Three West Coast young guns polled highly at Tuesday night’s AFLPA awards night

By westcoasteagles.com.au

After a historic 2025 season for the West Coast Eagles, three young stars, Ella Roberts, Jess Rentsch and Lucia Painter all polled well at the AFL Players’ Association awards on Tuesday night in Melbourne.

Star midfielder Roberts finished third in the League for the MVP honours, behind winner Jasmine Garner (Kangaroos) and runner-up Ash Riddell (Kangaroos).

Roberts continues to reach new heights in her career, also honoured with her second consecutive All-Australian blazer for another stellar season.

Second-year Eagle Rentsch was nominated for Most Courageous Player, making a name for herself this season as a ferocious tackler with incredible power and skills around the contest.

Rentsch finished third in her category, behind winner Kiara Bowers (Fremantle) and runner-up Isabel Dawes (Brisbane).

Exciting youngster Painter burst onto the scene in her first season in the blue and gold, kicking three goals on debut to earn herself a Rising Star nomination in round one.

Painter finished fourth in the Best First-Year Player count, behind winner Zippy Fish (Sydney), runner-up Poppy Scholz (Carlton) and third placed Havana Harris (Gold Coast).

MVP voting is a two-stage process, beginning with each player voting for the three teammates they consider to have been the most valuable this season. Each club’s votes are then tallied to form a nomination list, with 54 players across the 18 teams nominated for the award.

In the second round of voting, all players vote for their MVP on a 3, 2, 1 basis from the nominees of the 17 other clubs. The votes are tallied and the player with the highest score wins the honour of MVP. Players cannot vote for their own teammates in stage two of the process.

A similar process is followed for Best First-Year Player and Most Courageous, with every captain automatically nominated for the Best Captain Award.

WINNERS AND TOP POLLING PLAYERS 

AFLW Players’ Most Valuable Player, presented by KPMG 

Jasmine Garner 

Ashleigh Riddell 

Ella Roberts 

Kate Hore 

Georgie Prespakis 

Most Courageous, presented by Tackle Your Feelings 

Kiara Bowers 

Isabel Dawes 

Jessica Rentsch 

Rylie Wilcox 

Eliza McNamara 

Best Captain, presented by Chartered Accountants 

Jasmine Garner 

Kate Hore 

Abbie McKay 

Breanna Koenen 

Ebony Marinoff 

Best First-Year Player, presented by P3 Recovery 

Zippy Fish 

Poppy Scholz 

Havana Harris 

Lucia Painter 

Ash CentraÂ