“What was said to me was ‘you’ve won, so just have a think about what you’re going to say.’ “

Templeton said he had been informed he had won as he walked into the room on the night of the count.

“In those days, the votes weren’t sequentially. They juggled them and they set that up to try and create a bit of drama at the end.

“I can’t remember who it was (who told him).

“Right near the end, I was quite a few votes behind, almost to the point where someone was saying ‘well, bad luck’… and then I think I scored three votes, out of the last half a dozen votes counted, I scored three votes best-on-ground in about three of them which, when you think about, it is quite ridiculous.

“They all set it up so it was all going to come together at the last half-dozen lots of votes read out.”

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Geoff Poulter, a veteran football journalist from that period, confirmed that the votes were not read out round by round, remembering that the one votes were read out first, then the twos and finally the three votes – and that Jack Hamilton, the league’s senior administrator, wanted a “grandstand finish”.

“I don’t know whether that was a thing that happened all the (Brownlows),” said Templeton, whose story appeared to be a one-off to football people at the hall of fame function.

“Obviously a few people knew, but I didn’t get the impression that any other people were getting that sort of tip off. The tip off was meant for me only.”

There was no legal betting on the Brownlow Medal in 1980, but there was significant betting illegally. Poulter said the league had made a show of the fact that the votes were delivered by security firm Armaguard in response to the leaking allegations.

In time, the Brownlow count would be round by round, which created less potential for a surprise end, as with Templeton and other medal counts of that period. “They made a big thing about it.”

The AFL said it “had no knowledge” of Templeton’s claim, which was 44 years ago, but a spokesman said the league’s processes for the Brownlow over the past few decades had been “significantly different” to Templeton’s day.

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