2017 AFL Rising Star
During the 2017 season, the award was sponsored by National Australia Bank, and the winner announced in a presentation held on 1 September 2017 and broadcast on subscription television by Fox Footy. The voting panel for this season consisted of eleven members, all of whom were AFL officials or former players: Kevin Bartlett, Luke Darcy, Andrew Dillon, Danny Frawley, Glen Jakovich, Chris Johnson, Cameron Ling, Gillon McLachlan, Matthew Richardson, Warren Tredrea and Kevin Sheehan. The winner was Essendon player Andrew McGrath, who polled 51 votes. McGrath became only the third number-one draft pick to win the award, and the second Essendon recipient.
The club that garnered the most individual nominations this season was Carlton with five players nominated for the award. This was a club record and the equal-second most nominations a club has garnered in an individual season, behind Greater Western Sydney's eight nominations in the 2012 season. Brisbane Lions player Alex Witherden, who received a nomination in round 17, was nominated for the award again in the 2018 season—becoming the eleventh player ever to be nominated twice for a Rising Star award.
Nominations
![Male athlete in sleeveless guernsey holds football](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/43/Ryan_Burton_2018.3.jpg/170px-Ryan_Burton_2018.3.jpg)
![Male athlete in sleeveless guernsey runs during a football match](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e4/Charlie_Curnow_2017.1.jpg/170px-Charlie_Curnow_2017.1.jpg)
![Male athlete in sleeveless guernsey holds football](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9e/Alex_Witherden_2017.jpg/170px-Alex_Witherden_2017.jpg)
Player | Round | Club | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Sam Powell-Pepper | 1 | Port Adelaide | |
Ryan Burton | 2 | Hawthorn | |
Brandan Parfitt | 3 | Geelong | |
Andrew McGrath | 4 | Essendon | |
Eric Hipwood | 5 | Brisbane Lions | |
Caleb Marchbank | 6 | Carlton | |
Sam Petrevski-Seton | 7 | Carlton | |
Tim Taranto | 8 | Greater Western Sydney | |
Tom Phillips | 9 | Collingwood | |
Wayne Milera | 10 | Adelaide | |
Dan Butler | 11 | Richmond | |
David Cuningham | 12 | Carlton | |
Jack Silvagni | 13 | Carlton | |
Hugh McCluggage | 14 | Brisbane Lions | |
Blake Hardwick | 15 | Hawthorn | |
Charlie Curnow | 16 | Carlton | |
Alex Witherden | 17 | Brisbane Lions | |
Lewis Melican | 18 | Sydney | |
Jason Castagna | 19 | Richmond | |
Luke Ryan | 20 | Fremantle | |
Dan Houston | 21 | Port Adelaide | |
Ben Ainsworth | 22 | Gold Coast | |
Will Hayward | 23 | Sydney |
Final voting
Player | Rank | Club | Votes |
---|---|---|---|
Andrew McGrath | 1 | Essendon | 51 |
Ryan Burton | 2 | Hawthorn | 41 |
Sam Powell-Pepper | 3 | Port Adelaide | 35 |
Charlie Curnow | 4 | Carlton | 27 |
Eric Hipwood | 5 | Brisbane Lions | 6 |
Sam Petrevski-Seton | 6 | Carlton | 3 |
Lewis Melican | 7 | Sydney | 1 |
Tom Phillips | Collingwood | 1 |