Lions insiders will be hoping judges in this year’s AFL Rising Star Award had a good close look at last Saturday night’s game against Sydney at the Gabba.

Because, in his 21st game, playing for the first time in his preferred inside midfield role, the 18-year-old produced the best game of his short career.

It was a stinging retort to bookmakers who, after Ashcroft had been the Rising Star favourite for much of the year, recently dropped him to second and now third in the market.

This week TAB has Adelaide’s Daniel Curtin favourite at $2, ahead of Fremantle’s Murphy Reid at $3 and Ashcroft at $5.

Essendon’s Archie Roberts ($16), Melbourne’s Harvey Langford ($34) and Geelong’s Connor O’Sullivan $41 are the only others shorter than $151.

Given the opportunity to play major minutes inside for the first time in the absence of co-captain Lachie Neale, Levi Ashcroft had 27 possessions, 14 contested possessions, seven clearances, 10 ground ball gets, 22 defensive pressure acts and 495 metres and a game rating of 17.9 in the Lions’ two-point loss.

His 27 possessions was sixth-highest in the game, while his contested possession count was lower only than Josh Dunkley’s at 16. He was game-high for clearances, equal with Hugh McCluggage, and second for contested possessions behind Dunkley’s 17 and equal with McCluggage.

His 495m gained was third best behind Dayne Zorko’s 670m and Will Ashcroft’s 573m, his  22 pressure acts ranked behind only Dunkley’s 25 and McCluggage’s 23, and he was second to Dunkley for ground ball gets.

And he was the sixth-highest rated player on the ground behind Dunkley (26.9), Sydney’s Isaac Heeney (23.1), Nick Blakey (20.5) and Chad Warner (20.3), and Brisbane’s Harris Andrews (20.3).

His pressure acts tally was easily a career-high – up from 14 – and he had career-high numbers for clearances, intercept possessions, ground ball gets and metres gained. And his 27 possessions was second only to his 29 against Gold Coast in Round 8.

Having not missed a game in his first season despite joining the defending premiers, and despite playing primarily on the wing, Ashcroft has averaged 20.0 possessions, 6.0 contested possessions and 2.1 clearances.

Already with 420 possessions, he’s the first Brisbane player since Rising Star winner Daniel Rich in 2009 to top 400 in his first season – and Rich played 24 games including two finals.

The decision by the bookmakers to drop Ashcroft in the betting is part of an annual problem that confronts the northern states. There is next to no media support in Queensland for the Lions star while the South Australian media are all over Curtin and the West Australian media likewise for Reid.

Curtin, a second-year player at Adelaide at 20 but eligible for the Rising Star Award because he played only seven games last year, has averaged 13.5 possessions, 6.7 contested possessions, 1.9 clearances and 3.4 tackles, with an average player rating of 10.13

But through the first nine games he was going at 9.3 possessions, 4.4 contested possessions, 0,4 clearances and 2.3 tackles, with a rating of 8.00.

Reid, a legitimate first-year player at 19, has averaged 14.0 possessions, 5.3 contested possessions and 5.4 score involvements in 21 games, and has kicked 22 goals.

But, significantly, after kicking four goals on debut in Round 1, he’s been a multiple goal-kicker only twice – he kicked four against Port Adelaide in Round 11 and 2 against Port last weekend.

It doesn’t help, either, that Queensland is the only state not represented on a judging panel which is headed by AFL CEO Andrew Dillon and now includes new football boss Greg Swann, in-house football Kevin Sheehan and Laura Kane, plus Nathan Buckley, Eddie Betts and Abbey Holmes, plus Perth-based Glen Jakovich and Matthew Pavlich, Adelaide-based Kane Cornes, and Sydney-based Jude Bolton.