THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the Telstra AFL Rising Star will be moved back to the AFL Awards night after last year's one-off presentation at the Brownlow Medal.

Fremantle jet Murphy Reid became the first player to be named the winner of the Rising Star on Brownlow Medal night after the cyclone-affected start to the 2025 season caused fixture chaos.

That meant that Gold Coast and Essendon's Opening Round game was rescheduled to the Wednesday night after round 24, forcing the naming of the last round of the season's weekly Rising Star nominee to be pushed back too far.

Because of that, the honour was not presented at the usual AFL Awards night but instead on the same night as Matt Rowell claimed the Brownlow Medal, with Reid becoming just the second Docker in the club's history to win the coveted award. 

He followed the likes of Geelong's Ollie Dempsey, North Melbourne's Harry Sheezel, Collingwood's Nick Daicos, Fremantle pair Luke Jackson and Caleb Serong and Carlton's Sam Walsh as recent winners. 

This year, however, the AFL has confirmed that the Rising Star will return to the AFL Awards night on Tuesday, August 25.

That will see winners of the AFL MVP, AFL Coaches Association award, most courageous player and the All-Australian team all named as well. 

Days after the Awards night will be the first ever Wildcard Round, with teams finishing seventh to 10th playing off for a spot in the top eight finals series.