September 22, 2008 - 11:05PM

Adam Cooney polled crucial votes in round 20 and 21 to win a tightly contested Brownlow Medal.
Photo: Getty Images
Western Bulldogs gun Adam Cooney won the 2008 Brownlow Medal in a gripping finale on Monday evening, pipping fellow contenders Simon Black, Gary Ablett and Matthew Richardson.

The soon to be 23-year-old finished with 24 votes, one in front of bolter Black and two ahead of champion midfielder Ablett and sentimental favourite Richardson.

After polling 19 votes just past the halfway mark, Cooney did not receive a vote until round 20 and 21 where he snapped up two and three respectively, enough to write his name into the AFL history books.

The round 21 effort proved the clincher from Cooney, as all four players failed to post any votes in the tense final round.

The 112-gamer became the first number one draft pick to win the Brownlow Medal courtesy of six best on grounds and two-votes on three occasions.

Cooney won All Australian honours for the first time in 2008 and is the first Bulldogs players to win the prestigious award since Scott Wynd in 1992.

It was most definitely a red-letter season for Cooney, who played in all 22 AFL games averaging 12.9 kicks, 3.8 marks, 13.5 handballs and kicking 21 goals.

Cooney has been hampered by injuries in recent seasons and told Channel 10, he finally had a chance to really prepare for 2008.

"It was probably my first preseason since my first year I got to the club which has made a massive difference," he said.

"The work rate that the guys did, we started October 15, so we'd nearly been going 12 months which is a long time.

"It's very physically and mentally draining but we showed that we had a good preseason and it showed."

The young star admitted he was a long way from his current condition when he first arrived at the club.

"I wasn't in the best shape when I came over, I think my skin folds may nearly have toped the 100, which is reasonably large for a young lad," the shocked yet relaxed Cooney said.

"So I had a bit of work to do, my fitness wasn't up to standard I wasn't strong enough."

The count kicked-off in comical fashion when the usually unflappable Andrew Demetriou began reading the votes from round two.

The AFL chief executive fumbled through a host of official ballots before finally producing the results for the opening fixtures.

It was from then Black, who led the count until the penultimate round, looked to be in line to cause an even bigger upset after attracting an outstanding 20 votes 12 rounds in.

The 2002 winner then picked up three more in round 16 but failed to trouble the scorers for the rest of the season, despite being tipped to pick up mentions in the final two games.

Surprisingly, favourite Ablett was the only contender from Geelong and was a clear shot at taking the medal after polling 13 votes in six mid-season rounds before a three-game lay-off due to injury stalled his bid.

2007 Rookie of the Year Joel Selwood, who polled 19, finished strongly and appeared to take valuable votes away from Ablett, while last year's winner Jimmy Bartel was well down the leaderboard with only 10 votes.

Also finishing lower than expected was North Melbourne veteran Brent Harvey with 17 votes and Cats ball magnet Joel Corey with 15.

The crowd support was obviously behind Tigers linchpin Richardson, who finished level with Ablett on 22, when the 33-year-old shot into contention thanks to best on ground displays in rounds 17 and 20.

Adam Goodes and Lance Franklin, both ineligible due to suspensions, finished with 21 and 20 votes respectively.

The ceremony also featured an emotional tribute to retiring St Kilda great Robert Harvey, who finished with three votes, earning a mention on Brownlow night for the 20th time in his stellar career.

Anyone know what odds he was on before the count?

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I think he was at $15