In most years 22 or fewer votes is enough to win the Brownlow. Some unlucky players have polled 23 or more votes in a year but not won the medal. Here is the list of them. I have included only those years where the single 3-2-1 voting sytem was in place i.e. post 1930 and excluding 1976 and 1977.

Year	Player	Team	Votes	Won Another Year	Winner & Votes
2008	Simon Black	Brisbane Lions	23	Yes, 2002	24, Adam Cooney
2006	Scott West	Western Bulldogs	23	No	26, Adam Goodes
2004	Mark Ricciuto	Adelaide Crows	23	Yes, 2003	30, Chris Judd
1998	Nathan Buckley	Collingwood Magpies	24	Yes, 2003	32, Robert Harvey
1998	Scott West	Western Bulldogs	23	No	32, Robert Harvey
1994	Peter Matera	West Coast Eagles	28	No	30, Greg Williams
1983	Maurice Rioli	Richmond Tigers	23	No	24, Ross Glendinning
1974	Gary Hardeman	Melbourne Demons	23	No	27, Keith Greig
1973	Graham Moss	Essendon Bombers	25	Yes, 1976	27, Keith Greig
1973	Leigh Matthews	Hawthorn Hawks	23	No	27, Keith Greig
1937	Herbie Matthews	South Melbourne Bloods	23	Yes, 1940	32, Dick Reynolds
1931	Allan Hopkins	Western Bulldogs	25	Yes, 1930	26, Hadyn Bunton

done, and picked up one mistaken entry!

Done :)

Conventional wisdom was that it was difficult to win a Brownlow in a winning team. The last decade has not borne this out. Brisbane, West Coast and Geelong have produced winners in their power years. I guess it depends how even the team is. If the team picks up all votes each week then this may give great players in these teams a chance to come out on top.