I think I remember reading a story about that. Two of the umpires wanted to give him three votes but one of the umpires refused to give him votes becaused he had abused him during the game. It was only a year or so ago that one of the former umpires spilt the beans about it.
A similar thing happened to Paul Couch in 1989.
In round 22, Geelong belted Richmond and Couch amassed a mere 45 disposals (as well as kicking 3 goals). Come Brownlow night - 0 votes. There wasn't much of a stink about it as won the medal anyway. But only the umpires know why he didn't get any votes that day.