NAT FYFE'S back injury has sparked a change at the top of the Brownlow Medal market, with Gold Coast champion Gary Ablett leapfrogging the Fremantle star into outright favouritism for the 2016 award.
Since news broke on Sunday that Fyfe had suffered a bulging disc, the reigning Brownlow medallist has drifted from $6 to $7 with the League's official gambling partner Crownbet.
Ablett has switched places with Fyfe after being wound in from $7 to $6 to win the game's highest individual honour for a third time.
Fyfe has drifted in Brownlow betting despite Fremantle hosing down fears about the extent of the 24-year-old's injury, amid a report he could miss up to two months.
The Dockers expect their star onballer to resume running when the team returns to training on January 4.
Before his latest setback during Freo's final pre-Christmas training session, Fyfe had been on a modified program as he recovered from surgery to fix the fractured fibula he suffered in the preliminary final loss to Hawthorn.
Meanwhile, Ablett has shown signs of encouraging progress from the shoulder and knee problems that derailed his 2015 campaign by tackling strongly at training earlier this month.
The 31-year-old superstar, who could become just the fifth player to become a triple Brownlow medallist if he stays fit, only managed six games last season.
But Ablett appears on track to appear in Gold Coast's opening game of the season against Essendon at Metricon Stadium in 88 days' time.
Ablett and Fyfe lead a host of big-name midfielders among the top chances for next season's Brownlow Medal.
Geelong's gun recruit Patrick Dangerfield is on the third line of Brownlow betting at $9, ahead of West Coast's 2014 winner Matt Priddis and Hawthorn's perennial vote-getter Sam Mitchell at $10.
Sydney Swans pair Dan Hannebery ($15) and Josh Kennedy ($17) feature ahead of a quarter of club captains – Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury (($21), Cats skipper Joel Selwood ($21), Lions ball magnet Tom Rockliff ($26) and Richmond's Trent Cotchin ($26) – on the next line of betting.
Sydney Swans forward Lance Franklin is rated as the best chance to end the midfielders' monopoly on the medal at $41 as the equal 19th fourite overall.
North Melbourne's All-Australian ruckman Todd Goldstein and West Coast star Nic Naitanui (both $67) are the only other big men in the top 40 chances, according to Crownbet.
