There have been six players who have won back-to-back Brownlow Medals in the history of the game’s most prestigious individual award – Fitzroy’s Haydn Bunton (1931-32), Essendon’s Dick Reynolds (1937-38) and Bill Hutchison (1952-53), St Kilda’s Ian Stewart (1965-66), North Melbourne’s Keith Greig (1973-74) and Robert Harvey (1997-98).

Don’t discount Richmond superstar Dustin Martin joining that select group in just over a month’s time.

Martin racked up a record 36 votes in winning the Brownlow last year, and while his 2018 season hasn’t been as dominant, it’s still been very good.

He’s averaging 25.1 disposals, 5.8 inside-50s and 5.2 clearances per game, has kicked a total of 29 goals, and is ranked first in the competition for inside-50s, first for score involvements and second for centre clearances.

There’s every chance Martin would have polled three Brownlow votes for his strong showing against Essendon at the MCG last Friday night – 26 disposals, 10 marks and four goals.

I reckon he’s in the low 20s for votes with one round to go – and that would put him right in the frame for back-to-back Brownlows.

Given the fact Richmond has won 17 games, there’s going to be plenty of votes awarded to Tiger players. And, the fact is, Dusty is a proven vote-winner.

In the two years preceding his 2017 Brownlow success, he polled 21 votes (2015) and 25 votes (2016).

Leading into this season, Martin had polled a total of 134 Brownlow Medal votes in 177 games.

I think it’s reasonable to assume that he has again attracted the attention of the umpires in a big way throughout 2018.