AFL.com.au's Sarah Olle was one of five voters for the 2023 Norm Smith Medal.
The award was handed to Collingwood’s Bobby Hill for his performance in the four-point win over Brisbane, with the small forward wowing with four goals, 18 disposals, eight marks and nine score involvements.
That performance caused the five voters to all award Hill three votes with the Magpie receiving the maximum 15 votes once they were tallied up.
Olle gave two votes to Brisbane’s Keidean Coleman and one vote to Collingwood’s Jack Crisp and she said she was humbled to be included on the five-person panel.
“I gave three to Bobby Hill, as did everyone, that was unanimous,” Olle said on SEN Crunch Time.
“I gave two to Keidean Coleman and one to Jack Crisp.
“It was enormously humbling to be asked to do it especially when you look at some of the names that I was doing alongside.
“It was a huge responsibility, a huge privilege. It was something that was asked of me I think around 10 or so days before the grand final.
“You're not allowed to tell anyone, they ask you to keep it really hush and then, of course, you've got to sign an NDA.”
Olle says her votes were finalised once the final siren rang out so that the AFL could quickly collate the votes and pass the message down to presenter Chris Judd.
“It was literally on the final siren,” Olle said.
“So as the siren went, I had a sheet of paper with 3-2-1 and I'm writing the 3-2-1 as Patrick Keane is standing beside me to take my paper and to go and collect all the votes.”
Olle also put to bed rumours that the AFL has guidelines for Norm Smith Medal voting and suggestions voters can’t look at statistics.
“It's just whatever you feel,” Olle said.
“There was some reporting yesterday that you're not allowed to look at your phone. That's completely untrue. You can look at stats as much as you want.”
In her first experience voting for the coveted medal, Olle received some advice from AFL.com.au colleague Cal Twomey who suggested she note down her 3-2-1 for every quarter to keep track of who performs across the entirety of the day.
“I was taking notes,” Olle said.
“But Cal Twomey one of my colleagues from AFL.com.au gave me some sage advice.
“He said at the end of every quarter, just do your 3-2-1, not necessarily to add it up, but just to keep track of who’s caught your attention through every term because if it's close, and it was, it might get a little bit tricky for you.
“That's advice that I took on and it was actually very great advice.”
While Hill was a unanimous best on ground, Olle admitted there were several players who came close to receiving nods for the other votes with Tom Mitchell and Scott Pendlebury unlucky to miss out.
“Straight away Bobby Hill was one of the players I was gravitating towards early on,” Olle said.
“I had Zac Bailey up there after that first quarter and at half time, I thought, well Keidean Coleman has really set up the Lions here.
“In hindsight, would I have changed things? Maybe I would have done one vote for Kiddy Coleman and two for another.
“Tom Mitchell had an incredible game and I didn't give him any votes. He ended up with three from the panel.
“The other one was Scott Pendlebury, who ended up with one vote. I thought he was sensational in that final term.
“But at the end of the day, everyone gave Bobby Hill three votes.
“So the twos and the ones, it's a nice accolade to have five or four or three votes against your name for a Norm Smith.
“But they're kind of inconsequential, aren't they?”
See all the votes for the 2023 Norm Smith Medal below.
Judges voting (3, 2, 1):
— AFL House (@AFL_House) September 30, 2023
Luke Darcy (Chair) – B. Hill, N. Daicos, S. Pendlebury
Eddie Betts – B. Hill, T. Mitchell, K. Coleman
Jude Bolton – B. Hill, K. Coleman, T. Mitchell
Sarah Olle – B.Hill, K.Coleman, J.Crisp
Luke Shuey – B.Hill, N.Daicos, J.Crisp