AS A SELECTOR for the NAB AFL Rising Star award, I am always surprised when its nomination criteria attracts criticism.

I fully support the AFL Commission's position that for a player to be eligible for nomination, he must have played no more than 10 AFL matches and be younger than 21 years old at the start of the calendar year.

This has been the case since Nathan Buckley won the first award back in 1993.

This yardstick allows for the fact that young players develop at different rates physically, so it's fair to players of all shapes and sizes, across the whole range of positions.

It allows for a player who might be good enough in his first year to play a few games in a strong team to go on and cement a spot in his second year, receive a Rising Star nomination and have a legitimate chance of winning the award.

Past Rising Star winners Nick Riewoldt and Sam Mitchell support this point.

Riewoldt played six games and showed some promise as an 81kg forward for St Kilda in 2001, the same year teammate Justin Koschitzke won the award having played 20 games.

In his second season he blossomed and played all 22 games to claim his own Rising Star award.

Mitchell was taken at No.36 at the 2001 NAB AFL Draft and won the VFL's JJ Liston Trophy in 2002, while still managing nine AFL games for the Hawks. In 2003 he played 21 matches and was a deserving winner of the award.

Both young men thoroughly earned their awards, having become stars of the competition as the name of the award states.

Already this year West Coast's Luke Shuey, who played six games last season, has received a nomination after struggling to overcome setbacks like a broken leg and glandular fever in 2010.

Geelong's Mitch Duncan did well to play eight games in a powerful side in 2010. He's received a nomination already this year and deserves to be in the pool for consideration.

Shane Savage, the young Hawk who had three games to his name before this season, has been rewarded for his emergence with a well-deserved NAB AFL Rising Star nomination.

Collingwood's Ben Reid had played eight games in the three years leading up to the 2010 season in which he received a nomination and is an excellent example of a taller player taking a bit more time to develop.

As for the suggestion, floated by Martin Blake in Wednesday's Age, that the NAB AFL Rising Star award be restricted to first-year players only, my response is that these awards already exist at a club level and through the AFL Players' Association and cater for first-year players from James Podsiadly through to Tom Scully using 2010 as an example.

If the Rising Star award was restricted to first-year players, seven of the past 18 winners would have been ineligible with Daniel Hannebery, Danyle Pearce, Jared Rivers, Nick Holland and Byron Pickett joining Riewoldt and Mitchell.

The NAB AFL Rising Star award has grown in profile and prestige over its 19-year history. I believe its nomination criteria have stood the test of time and will continue to do so.

Kevin Sheehan is the AFL National Talent Manager and is a member of the selection panel that votes on the NAB AFL Rising Star award.

The view in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs