Gold Coasts SUNS captain Gary Ablett Jnr jumped from equal 15^th to outright fifth on the all-time Brownlow Medal leaderboard with his heart-stopping second win in the AFL’s most prestigeous individual award last night.

Ablett’s 28 votes, in which he polled three votes in the last game of the year against the GWS Giants at Metricon Stadium to scrape home from Geelong skipper Joel Selwood (27) and Collingwood’s Dane Swan (26), took his career tally to 187.

Only Gary Dempsey (246), Robert Harvey (215), Leigh Matthews (202) and Chris Judd (202) have polled more.

In charging up the leaderboard, Ablett, the 14^th multiple winner of the Brownlow Medal and the fifth player to win it at different clubs, left behind Brent Harvey, with whom he was level on 159 votes heading into the 2013 count. 

He went past Shane Crawford (160), Kevin Bartlett (160), Garry Wilson (161), Keith Greig (165), Bill Hutchison (172), Scott West (175), Kevin Murray (178), Nathan Buckley (178), Bob Skilton (180) and Simon Black (184).

Ablett’s seventh consecutive 20-vote tally extended what was already his own League record at six 20-plus hauls in a row, and leaves him within striking distance of Judd, Matthews and possibly even Robert Harvey on the all-time vote list next year. And at 29 Dempsey’s front-running mark is certainly not out of reach before the mercurial midfielder retires.

On adjusted votes, whereby an equalization is applied to counter the fact that two umpires each awarded 3-2-1 votes in each game in 1975-76, Ablett (187) slips past Matthews (173.5) and trails only Dempsey (218.5), Harvey (215) and Judd (202).

In adding yet another line to an astonishing career record as he became the SUNS’ first Brownlow Medalist, Ablett polled in no less than 12 of the 21 games he played in 2013 – one less than the 13 times he polled in winning the Brownlow for the first time at Geelong in 2009.

Only seven players have polled more often in a season in the history of the game. Des Fothergill (1940), Herbie Matthews (1940), Harvey (1998), Swan (2011) and Jobe Watson (2012) each polled 14 times in a season, while Alistair Lord (1962) and Judd (2004) polled 13 times.

Ablett joins Ian Stewart, Peter Moore, Greg Williams and Judd as players to have won the Brownlow at two clubs.

He also joins Ivor Warne-Smith, Hutchison, Roy Wright, Greig, Moore, Williams, Robert Harvey, Adam Goodes and Judd as a multiple Brownlow winner.

And with Ablett still at the peak of his playing powers, it is a brave man who might suggest he will not join the even more exclusive club of three-time winners, which includes Haydn Bunton, Dick Reynolds, Skilton and Stewart.

Ablett’s 28 votes this year followed his 23 votes in 2011 and 24 votes in 2012, and gives him an astonishing 75 votes in 61 SUNS games.

He polled 19 of a possible 24 votes in the Suns’ eight wins this year, including six best afield rankings against St.Kilda (Round 1), Melbourne (Round 7), Bulldogs (Round 8), North Melbourne (Round 11), Collingwood (Round 17) and GWS (Round 23).

He also picked up major votes in the Round 9 loss to Hawthorn, plus two votes against Geelong (Round 10) and Essendon (Round 12), and one vote against GWS (Round 5), Richmond (Round 16) and Carlton (Round 18).

Dixon received the three-vote best afield ranking in the Round 5 win over GWS, and Bennell likewise in the Round 20 win over Melbourne. Prestia was judged best afield in the Round 14 loss to Adelaide.

In an astonishing six-match streak from Round 7 to Round 12 in which he firmed to hot favoritism for the medal, Ablett polled 3-3-3-2-3-2 against Melbourne, Bulldogs, Hawthorn, Geelong, North Melbourne and Essendon.

His decisive three-vote haul in Round 23, in which he was judged best afield by the umpires from Prestia (two votes) and Thompson (one vote), correlated with the thinking of the SUNS match-committee, who in the club championship rated Ablett (20) their best player from Prestia (19), Thompson (18) and Michael Rischitelli (18).

But the 2013 Brownlow Medal vote-count wasn’t all about Ablett from a SUNS perspective.

The SUNS’ club total of 62 votes saw them finish 14^th in club totals ahead of Melbourne (16), GWS (17), St.Kilda (42) and West Coast (53), and just behind Western Bulldogs (63), Brisbane (64), Adelaide (65) and Port Adelaide (66).

This a repeat of their overall finish in 2012, when they polled 43 votes to beat GWS (22), Melbourne (27), Port Adelaide (40) and Western Bulldogs (40), and a jump of 63% on their 2011 tally of 38 votes, when they were equal 15^th of 17 teams, beating only Port Adelaide and finishing equal with Brisbane.

This year a total of 12 SUNS players received votes – up from eight in 2011 and 10 in 2012.

SUNS players polled a total of 33 times – up from 19 in 2011 and 21 in 2012.

Ablett headed the SUNS tally from 2013 club champion runner-up Dion Prestia (9) and 2012 club champion runner-up Harley Bennell (7).

Other SUNS to figure in the vote-count were Charlie Dixon (4), Jaeger O’Meara (4), Jarrod Harbrow (2), Zac Smith (2), Rory Thompson (2), Jared Brennan (1), Campbell Brown (1), Tom Nicholls (1) and David Swallow (1).

For Prestia, Dixon, O’Meara, Thompson and Nicholls it was the first time they had figured on a Brownlow Medal vote card. And it was the first time Brown, who had polled five votes in 159 games with Hawthorn, had done so as a SUNS player.

Ablett, who has now polled an astonishing 52% of SUNS Brownlow votes, leads the club’s all-time vote count with 75 from Bennell (13), Prestia (9), Brandon Matera (5), Brennan (4), Dixon (4), O’Meara (4), Smith (4), Swallow (4), Nathan Bock (3), Harbrow (3), Tom Lynch (3), Michael Rischitelli (2), Luke Russell (2), Thompson (2), Brown (1), Aaron Hall (1), Sam Iles (1), Steven May (1), Nicholls (1) and Matt Shaw (1).

He has polled votes against all 17 opposition clubs, and is the club’s leading vote-getter against no less than 14 of them, including ties.

Brennan heads the count against Brisbane, while Lynch does likewise against Carlton and Bennell against Melbourne.

Bennell also shares with Ablett the vote lead against Fremantle, as Dixon does against Sydney.

Brisbane’s Pearce Hanley polled in both games against the SUNS in 2013 to join clubmate Simon Black and Adelaide pair Patrick Dangerfield and Scott Thompson as the only players to poll three times against the Gold Coast.

Dangerfield and Thompson head the aggregate vote count against the SUNS with seven, followed by Black (6) and Sydney’s Ryan O’Keefe (6), Hawthorn’s Sam Mitchell (5), St.Kilda’s Nick Riewoldt (5), Sydney’s Jaryd McVeigh (5) and the Bulldogs’ Matthew Boyd (5).