Which Magpies are attending tonight’s count?
Scott Pendlebury (captain), Dane Swan (past winner), Travis Cloke, Jack Crisp, Steele Sidebottom, Marley Williams

Which Magpies are ineligible due to penalties handed down by the Match Review Panel?
Taylor Adams, Nathan Brown.

Which guaranteed three-vote games have we got this year?
Round 3 – Collingwood v St Kilda
Player: Dane Swan
Stats: 39 disposals, 5 tackles, 15 inside 50s, 7 clearances
Note: This was the game that screamed ‘Swanny is BACK’. After a self-described ‘putrid’ 2014, the 2011 Brownlow Medallist let the world know he was not a spent force with a flawless display in wet conditions.

Round 4 – Essendon v Collingwood
Player: Paul Seedsman
Stats: 31 disposals, 14 inside 50s, 4 tackles, 1 goal
Note: In every year since 2006, the ANZAC Day Medallist has polled three Brownlow Medal votes. Should Seedsman some how miss out, he will become the first player since Andrew Lovett (two votes) fell in behind James Hird (three votes) in 2005.

Round 8 – Gold Coast v Collingwood
Player: Scott Pendlebury
Stats: 35 disposals, 7 marks, 8 inside 50s, 3 goals
Note: It was Pendlebury’s 200th game. If the umpires didn’t notice his pre-game banner and his chairing off the ground post-game, they will have seen his 35 disposals and three classy goals.

Round 14 – Collingwood v Hawthorn
Player: Scott Pendlebury
Stats: 37 disposals, 6 marks, 10 tackles, 10 clearances, 6 inside 50s, 3 rebound 50s
Note: Nathan Buckley described the game as the best of Pendles’ career. Against a team that might win its third premiership in a row this weekend. Give the man his three votes and move on!

Round 19 – Collingwood v Carlton
Player: Dane Swan
Stats: 41 disposals, 3 goals, 10 marks, 6 clearances, 4 inside 50s
Note: The only possible way he could slip from three votes to two votes is if the umpires mark his kick into the man on the mark in the opening quarter a little too harshly.

Round 20 – Sydney v Collingwood
Player: Dane Swan
Stats: 39 disposals, 6 marks, 5 tackles, 6 clearances, 1 goal
Note: Only the fact that we lost can stop him. It didn’t prevent him from being anointed best afield by Seven’s commentary team, so why should the umpires see things any differently?

How many Brownlow Medals has Collingwood won?
The club boasts nine Brownlow Medallists, the equal fourth most of any club in the competition.

1927 – Syd Coventry (7 votes)
1929 – Albert Collier (6 votes)
1930 – Harry Collier (4 votes)
1939 – Marcus Whelan (23 votes)
1940 – Des Fothergill (32 votes – tied)
1972 – Len Thompson (25 votes)
1979 – Peter Moore (22 votes)
2003 – Nathan Buckley (22 votes – tied)
2011 – Dane Swan (34 votes)

Plenty of games, but zero votes
Does reliability earn you Brownlow votes? Alan Toovey would tell you it doesn’t. In 118 eligible games, the defender has not polled a vote. Just sixteen players in the competition’s history have played more games without polling a vote. One of those is Glenn Freeborn, who played 138 matches for North Melbourne and Collingwood between 1995 and 2003. But fifteen of those games were finals, one of which saw him kick three goals to help seal the flag for the Roos against Sydney in the 1996 Grand Final.

Swan on the verge of history
Just ten votes will be enough to see Dane Swan nudge into outright tenth place on the all-time leaderboard of Brownlow Medal vote getters. Swan, who has 168 votes from 216 eligible games, is currently in fourteenth place. His coach, Nathan Buckley, is equal tenth with Hawthorn’s Sam Mitchell on 178. Champion ruckman Gary Dempsey leads the competition with 246 votes.