A conspiracy theory has emerged as to why Brisbane star Courtney Hodder was robbed of AFLW mark of the week in Round 7.
Hodder took arguably the greatest mark in the AFLW history when she showed tremendous courage with her grab against Gold Coast.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Hodder nominated for AFLW mark of the week.
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Running back with the flight of the ball with no fear for what was coming in the opposite direction, Hodder completed the mark before crashing into Suns defender Elizabeth Keaney.
It was reminiscent of iconic marks taken by AFL greats Nick Riewoldt and Jonathan Brown.
But to the dismay of everyone, Hodder received just 18 per cent of the fan vote with Adelaide’s Eloise Jones winning mark of the week after getting a whopping 73 per cent.
Brisbane coach Craig Starcevich was nevertheless bemused by the poll.
“That’s almost the highlight of AFLW over eight years and it’s not mark of the week?” Starcevich said last week.
“I know it’s a fan vote, but at some point we have to acknowledge something that was exceptional in our competition, because it drags your audience in as well.
“If you were lucky to be at the MCG 20 years ago to see ‘Browny’ take his, I had a similar reaction on Saturday.
“There’s been a couple of moments over eight years that I’ve jumped out of my seat in the coaches’ box, and most of them involved Courtney Hodder.
“The courage involved to take one of those is phenomenal.”
AAP journalist Oliver Caffrey labelled the decision “embarrassing”.
“Jones’ mark was barely worth a nomination, let alone winning in a landslide over an all-timer like Hodder’s. Embarrassing stuff,” he posted on social media.
One fan threw up an interesting the theory to the shock result, noting that it was the third time Adelaide’s Jones has won mark of the week.
“A Crows supporter has written some code to automate the process of clearing their browser cookies and voting multiple times. It’s rigged,” the fan posted on social media.
Crows players have also scooped five of the seven ‘goal of the week’ awards, adding weight to the conspiracy theory.
It’s worth noting that Hodder being overlooked for the weekly gong doesn’t mean she is out of the running for the ‘mark of the year’ prize.
The AFL has the provision to add three other contenders, along with the 10 weekly winners for the final vote.
Coincidentally, Brisbane and Adelaide played each other on the weekend and the Lions’ social media team couldn’t resist taking a shot after their narrow win.
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