A player is nominated for the award each round during the AFL season by a panel of experts. The nominee is usually chosen based on their performance in that particular round; however, for nominations closer to the end of the year, the player's performance over the whole season is taken into consideration. To be eligible for nomination, the player must be under the age of 21 at 1 January that year, and have played ten or fewer AFL games as of the start of the season. At the completion of the
regular season, each member of the voting panel independently awards five votes, four votes, three votes, two votes and one vote to the nominated players they regard as the best to fifth-best during the season; the player with the highest total of votes wins the medal. As the number of voting members varies between seasons, the maximum number of votes a player can poll is not consistent. There have been only four winners who have accumulated the maximum votes in their season:
Jared Rivers (2004),
Daniel Rich (2009),
Dan Hannebery (2010) and
Nick Daicos (2022). It is possible for a player to be nominated in multiple seasons, as long as he still satisfies the age and experience criteria in each year. Sixteen players have been nominated twice for a Rising Star award: •
Duncan Kellaway (1993 and 1994) •
Craig Callaghan (1995 and 1996) •
Michael Braun (1997 and 1998) •
Luke Power (1998 and 1999) •
Nathan Jones (2006 and 2007) •
Mark LeCras (2006 and 2007) •
Michael Hurley (2009 and 2010) •
Jordan Gysberts (2010 and 2011) •
Sam Blease (2011 and 2012) •
Orazio Fantasia (2015 and 2016) •
Alex Witherden (2017 and 2018) •
Lachlan Sholl (2020 and 2021) •
Mitch Georgiades (2020 and 2021) •
Luke Jackson (2020 and 2021) •
Tom Green (2020 and 2021) •
Justin McInerney (2020 and 2021) •
Jake Bowey (2021 and 2022) •
George Wardlaw (2023 and 2024) •
Nate Caddy (2024 and 2025) == Recipients ==