NORTH Melbourne young gun George Wardlaw is stepping things up in his second AFL season.

Wardlaw, the No.4 pick in the 2022 draft, earned an AFL Rising Star nomination for the second straight year after an impressive performance against Fremantle in round two.

The tenacious midfielder leads all Rising Star-eligible players for average AFL Player Rating Points this season, going at 13.3 per game.

Wardlaw is narrowly ahead of West Coast's No.1 pick Harley Reid (13.2), with the duo clear frontrunners.

The Kangaroos managed Wardlaw through his first season in the AFL, but they are seeing his talent more regularly to begin 2024.

After the ball-winner struggled against Geelong in round five, Wardlaw was rested for the loss to Hawthorn, but has returned in powerful form.

He had career-highs for clearances (eight) and contested possessions (15) in the defeat to Adelaide, his 22.3 Rating Points rating him as the third-best player on the ground.

Another strong performance followed against St Kilda with 22 disposals and a goal, and featured a huge bump on fellow young gun Darcy Wilson.

Wardlaw going head to head with Gold Coast bull Matt Rowell for the first time at TIO Stadium on Saturday night will be a battle worth watching.

Wilson rates equal ninth for average AFL Player Rating Points this season, but his past five games have been his best, including a stellar display in the win over the Kangaroos.

Wardlaw (rounds two and seven), Reid (round six), Wilson (round eight) and Zane Duursma (round seven) are the only Rising Star-eligible players to have recorded a game with 20-plus rating points this season.

Greater Western Sydney small forward Darcy Jones has played just twice but has made his mark early, averaging 11.7 rating points.

Geelong's Ollie Dempsey (9.2) and Sydney's Matt Roberts (8.9) round out the top five for average points and have played every game this season.

With Wardlaw starting to grow and Wilson improving, and Reid catching the eye on a regular basis, the Rising Star race this season will be intriguing.

*The AFL Player Ratings is a sophisticated algorithm from Champion Data. It assesses every action of every player in every game and assigns points to paint a complete picture of every player's impact on a game