Sport / Brisbane, QLD

Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith

The Sydney Morning Herald Michael Gleeson

26 Sept 2026 17:33 AEST Summary

Sport AFL

Changed after publishing · 1 edit

26 Sept 2026 20:04 AEST the headline was changed: Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton ~~wins 2026~~ took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith~~Medal~~

Outlets edit stories after they go out, usually without saying so. We keep what we saw the first time.

From the report

Shai Bolton has won the Norm Smith Medal, taking the individual honour despite his Dockers losing a thrilling grand final to the Brisbane Lions by seven points.

This is a summary. The indicators are not. The scores were measured over this summary alone, which is less of the article than we would like and makes them less certain.

Indicators

Niral Score 5.6 mundaneloaded

Highlighted in the text. Words that carry a fact and quoted words are not counted.

No word appears twice.

Sentiment +0.9 hostilefavourable Sourcing 63 unattributednamed sources Mood 69.8 sorrowjoyful

5 read zero: political diction, generational, gender, jingoistic, religious

Political diction 0 left-codedright-coded Generational 0 harder on the oldharder on the young Gender 0 no gendered framingframing throughout Jingoistic 0 reports to a readerwrites from a camp Religious 0 not invokedovert

Measurements of how this article is written, not of whether it is correct. How each one is measured.

Measured on The Sydney Morning Herald’s report as filed, which is all we may publish of this one.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. ~~Struck through~~: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

The Sydney Morning Herald Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith plain
The West Australian Surprise Docker wins Norm Smith in losing team plain
The West Australian AFL grand final: Fremantle Dockers star Shai Bolton wins Norm Smith Medal in losing side plain
ABC News (Sport) Surprised Docker wins Norm Smith Medal in losing grand final team plain

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by WAtoday, Brisbane Times, The Age, The West Australian. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet	Niral Score	Adjectives	Sourcing	Sentiment	Happiness
The Sydney Morning Heraldas they published this story	5.6	1	63	0.9	69.8
ABC News (Sport)	20.3	5	21	1.0	48.5

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The same event elsewhere

6 other outlets filed this story. The scoreboard above is what they did differently.

WAtoday Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith Niral 5.6 political 0 Brisbane Times Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith Niral 5.6 political 0 The Age Honoured, but surprised: Why Shai Bolton took off his medal right after winning the Norm Smith Niral 5.6 political 0 The West Australian Surprise Docker wins Norm Smith in losing team Niral 4.4 political 0 The West Australian AFL grand final: Fremantle Dockers star Shai Bolton wins Norm Smith Medal in losing side Niral 4.3 political 0 ABC News (Sport) Surprised Docker wins Norm Smith Medal in losing grand final team Niral 20.3 political 0