The NAB Rising Star award is the pinnacle for young players just starting out in the AFL.
Ben Cousins, Nick Riewoldt, Nathan Buckley, Joel Selwood, the best of the young brigade is always well represented.
But what if you are a late bloomer?
Eligibility for the rising star is for players who are: under age of 21 as at January 1 that year, haven’t played more than 10 AFL games, and haven’t been suspended at AFL or State league level.
Normally that includes recent draftees only.
But the introduction of the mature-aged rookie concept and the recent history has thrown up some new possibilities.
Fremantle’s Michael Barlow was picked up as 22-year-old rookie from Werribee and has been in the Dockers best three this season.
Defender Alex Silvagni was also 22 when picked up from the Casey Scorpions and has had a strong impact in 2010.
At Geelong, the JPod, James Podsiadly has been superb after being picked up as a 28-year-old.
Other clubs have gone down the mature-aged path as well with less success so far, but plenty of hope.
Collingwood looks to have taken the boldest step by grabbing 24-year-old Seamus McNamara from the United States as an international rookie.
The Wisconsin giant is 204cm, weighs 104kgs and played four seasons of college basketball in New York. He then played one season of professional Basketball in Germany for TSV Dachau Spurs.
Brisbane took the chance to give a local a go — 23-year-old Broc McCauley — while Essendon are still waiting to see what they’ve got with 24-year-old Marcus Marigliani from Frankston.
And this move towards getting older players from State leagues looks set to continue with the Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney having first dibs at drafts for a few years to come.
It means there could be even more Barlows, Silvagnis and Podsiadlys having an impact straight away.
If Barlow were born a year and two weeks later he would be the favourite for this year’s rising star award.
There is now room for a “best first-year player” award to recognise those whose use-by dates weren’t quite reached.
While this year it may only come down to three or so players, you get the feeling that there will be many more in the frame in years to come.
It could run alongside the AFL MVP awards night on grand final eve and be voted on by the assistant coaches of each club.
David Reed is an award-winning journalist who worked as a sports writer for major newspapers on both sides of the country and voted on the 2005 Norm Smith Medal. David will write extensively for geelongcats.com.au this season. The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the club.
