Round 18 Leaderboard

The top-ten leaderboard remains identical from last week, with none of the ten polling in Round 18. The big mover was Zach Merrett ($67 Ladbrokes), who moves to 14 votes sitting just outside the top-ten. Merrett faces only one team inside the top 8 in the last five rounds, and with captain Dyson Heppell injured who knows what the Essendon midfielder is capable of. He polled 19 votes in 2016 when his team won 2 games, and backed it up with 15 votes in 2017. Merrett's run coincides with a freeze of the top-five Brownlow favourites - we breakdown their run home in the last five games.

The Run Home

Tim Kelly - $3.75 (BetEasy)

The Geelong star certainly is the barometer of the Cats, with his form correlating with Geelong's form slump since the bye. Kelly is down in disposals (nearly 5 per game), tackles and clearances over the last 5 weeks compared to his first 12 games, and we've only got him polling 3.5 votes from his last seven games. Perhaps the 'someone new' and 'good story' has him as the bookies favourites.

Run Home - Sydney (last time: 25 disposals, 1 goal), Fremantle, North (36 and 2), Port (17 and 1) and Carlton.

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Lachie Neale - $4.00 (BetEasy)

As long as the Lions keep winning, Neale remains well and truly in the hunt and potentially should be ahead of Kelly in the betting. There are some concerns though - the amount of attention he's received over the last fortnight from the opposition plus the recent form of his fellow midfielders Lyons and Zorko. We have Neale polling 6 votes from his last 8 games, but we have Jarryd Lyons polling 8.5 and Dayne Zorko polling 5.5 over the same timeframe. Just when we thought no one would take votes off him...

Run Home - Hawthorn (30), Bulldogs (30 and 1), Gold Coast (28 and 1), Geelong and Richmond.

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Patrick Dangerfield - $5.50 (BetEasy)

Dangerfield is coming home hard, and the 2016 Brownlow Medalist certainly knows how to poll. He's certainly not one of the Cats players that have returned from the bye off their game, and if he can manage to poll some votes when he's 50/50 in rounds 1, 6, 8, 9 and 14, well the $5.50 presents good value.

Run Home - Sydney (29 and 2), Fremantle, North (27 and 1), Port (27 and 1) and Carlton.

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Nat Fyfe - $6.00 (BetEasy)

The Dockers Champion and 2015 Brownlow Medalist has the second best games to Brownlow votes ratio in AFL history. The big question is, will he be right to play? There's the potential of him missing this week, but don't expect Fremantle to put him on ice for the remainder of the season. Fyfe has missed too much football in prior years for him to just rest, and with this purely being an elbow infection his fitness isn't a concern.

Run Home - Bulldogs (30 and 1), Geelong, St Kilda (23), Essendon (24), Port Adelaide (37).

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Patrick Cripps - $8.50 (BetEasy)

Credit to David Swallow who did a great job on the Carlton gun last week, but Cripps has missed a free hit there and a chance to firm as potentially the favourite for the award. The Blues run isn't easy on the way home, and with Cripps clearly hampered by an injury at the moment, it will take a huge effort for him to charge back up the leaderboard.

Run Home - Adelaide, West Coast, Richmond (32), St Kilda (28) and Geelong.

Check out our Downlow on the Brownlow Betting Package details, available at the conclusion of Round 23.