Firstly, West has been so close to winning the game's highest individual honour on several occasions without success.
And in stark contrast the three major challengers to his hopes of finally winning the Brownlow this year have all won it before in Sydney's Adam Goodes and West Coast pair Chris Judd and Ben Cousins.
Secondly, West is the only player from a Victorian club in genuine contention to win the Brownlow this year and at a time when footy-mad Victorians are facing the prospect of a third successive grand final at the MCG without local representation, a West win would at least give Melburnians something to smile about at the end of what has been collectively the worst ever season for the Victorian AFL clubs.
West, who has won a club record seven best and fairests, has managed a total of 141 Brownlow votes in his career without ever winning, but he has been desperately close on occasions.
In 2000 he was beaten on the last vote of the night in finishing runner-up to Melbourne's Shane Woewodin while in 1998 he finished third to St Kilda's Robert Harvey.
Then in 2004 he polled 20 votes but still finished in fourth place and ten votes adrift of winner Judd and last year he was again in fourth place with 17 votes - three behind Cousins.
But statistically West has enjoyed his greatest ever season in 2006 and will be helped by the fact the Bulldogs won far more games this year as they reached the finals for the first time since 2000, when he was runner-up to Woewodin.
That year West, the game's most prolific ball-winner, gathered 631 possessions while this year he helped himself to a career-high 643 touches.
And despite the Bulldogs' much-improved season, he has few teammates likely to take votes from him with the exception of fellow veteran Brad Johnson - who also enjoyed a career-best season in being named All-Australian captain and finishing second in the race for the Coleman Medal.
West is second-favourite for this year's medal but the man he has to beat is Sydney's athletic big man Goodes.
Goodes, who shared the medal in 2003 with Collingwood skipper Nathan Buckley and Adelaide skipper Mark Ricciuto, has enjoyed an even better season in 2006 than he did three years ago.
Revelling in his new role as a midfielder, after winning the medal as a ruckmen three years ago, Goodes has wracked up 459 possessions and 23 goals this season - compared to just 396 disposals and 20 goals in 2003.
If Goodes is within striking range of the leaders after round 18 then expect him to finish over the top of the other contenders given he could easily be awarded the three votes in each of his last four matches - when he amassed a total of 107 touches and seven goals in the last month of the season alone.
Sydney co-captain Brett Kirk is in no doubt that Goodes is the man to beat on Monday night.
"He is a huge chance to win it," Kirk said.
And Swans' coach Paul Roos said Goodes could pick up as many seven best on grounds, which would give him 21 votes alone - which would have been enough to win the medal last year.
"If you ask me whether he (Goodes) has had seven blinders I would say yeah, he has," Roos said.
Goodes will also be helped by the Swans again finishing in the top-four, meaning the club has more chance of attracting the all-important three votes by winning games, and like West would appear to have few players to take votes from him.
It is this factor that could prevent the Swans' grand final opponent this Saturday - West Coast - from supplying the Brownlow Medalist for the third year in a row.
Skipper Judd took out the medal in 2004 while former skipper Ben Cousins won last year when the Eagles supplied the quinella with Daniel Kerr finishing second.
Statistically both players have had years every bit as good in 2006 as when they won their respective Brownlows.
In 2004 Judd had 482 disposals for the season kicked 22 goals, while this year his respective numbers are 478 and 25.
Cousins, who also finished equal second in 2003, managed 465 disposals and 15 goals this year, compared to 534 and 22 respectively in last year's home and away season.
But the pair will take votes away from each other all night, as will Kerr - who is also expected to poll well despite being ineligible to win the award this year because of suspension.
The only other serious contender is Adelaide's Simon Goodwin, who was named in the All-Australian team this year for the fourth time.
But Goodwin has never polled well in the Brownlow, with his previous best performance being just 10 votes in 2001.
It would be a major shock if a player other than West, Goodes, Cousins, Judd or Goodwin was crowned the best player of 2006 on Monday night with the next best chance probably being St Kilda's Nick Riewoldt, who took the most marks for the season with 255 as well as kicking 58 goals.
