THE NAB AFL Rising Star is set to be crowned on Wednesday as 24 of the League's brightest young talents converge at the Crown Palladium in Melbourne to honour one of their peers.
And while the Rising Star's prominence has grown with past winners including Nathan Buckley, Ben Cousins and Nick Riewoldt, hope is not lost for those that missed out on a nomination.
Players who have never earned a nomination include premiership stars, All Australians and best and fairest winners.
Mostly, they're late developers who were not good enough while they were still eligible for nomination. Even Jonathan Brown missed out.
To be eligible for a nomination you need to be 21 years or under. To be eligible in your second season, you need to have played no more than 10 games in your first season.
Brown played 13 games in his first season, in 2000, and finished the year with only five goals.
His performances in that first season failed to warrant nomination (even if he did take nine marks in the Lions' victory over Adelaide in round 20. Carlton's Ryan Houlihan was nominated ahead of him).
The following list shows that you can be too quick to judge a footballer's worth.
Current players who missed out on NAB AFL Rising Star nominations:
Adelaide
Richard Douglas
Graham Johncock
Ben Rutten
Scott Thompson
Nathan van Berlo
Bernie Vince
Brisbane Lions
Jonathan Brown
Matthew Leuenberger
Carlton
Eddie Betts
Andrew Carrazzo
Mitch Robinson
Collingwood
Jarryd Blair
Leon Davis
Chris Dawes
Ben Johnson
Darren Jolly
Andrew Krakouer
Nick Maxwell
Harry O'Brien
Steele Sidebottom
Dane Swan
Chris Tarrant
Sharrod Wellingham
Essendon
Courtenay Dempsey
Ricky Dyson
Jobe Watson
Fremantle
Luke McPharlin
Geelong
Paul Chapman
Joel Corey
Steve Johnson
Cameron Mooney
Brad Ottens
Harry Taylor
Travis Varcoe
Hawthorn
Chance Bateman
Xavier Ellis
Brad Sewell
Liam Shiels
Matt Suckling
Melbourne
James Frawley
Jack Watts
North Melbourne
Todd Goldstein
Brent Harvey
Drew Petrie
Brady Rawlings
Port Adelaide
Dom Cassisi
Kane Cornes
Richmond
Daniel Jackson
Chris Newman
Tyrone Vickery
St Kilda
David Armitage
Nick Dal Santo
Sam Fisher
Jason Gram
James Gwilt
Ben McEvoy
Stephen Milne
Sydney
Josh Kennedy
Shane Mumford
Ryan O'Keefe
Rhyce Shaw
West Coast
Dean Cox
Darren Glass
Josh Kennedy
Matt Priddis
Scott Selwood
Western Bulldogs
Matthew Boyd
Barry Hall
Brian Lake
Dale Morris
Jordan Roughead
Patrick Veszpremi
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
