Brodie Grundy is poised to be the first ruckman to head the Sydney Swans vote in the Brownlow Medal in 33 years on Monday night as Harry Cunningham claims an all-time AFL record of a different kind.

Or at least that’s the takeaway from the people who are meant to know best – the coaches.

It’s a conclusion based on the conversion of the weekly 5-4-3-2-1 votes in the Coaches Association Player of the Year Award into notional 3-2-1 Brownlow votes. Or ‘Coachlow’ votes.

It suggests Grundy will poll 19 ‘Coachlow’ votes to head the Sydney count from Isaac Heeney (14), Chad Warner (7.83) and Nick Blakey (7) to finish equal 13^th overall, and post the most dominate run of the medal count from Round 13 to Round 21.

Also, that Cunningham, a veteran of 14 seasons and 219 games in the AFL, will equal the all-clubs record for most AFL games without a medal vote.

And, if the ‘Coachlow’ voting is any sort of guide, James Jordan and Riley Bice are set for their first medal votes.

Grundy is a proven vote-getter, having polled 23 votes for Collingwood in 2019 to finish equal sixth overall, after 17 votes in 2018 were good enough for equal 10^th.

And his 2025 form, in which he averaged 19.5 possessions, 36.7 hit-outs, 5.9 clearances and 3.9 tackles, was considered worthy of a place in the All-Australian squad.

The last ruckman to head the Swans Brownlow tally was Brad Tunbridge, who polled eight votes in 21 games in 1992 to top the club vote with Dale Lewis.

Tunbridge, an undersized ruckman at 195cm recruited from East Fremantle, had polled six votes in his second season in 1991 but his career ended at 50 games in 1993.

Another ruckman, Gareth John, had topped the Swans vote tally in 1991. He polled seven votes to share that honour with Greg Williams.

This, of course, excludes 2003-06 Swans Brownlow Medal winner Adam Goodes, who played some time in the ruck but could not be considered a permanent ruckman like Tunbridge or John. Or Grundy.

In the 2025 Coaches Player of the Year voting, Grundy (77) finished ahead of Heeney (66), Warner (40), Blakey (35) and Jordan (24) in the Sydney vote.

Grundy had one 10-vote game, in which Sydney coach Dean Cox and the opposition coach gave him the maximum five votes, plus three nine-vote games and three eight-vote games.

His ‘10’ came against Fremantle’s twin ruck division of Luke Jackson and Sean Darcy, when he had 20 possessions, a goal, 33 hit-outs, five tackles and 12 clearances.

Converted to ‘Coachlow’ votes, this suggests the big Grundy charge will begin in Round 13 against Richmond at the MCG, and after a Round 14 bye will take in games against Port Adelaide (away), Western Bulldogs and Fremantle (home), St Kilda (away), North Melbourne (home), GWS (away) and Essendon (home).

In this period Grundy polled 64 votes in the Coaches Player of the Year. Next best with the coaches through the same period was Geelong’s Max Holmes (48), Gold Coast’s Max Rowell (46), St Kilda’s Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera (45), the Bulldogs’ Marcus Bontempelli (44) and Collingwood’s Nick Daicos (42).

This equated to 17 votes in the ‘coachlow’ after Grundy had picked up one vote in Round 4 against North Melbourne and in Round 10 against Carlton.

His 19 votes at Round 21 had him fourth in the ‘coachlow’ behind Anderson (24), Nick Daicos (21.33) and Dawson (20.5), equal with Rowell and Butters (19), and ahead of Holmes and Wangeneen-Milera (18), Serong and Bailey Smith (17.33), Bontempelli (16.5), and Melbourne’s All-Australian ruckman Max Gawn and Brisbane’s Hugh McClugagge (16). But he didn’t feature in the votes again.

Heeney polled the maximum 10 votes three times in Round 10 against Essendon and Round 19 against St Kilda, both at Marvel Stadium, and Brisbane at the Gabba in Round 22.

There were two other Swans 10’s, which should equate to three Brownlow Medal votes – Warner in Round 8 against GWS at the Sydney Showgrounds, and Blakey in Round 13 against Richmond at the MCG.

Jordan, 91 games with Melbourne and Sydney to the end of 2024 without a Brownlow vote, will be on high-alert for possibly his first votes in Round 2, when the Swans beat Fremantle by three points in Perth.

Jordan had 24 disposals and a game-high 10 clearances while making life hard for star Fremantle onballer Caleb Serong, holding him to 19 disposals and a goal. Jordan earned six coach’s votes, equal with Warner, who had 26 possessions and a goal, and behind only Fremantle’s Josh Tracey, who took nine coaches votes for four goals.

The Bice votes could come as early as his fourth game against North Melbourne at Marvel, when he had a team-high 26 possessions in a 65-point Swans win. He received seven votes from the coaches, behind only Will Hayward (9) and ahead of Grundy (6).

Cunningham is set to equal the AFL ‘most games – no votes’ record of 219, which sits with recently-retired dual Hawthorn premiership player turned Western Bulldogs defender Taylor Duryea.

Technically, Duryea, like Cunningham, needs to get through the 2025 vote-count without polling to claim the record which, this pair aside, belongs to ex-Swan Nick Smith at 211 games.

Geelong premiership player Tom Lonergan (209 games), ex-Hawthorn captain Ben Stratton (202) and Western Bulldogs/Collingwood defender Jordan Roughead (201) are the only other players to top 200 games without a vote.

Duryea played six games this year for 54 possessions, nine tackles and three wins, and, even according to Dogs insiders, will not poll a vote.

Cunningham, a no-frills, no-fuss 31-year-old who will see his ‘no votes’ record as a badge of honour that confirms his team-first role in defence, has a more compelling case.

He played 11 games for 150 possessions, 22 tackles, and eight wins, but is unlikely to poll in the Brownlow if he didn’t register a vote in the coach’s award.