ADAM Cooney, the brilliant Bulldog who this month sealed his engagement to fiance Haylea MacCann with a Burger Ring, incredibly topped that audacity last night claiming the 2008 Brownlow Medal in a thrilling count with 24 votes.
The 22-year-old, who prepared for the count with a lengthy Mad Monday commiseration with his Bulldog team-mates after being knocked out of the premiership race by Geelong on Friday night, claimed one back on the Cats in denying favourite Gary Ablett the medal for the second successive year.
In a comical finish to an engaging count, the stunned midfielder almost managed to miss his defining moment as a player when briefly locked out of the room as he surged to the front in rounds 19 and 20.
"I went to the toilet with three rounds to go and they locked me out," Cooney said. "I was talking to (Lion) Michael Rischitelli and we were both pretty flat that we were not back in."
Cooney said his first thoughts on realising he had overtaken 2002 Medallist Simon Black with a round of voting to go were: "I should not have gone to Mad Monday and started drinking at 10am in the morning (but) I have a water now and composed myself. It is all a bit surreal."
As surprised as Cooney was, it is his mother the Bulldog was apologising to. His mother, Christine, a nurse, was on her way to work in Adelaide when informed by Cooney and initially thought he was joking.
"She had to pull over and it is fair to say she was a little bit excited," he said.
The star, who described his engagement as "as me going into the kitchen and grabbing a Burger Ring", had not been able to contact his father, Paul, after forgetting his mobile number.
While Cooney's acceptance speech was littered with self-deprecation, he did pause to acknowledge three former West Adelaide junior team-mates who died when he was 16.
Jake Watson, the nephew of Essendon legend Tim, died in an onfield incident while two other mates, Ben Mitchell and Glenn Knott, were later killed in a car accident.
"That year was a tough year,' he said. "We miss them still and I think a couple of them would have played AFL."
Named All-Australian for the first time last week and the first time a No1 draft pick (2003) has won the Brownlow, the surprised Cooney triumphed by a vote from Black, the pair setting up the quinella with brilliant starts.
The elite Brisbane left-footer polled in eight of the first 11 rounds - including five best-afields - but realised his lead was not sufficient given the Lions dropped seven of their last 10 games.
"I thought if I was to get any votes it would be early on in the season," Black said.
"I was extremely fortunate ... but we started reasonable and in the last two months we really dropped away."
Ablett, who was denied by team-mate Jimmy Bartel when an overwhelming favourite last year, started slowly but charged with a brilliant month between rounds 10 and 14.
But his run stalled when he limped from the field against Fremantle in round 15, a problem that left him stranded and ensured the count remained wide open.
He eventually finished third on 22 votes with Tiger veteran Matthew Richardson, whose brilliant season was hailed by the umpires.
Also harming Ablett's chances was the vote-catching form of brilliant youngster Joel Selwood, last year's Rising Star winner.
Dual Brownlow winner Adam Goodes and Coleman Medallist Lance Franklin, both ineligible following disciplinary breaches during the season, threatened to spoil the night when looming late as contenders to top the count.
Bartel, the second favourite, was never in contention and tallied just 10 votes, while Kangaroo Brent Harvey rallied late to finish equal eighth on 17 votes with Docker Matthew Pavlich.
On Monday night, Australian Football player Adam Cooney won the Australian Football League's most prestigious award, the Brownlow Medal, awarded to the AFL's best and fairest. He received 24 votes, ahead of Simon Black with 23 votes and Gary Ablett and Matthew Richardson with 22 votes. Cooney took the lead after 20 rounds of votes had been cast (from twenty-two), and is the first Western Bulldogs player to win the medal since 1992.

Cooney was surprised to win the medal, after having been locked out of the vote count for two rounds (after having been to the toilet), and at one point, about to leave the vote count, believing he had little chance of winning the medal. However, he returned, and took the lead.

The Brownlow Medal is the start of AFL Grand Final week, which ends on Saturday, September 29, with the AFL Grand Final, with the Geelong Cats playing against the Hawthorn Hawks at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

It should also be noted that AFL CEO, Andrew Demetriou mistakenly started reading out the votes for Round 2 first, instead of the votes for Round 1.