It's not a surprise. Cripps and Daicos had clearly the best overall seasons. He'll be a worthy winner.
It's how it's happening. Same as Neale last year, getting votes for nondescript games or games when there were 3-5 better players than them, coupled with other contenders getting no votes for pretty good performances. It's just more evidence that the umpires either don't or can't actually assess the game properly and on at least a few occasions a year just throw votes to an inside mid who got a lot of in and under disposals under their nose. Which is probably fair enough tbh given they're trying to do their actual job.
