Dyson Heppell was awarded the rising star award, being the first ever Essendon player to win the award. Nine selectors voted for the award on a five, four, three, two, one basis and Heppell received 44 votes. He was a clear winner ahead of West Coast's Luke Shuey (37 votes) and Gold Coast's Zac Smith (21 votes). Heppells dominance of the award has angered many fans, who point to bias from Victorian judges. An interesting fact is that the only judge to give Shuey full votes was Glen Jackovich. As an avid Eagles supporter, naturally, I was dissapointed with Shuey not winning the rising star. However, the comments of Gerard Whately on AFL 360 confused me. He stated that Heppell should be considered higher, as this was his first season. The rules indicate Shuey was eligable for the award. Therefore, I beleive that Shuey and Heppell should have been considered equally, and only taking into consideration their impact on games all season. Still, its not all doom and gloom for the Eagles, as the voting shows, they had 3 players poll votes, equal to Gold Coast.
VOTING
Dyson Heppell (ESS) 44 votes
Luke Shuey (WCE) 37
Zac Smith (GCS) 21
David Swallow (GCS) 18
Jack Darling (WCE) 6
Sam Reid (SYD) 5
Daniel Menzel (GEE) 1
Jack Steven (STK) 1
Trent McKenzie (GCS) 1
Andrew Gaff (WCE) 1
As the above voting indicates, both West Coast Eagles and Gold Coast players were very prominent in voting. Still, this award is not everything, and I cant wait for an awesome finals series by Shuey.
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