The tyranny of distance of being out from directly under the eye of the majority of the selectors who are Victorian based could play against the hopes of Stiller, Michael Rischitelli and Matt Moody.
Former Palm Beach-Currumbin and Southport product Andrew Raines is the favourite for the award, marginally ahead of Collingwood’s Heath Shaw and Port Adelaide’s Danyle Pearce. There has also been a media push for Hawthorn’s Grant Birchall in recent weeks.
Stiller’s performances since Round 12 have been the equal of any. He has been in the Lions’ best six players on seven occasions and averaged 22.6 possessions per game.
The 20-year-old collected a career-high 31 possessions as his side’s best player in Sydney in Round 21, and earned his Rising Star nomination with a best afield 28 possessions and the matchwinning goal against Carlton in Round 13.
The most impressive aspect of Stiller’s effort is that he was an unheralded rookie at the start of the year, whereas Raines is in his third season of league football, and Shaw and Pearce their second.
Stiller’s teammate Michael Rischitelli also has legitimate claims for the award, despite injuring his shoulder in Round 15. He bravely battled on for three weeks, before being unable to continue.
He played every one of the opening 18 weeks of the season and was also in the Lions’ best six players on seven occasions.
Rischitelli is very much an inside player who did some outstanding work in heavy traffic against top class opponents. His 82 tackles were also the fourth best in the club, despite missing the last month.
Lions utility player Moody played every game from Round 4 onwards and was particularly prominent in the team’s mid-season surge.
He earned his nomination with a career high 22 possessions against the Kangaroos in which he was the second best player on the ground behind Michael Voss, but was also a key in wins over Hawthorn, Port Adelaide and Fremantle.
Richmond’s Raines is in his third year of league football, but is eligible for the award because he was under 21 when the season started and had played less than 10 games.
He played every game in 2006 and it won’t hurt that he finished with 26 possessions in a badly beaten side against minor premier West Coast in the last game of the year.
Shaw played six games last season and missed the first round of 2006, but played every game since. He has a season high of 33 touches against Port Adelaide in Round 20 and 29 against West Coast in Round 8.
Pearce played the last seven games of 2005, and has continued on to kit up in every game this year. His high was 31 possessions in Round 12 against West Coast.
The AFL Rising Star Award was instituted in 1993 to recognise and encourage talented young players in the AFL. After each round of home and away games, a player is nominated and at the end of the season a panel of experts selects the winner.
The winner must be under the age of 21 at January 1 of that year, must not have played more than 10 games to the start of that season and must not have been suspended by the AFL or State League tribunals during the season (as with the Brownlow Medal, players found guilty of certain offences and fined or reprimanded by the Tribunal remain eligible to win the award).
The candidates for the award are:
Rd 1 - Marc Murphy (Carlton)
Rd 2 - Dale Thomas (Collingwood)
Rd 3 - Danyle Pearce (Port Adelaide)
Rd 4 - Andrew Raines (Richmond)
Rd 5 - Heath Shaw (Collingwood)
Rd 6 - Dean Polo (Richmond)
Rd 7 - Clint Bartram (Melbourne)
Rd 8 - Michael Rischitelli (Brisbane Lions)
Rd 9 - Brad Symes (Port Adelaide)
Rd 10 - Matt Rosa (West Coast Eagles)
Rd 11 - Jacob Surjan (Port Adelaide)
Rd 12- Clinton Young (Hawthorn)
Rd 13 - Cheynee Stiller (Brisbane Lions)
Rd 14 - Grant Birchall (Hawthorn)
Rd 15 - Matthew Moody (Brisbane Lions)
Rd 16 - Troy Chaplin (Port Adelaide)
Rd 17 - Andrew Swallow (Kangaroos)
Rd 18 - Matthew Bate (Melbourne)
Rd 19 - Nathan Foley (Richmond)
Rd 20 - Nathan Jones (Melbourne)
Rd 21 - Brad Moran (Kangaroos)
Rd 22 – Mark LeCras (West Coast)
