ought to be by the football public.