Brownlow night belonged to West Coast’s Matt Priddis, but that didn’t stop Gary Ablett from leaving his mark on footy’s night of nights.

The two-time “Chas” winner surged to the top of the leader board, turning in five best on-field performances in the opening nine rounds.

While he didn’t walk away with the award for the player adjudged best & fairest across the season, Ablett etched his name further into footy folklore with a couple of record-setting efforts.

His 13th vote, which was racked up by round seven, saw him move past the magical 200 career vote barrier, becoming just the fifth player to reach that milestone.

He polled 22 votes in his 15 matches played, but his 14th vote marked the most ever by a player at that point of the count, a flow only halted by the round eight bye.

Ablett’s fifth three-vote performance in round nine also marked his 46th best-on-ground effort in his thirteen years in the AFL, edging him past Robert Harvey for the record.

And after a season-ending shoulder injury end his season seven games early, he stood on 209 career votes. It leaves him trailing just Gary Dempsey (246 but 218.5 adjusted to one umpire) and Harvey (215) in the all-time rankings. He went past Chris Judd (203) and Leigh Matthews (202) last night.

For the second year in a row Ablett, Dion Prestia (13) and Harley Bennell (6) finished as the GC SUNS’ leading vote-getters.