Essendon captain once again proved two things at last night's Brownlow Medal - he is a player of the highest quality and the umpires notice.
The 1996 Brownlow Medallist polled 16 votes at last night's count to finish in equal seventh spot.
It was an outstanding performance from a player who has missed much of the past two seasons through injury and four of the last seven games in season 2000.
Hird polled three best-on-grounds against Hawthorn (round 4), Collingwood (round 7) and Melbourne (round 9).
Hird also polled three two votes and one single vote to bring his tally to 16 for the season.
As exepcted, Essendon players easily polled the most votes for the evening - an amazing 116 out of a possible 132.
Carlton was the nearest rival to the Bombers racking up 95 votes for the season between them.
No less than 18 Essendon players polled votes during the season. Those players were James Hird (16), Matthew Lloyd (14), Dustin Fletcher (11), Joe Misiti (11), Blake Caracella (10), Jason Johnson (8), Mark Johnson (8), Justin Blumfield (8), Scott Lucas (7), Adam Ramanauskas (4), Sean Wellman (4), Mark Mercuri (3), Stephen Alessio (3), Dean Wallis (2), Michael Long (2), Dean Solomon (2), John Barnes (2), Gary Moorcroft (1).
