Brownlow medallist Jobe Watson at last year's ceremony. The night could be on the move to Sydney. Source: Herald Sun
SYDNEY has the premiership trophy and now they're set to snare the AFL's showpiece red carpet event, the Brownlow Medal.
News Limited can reveal AFL boss Andrew Demetriou was in Sydney last week scouting for locations to host the glamorous award night.
Demetriou visited the recently re-developed Star City Casino but believes the new Barangaroo development would be the ideal Brownlow venue in Sydney.
"Given the size of the Brownlow now if it wasn't at Crown Casino probably the next best place would be Barangaroo," Demetriou said.
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"It would be a wonderful venue.
"We are a national code, we've taken the draft out of Melbourne successfully and the season launch was successful in Sydney last year. In a national competition anything is possible."
The AFL signed a six year deal with the James Packer-owned Crown Casino to host the Brownlow count which expires in 2016 and Demetriou appears keen for the league to continue their relationship with the Sydney billionaire when he opens his Barangaroo casino development in 2018.
The AFL's proposal to bring the Brownlow medal count to Sydney would also throw down the gauntlet to the NRL and its night of nights, the Dally M Medal.
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Having the two major awards nights for the country's two biggest codes in the same city at around the same time would take the code rivalry to another level.
The Brownlow medal count has been held in Sydney once before when Hawthorn champion Shane Crawford won in 1999 but the event was widely panned by critics. Demetriou is confident the AFL would do a far better job this time around.
"We've taken it to Sydney once before and I know we could do it better next time we did it," Demetriou said.
The AFL took a serious look at holding the Brownlow count in Sydney last year in an effort to coincide with the arrival of their 18th team, GWS, before striking a deal with Crown.
Demetriou was engaged in secret talks with the NSW government who offered big money to lure the event away from it's traditional home in Victoria.
The AFL has successfully turned what was a traditional football function for diehard supporters into a red carpet affair where wives and girlfriends have an equal billing alongside their star athletes.
Pitching the event to women has been a TV winner as well with the Brownlow medal count regularly outrating the nation's leading show biz event The Logies in the southern states.
The event has come a long way since it started in 1924 when the votes were simply counted at a VFL meeting.
The first television coverage started in 1970 and was won that year by one of the Swans South Melbourne greats Peter Bedford.
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