HOW DO you cast your votes for a Telstra AFLW Rising Star winner?

For the past six seasons, I have had the honour of being on the panel to vote for the AFLW's best young player, but have happily handed over the reins to AFL.com.au's Queensland guru Michael Whiting in 2025.

This year's field is stacked, and I don't envy those writing their entries for Monday night's award, but will share my thinking process with the wider football community.

To start with, I generally select my best three performers of the year. 

The criteria I personally work with is a combination of excellence in performance and consistency across the entire season.

I also weight my votes on the impact said player has had on their team, and take into account the difficulty of the position played. 

Collingwood's Lucy Cronin may not have had a numerically outstanding year in 2024, but more than held her own as an 18-year-old key defender in a backline that was constantly under the pump – an infinitely more difficult task than a fourth or fifth midfielder in a strong side.

Voting takes place after the home-and-away season but before finals, so the outstanding form of Carlton duo Sophie McKay and Poppy Scholz in the past few weeks will not have been taken into consideration by the panel. This is to ensure everyone is on a level playing field in terms of possible games played.

My best three performers of the home-and-away season are McKay, Scholz and Sydney's Zippy Fish.

McKay had a slow start to the year, but worked her way into it well, finding plenty of the footy and kicking goals. The slower start means she'll be my third place. 

Scholz has shown some really nice signs and held her own at both ends of the field. Her combination of agility at ground level and decision-making, as well as the degree of difficulty of playing as a key back, puts her above McKay in my mind. She'll be second.

Generally, there's a clear-cut first place, and it's often the easiest vote to cast.

Fish has been the most consistently outstanding performer this year of the Rising Star field, and has had a big impact on Sydney's games with her drive off half-back.

While her numbers have been somewhat inflated by taking kick-outs, she's more than held her own against older and more experienced players, and the fact that she's been entrusted with the kick-outs is testament in itself.

Then comes the most difficult part – votes for fourth and fifth place. To help limit my options, I draw lines through players who were nominated for one-off games, weren't quite as consistent as others, or missed matches through injury and selection.

Players can push beyond this (somewhat arbitrary) personal rule if their season has been absolutely exceptional compared to others, with Mimi Hill managing to win the entire award despite not returning to the field from a torn ACL till round five of 10 in 2022.

For me, that rules out Ash Centra, Emma McDonald, Sarah Poustie, India Rasheed, Kaitlyn Srhoj and Brooke Boileau out of this year's top five.

Centra was injured for the last month of the season, Poustie missed two games due to form, McDonald and Rasheed had outstanding moments but were patchy (even taking into account the difficulty of playing forward) while Srhoj and Boileau weren't quite game-breaking enough.

It's very harsh, but with a stacked field of 12 candidates, you have to be brutal.

That leaves me with three players – Lu Painter, Havana Harris and Jess Rentsch – with two spots remaining.

Rentsch missed one game through suspension, but her impact on West Coast was profound, and she was exceptional both through the midfield and in defence.

Housemate Painter burst onto the scene with three goals on debut, kicking nine for the home-and-away season, but didn't necessarily have consistent performances in comparison to the other two.

Gold Coast powerhouse Harris kicked 11 goals, had a slight edge in disposals and marks over Painter, and also spent some time in the ruck.

I've now cut Painter out of my deliberations as a very unlucky sixth, and now have to weigh up Rentsch and Harris for fourth and fifth place.

Both are multi-position players. Both helped their side win games. Both have become structurally important players. 

It's not Harris' fault that the ball didn't come down her end as often, but splitting hairs and going with my gut, I feel Rentsch had a larger impact on more games on a more consistent basis this year than Harris.

That's not to say the Sun won't be the better player in the long run, but we have to judge on the output of the 2025 season – it's not "most promising".

Can't wait to see how it all unfolds on Monday night.

Sarah Black's (unofficial) Rising Star votes

5. Zippy Fish (Sydney)
4. Poppy Scholz (Carlton)
3.Sophie McKay (Carlton)
2. Jess Rentsch (West Coast)
1. Havana Harris (Gold Coast)
0.5. (it's unofficial, I can do what I want) – Lu Painter (West Coast)