Tom Mitchell is just about the only person not expecting him to win the Brownlow medal.
The Hawthorn midfielder enters Monday's count of the prestigious AFL award as the raging favourite.
Bookmakers rate Mitchell a near-certainty to win, rating him about a $1.50 chance - the next-best is Richmond megastar Dustin Martin, listed about $8.00.
But Mitchell is reticent about his chances.
"Heading into the Brownlow, I'm not really sure," he said.
"I don't really have any expectations."
Almost everyone else expects Mitchell to hold off Richmond's Martin, who is in the frame to claim consecutive Brownlows, awarded to the league's fairest and best player throughout the home-and-away season.
Martin took last year's medal with a record 36 votes.
Geelong ace Patrick Dangerfield won the previous year with 35 votes and Fremantle skipper Nat Fyfe (31 votes) claimed the 2016 medal - named after Geelong's Charles Brownlow, an esteemed VFL administrator in the early 1900s.
But this year's count is forecast to be a tighter contest with the winner likely to poll in the mid to high 20s - which means Martin again looms large.
The tattooed Tigers champion admits his form this season hasn't quite hit the heights of last year, when he became the first footballer to win the Brownlow and the Norm Smith medal, for best-afield in a grand final, in the same year.
But Martin's output has still been eye-catching: he led the competition for inside 50s and averaged about 25 disposals a game.
Various form guides have Martin polling maximum votes at least four times and being in the votes in numerous other matches.
But Hawks midfielder Mitchell carries outright favouritism after topping the competition for disposals in a stunning season: he averaged 36 touches a game and was fifth for tackles laid.
While some questioned the impact of Mitchell's disposals, he averaged more than six inside 50s a game with a disposal efficiency of 72 per cent.
On-ballers - such as Mitchell, Martin and fellow fancies Patrick Cripps (Carlton) and Clayton Oliver (Melbourne) - have dominated what has become a 'midfielders medal'.
Defenders just don't win it.
Not since Tony Lockett's medal in 1987, when he was a joint winner with another midfielder John Platten, has a forward won.
Scott Wynd in 1992 was the last specialist ruckman to claim the honour.
But if that trend is to change, many reckon this could be the year with Melbourne's Max Gawn and Collingwood's Brodie Grundy expected to poll well.
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