Matt Rowell sent many footy fans into hysterics back in 2023 after he was caught eating grass at a stadium before a match.
It was, in fact, a pre-match ritual that he later revealed made him feel ‘at one with the ground’.
A few years on and Rowell is the talk of the AFL after an outstanding season, guiding Gold Coast into finals and also becoming the club’s second-ever player to win the coveted Brownlow Medal after an outstanding season with the Suns.
But it seems the 24-year-old still can’t shake questions over his ‘weird’ pre-game ritual, even amidst the celebrations of his epic Brownlow victory, that saw the footy star upset favourites, Nick Daicos and Bailey Smith, to win the award.
During his awards speech on Monday night, Rowell was quizzed on the bizarre ritual once again, while explaining that he was a footy nerd.
‘A bit of a weirdo,’ he explained, speaking on why he likes to carry a Sherrin around with him everywhere he goes.
Matt Rowell claimed a surprise victory on Monday night at the Crown Palladium as the Gold Coast Suns midfielder upset the favourites to claim his maiden Brownlow Medal
But the midfielder many footy fans into hysterics back in 2023 after he was caught eating grass at a stadium before a match
He doubled down on that claim a second later.
‘There is another reason why I am a weirdo,’ he told the audience inside the Crown Palladium on Monday night.
‘I started doing that [eating grass] a few years ago. You try a lot of weird things and that was kind of like a grounding process that I wanted to do before games. Feel, sight, taste, obviously.
‘Those are the kind of things that you do. I was playing in Darwin in a game a few years ago and they said, ‘we saw you eat the grass before the game but it goes through the sewerage, you might want to check that nothing is wrong with you after this’.
‘That was a bit of a strange one.’
Surging to 20 votes after 11 rounds, Rowell couldn’t be stopped as he denied Collingwood superstar Daicos, who for a third-straight year had been one of the major fancies.
Rowell finished with 39 votes, seven ahead of Daicos in second place on 32, and was declared the winner with two rounds left.
Enigmatic Geelong star Bailey Smith (29) and Adelaide captain Jordan Dawson (27) rounded out the top-four.
He revealed he was a ‘weirdo’ and admitted that he ate the grass as part of a pre-match ‘grounding process’
Rowell becomes Gold Coast’s second Brownlow winner, after Gary Ablett Jnr in 2013.
Rowell described the win as ‘surreal’.
‘A lot of boys could be standing up here so I feel very humbled,’ he said.
‘I came in tonight and was just happy to maybe be one of the contenders.
‘I didn’t think I would win, and it is amazing to be standing up here. I am pretty speechless.’
Pick one in the 2019 draft, Rowell dealt with serious injuries during his first two seasons, but hasn’t missed a game since round 13, 2021.
‘It might sound a little bit arrogant, but I knew I wanted to be an AFL player and I had a feeling that I was going to get there,’ he said.
The 24-year-old (centre), who admitted that he was ‘speechless’ on acceptance of his award, stunned other hopefuls Nick Daicos, Bailey Smith and Jordan Dawson, to finish top of the voting race with a whopping 39 votes
‘There was nothing really that I thought of doing, apart from playing AFL footy.’
His success caps a memorable year for the Suns, who played in their first finals series after 15 seasons and progressed to the semi-finals before losing to Brisbane.
The 24-year-old’s win followed another high-polling count after Carlton captain Patrick Cripps’s record win with 45 last year.
Daicos was also second last year, with the third most votes (38) in history, ahead of Richmond legend Dustin Martin’s 36 when he won the Brownlow in 2017.
In one of the most bizarre polling games in history, Melbourne’s Jack Viney was given three votes instead of Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera despite the St Kilda star’s extraordinary individual performance that steered the Saints to a stunning victory in round 20.
Wanganeen-Milera booted four goals, including the match-winner after the siren, had 34 disposals in a stunning performance compared to Viney’s 23 touches in a loss.
During the count, Geelong captain Patrick Dangerfield overtook former teammate Gary Ablett Jnr to claim the record for most three-vote games in Brownlow history, with 56.
Meanwhile, Fremantle young gun Murphy Reid was rewarded for a brilliant rookie season by becoming the fourth Dockers player to win the Rising Star award.
Despite not receiving a nomination in round one, Reid virtually had the award wrapped up early after a stunning debut game.
The 19-year-old kicked four goals in a quarter in the Dockers’ loss against Geelong.
Reid, who finished his first season with 25 goals, received 48 votes to win ahead of Adelaide’s Dan Curtin (35) and Brisbane’s Levi Ashcroft (26).
