Eddie McGuire calls for ‘panel of elders’ to get one of the most important jobs at the AFL’s biggest awards after controversy struck

Magpies tragic Eddie McGuire has called for changes to the Brownlow Medal after footy fans were left questioning the validity of the voting system this week.

Lions star Lachie Neale stormed home to beat Marcus Bontempelli and Nick Daicos to win the Brownlow for the second time in his career on Tuesday night.

But questions are being asked by players and fans as to whether Neale really deserved it this year, with some dubious voting raising many an eyebrow. 

Neale received three votes from the umpires in Brisbane’s round six win over GWS, which was one of his quietest games of the season.

McGuire, the former Collingwood president, has proposed that a panel of elders help decide the matter.

‘What I would like to see is a panel of elders. I think we’ve got enough really great former players who get lost to the game,’ McGuire explained on Nine’s Eddie and Jimmy podcast.

The event attracted widespread controversy after Lachie Neale’s surprise win on Monday

 ‘Now, you don’t have to go all the way back to say Bob Skilton, but why not? Bobby may be a bit old but … let’s get a few of the others that we haven’t seen in a while. People who have gone off and done other businesses and things.

‘Get them there, have five or six of them, invite them to the grand final, sit them down, furnish them with the information they need so they’re not just sitting there as someone goes past them with drinks, and do it properly so you get it right.’

McGuire also would like to less members of the media involved in the voting process.

‘We’re now getting people voting on the Anzac Day Medal who are people in the media that I’ve never heard of. We have to make sure that we’ve got a woman and we’ve got this and that,’ he said.

‘We’ve got women footballers now, okay, we can get them and we can put together a really good panel to select the Anzac Day Medal.

‘I think we’re just narrowing in too much, and I wouldn’t have the media necessarily in any of these and I’m a media person.

‘I see the media these days where (the organisations) are all managed by player managers. They’re all pushing up their own bloke all the time.

‘So, you’ve got all these guys, and I’m not saying they’re jaundiced in their view, but I do hear a lot of people getting talked up in these situations.’

The former Magpies president believes a panel of elders could help determine the awards

The howlers by umpires this year has led to fans, analysts and former players to call for umpires to be allowed to look at stats before voting – or stripped of the right to vote at all.

Former Brownlow medallist Dane Swan led the charge calling for change.

‘The AFL need to record the umpires in the rooms after a game talking about who they are voting for,’ he tweeted.

‘Cause I’d love to know how the f*** they made some of the decisions they made this year.

And you’d get full transparency so we know there was no funny business going on.’