AFL must change rules for Rising Star Award * Bruce Matthews
* From: Herald Sun
* July 28, 2010 5:27PMIT'S time the AFL tinkered with the Rising Star Award fine print in the interests of the game, if not basic justice.
It's patently wrong that Richmond's Dustin Martin and now Western Bulldog Jarrad Grant are ineligible to win this season's prestigious award ... even though neither has been suspended.
This award celebrates the elite talent in our game and the panel of judges must overlook Martin, who has missed only one game with the Tigers, and Grant, who has pushed into a top-four team.
Both were cited by the match review panel for low-level offences - Martin for an illegal bump on Sydney's Josh Kennedy in Round 3 and Grant for what was effectively a block on unsuspecting Magpie Ben Reid in Round 11.
Martin accepted a reprimand while Grant is one of only two players to succeed at the tribunal this season when he had a two-games penalty downgraded to a reprimand.
Even the league's own Rising Star rules state that players found guilty and fined or reprimanded remain eligible to win the award.
But the technicality is that the base demerit points for each of these nominee's offences was 125, above the dreaded 100 that equates to a suspension unless you plead guilty and access the 25 per cent discount.
Yes, apply those stringent conditions to the Brownlow Medal. Even there you can mount a case that you wouldn't find a more solid citizen or glowing advertisement for the game than ineligible Chris Grant who topped the 1997 count. But that's another argument.
The fairest and best criteria is too heavy-handed for these enthusiastic, first-year recruits endeavouring to find their way in the game's toughest, most challenging and scrutinised competition.
Simply, the Rising Star should celebrate football talent alone.
These future champions' fashion sense, tastes in music or table manners are irrelevant.
We just want to know who the panel of ex-players decide is dux of the 2010 graduates based on kicks, marks, hardball gets and all the key indicators that identify the best.
Keep the strike-out clause for anyone who's actually suspended. After all, if a young player displays thuggish tendencies on game-day, the tribunal system will quickly weed him out.
But it's grossly unfair that Martin and Grant, leading contenders on form and ability, must sit through the awards lunch in September knowing they can accept nothing more than a meal and backslaps, even though they haven't actually breached the guidelines.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/afl-must-end-rising-star-award-farce/story-e6frf9jf-1225898129861
