During last night’s Brownlow medal awards the AFL store prematurely congratulated the wrong player on winning the prestigious media, and put a signed guernsey up for sale, before the actual winner was announced.
Hawthorn player Sam Mitchell’s guernsey was advertised on the AFL store as “Sam Mitchell 2015 Brownlow medalist signed guernsey” priced at AUD$1,364.
Mitchell didn’t win the Brownlow however, Fremantle Dockers player Nat Fyfe took home the award:
https://youtu.be/lF0c0fiJxkE
The guernsey was quickly taken down, ‘human error’ was blamed for the mistake but the damage was already done:
AFL admits ‘epic fail’ & ‘human error’ for Sam Mitchell #Brownlow ad in shop. Now preparing a ‘pure coincidence’ defence if the Hawk wins…
— Quentin Hull (@QuentinHull) September 28, 2015
Epic fail on website. AFL had six Brownlow memorabilia options ready to go 4 when winner named. Human error went live with no result known. — Patrick Keane (@AFL_PKeane) September 28, 2015
Anyone interested in some cheap Sam Mitchell memorabilia? #Brownlow
— Dominic Ciconte (@DomCiconte) September 28, 2015
There’s an AFL online staff member who’s job is riding on Sam Mitchell not winning. #Brownlow — Titus O’Reily (@TitusOReily) September 28, 2015
Dear @AFL – please prove social media wrong and retain the integrity of the #Brownlow by not naming Sam Mitchell as the winner #sayitisntso
— Tania Jayesuria (@TanJay81) September 28, 2015
Sam Mitchell AFL Shop Brownlow piece has been up online since early this afternoon. Interesting to see how it plays out — Mitch Cleary (@cleary_mitch) September 28, 2015
Afl shop just gone the early crow http://t.co/wolZ1FusGD
— Ben (@brey9186) September 28, 2015
Mitchell placed third in the Brownlow count, last year’s Brownlow medallist West Coast Eagles Matt Priddis finished runner-up. West Coast also polled the most Brownlow points of any club last night.
