{"id":346376,"date":"2025-12-14T00:03:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/346376\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T00:03:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T00:03:11","slug":"your-afl-teams-rising-star-eligible-players-and-top-contenders-for-2026-afl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/346376\/","title":{"rendered":"Your AFL team’s Rising Star eligible players and top contenders for 2026 – AFL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Close to 170 AFL<\/a> players will enter the 2026 season eligible for the Rising Star Award, with a mix of recent draftees and young guns entering another campaign viewed as the top contenders for the title.<\/p>\n

Headlined by No.1 pick Willem Duursma<\/a>, West Coast has the most players eligible for the award with 14, with Collingwood, Essendon, Sydney and GWS the next best at 11 each.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Duursma will be one of the favoured contenders for the award from the 2025 draft class, with ready-made Essendon midfielder Dyson Sharp<\/a>, Gold Coast pair Zeke Uwland<\/a> and Dylan Patterson<\/a>, and top Richmond draftees Sam Cumming<\/a> and Sam Grlj<\/a> also among the best-placed rookies.<\/p>\n

That contingent will have heavy competition from players who have already been in the system, with a number of young guns from the 2024 AFL Draft<\/a> still eligible.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sidelined Carlton midfielder Jagga Smith<\/a> might be the favourite for the award come the start of the season should he get through the pre-season unscathed, while St Kilda defender Alix Tauru is another to watch following an impressive 10 games last year – with the athletic backman just making the eligibility cut-off.<\/p>\n

Richmond duo Taj Hotton<\/a> and Josh Smillie<\/a> could also be in the mix after injury-hit debut seasons, with West Coast’s Jobe Shanahan<\/a> and Adelaide’s Sid Draper<\/a> others worth keeping in mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"ScreenTaj Hotton of the Richmond Tigers at training in 2025 (Image via Richmond FC)<\/p>\n

Geelong’s George Stevens<\/a>, uncapped Collingwood defender-midfielder Harry DeMattia<\/a> and North Melbourne’s Wil Dawson<\/a> are third-year players still eligible who could have an impact in 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eligibility: Players are required to be under 21 years of age as of January 1, 2026 and must have played no more than 10 career games already to be eligible for the Rising Star Award.<\/p>\n

Players eligible for the 2026 Rising Star Award<\/p>\n

Adelaide (6)
Archie Ludowyke<\/a>
Mitch Marsh<\/a>
Tyler Welsh<\/a>
Charlie Edwards<\/a>
Oscar Ryan<\/a>
Sid Draper<\/a><\/p>\n

Brisbane (8)
Koby Evans<\/a>
Cody Curtin<\/a>
Dan Annable<\/a>
Ty Gallop<\/a>
Zane Zakostelsky<\/a>
Luke Lloyd<\/a>
Reece Torrent<\/a>
Will McLachlan<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlton (9)
Talor Byrne<\/a>
Harry Dean<\/a>
Jack Ison<\/a>
Lucas Camporeale<\/a>
Ben Camporeale<\/a>
Harry Charleson<\/a>
Harry O’Farrell<\/a>
Jagga Smith<\/a>
Billy Wilson<\/a><\/p>\n

Collingwood (11)
Zac McCarthy<\/a>
Jai Saxena<\/a>
Tyan Prindable<\/a>
Sam Swadling<\/a>
Will Hayes<\/a>
Joel Cochran<\/a>
Charlie West<\/a>
Noah Howes<\/a>
Harry DeMattia<\/a>
Iliro Smit<\/a>
Tew Jiath<\/a><\/p>\n

Essendon (11)
Max Kondogiannis<\/a>
Sullivan Robey<\/a>
Jacob Farrow<\/a>
Dyson Sharp<\/a>
Hussien El Achkar<\/a>
Zak Johnson<\/a>
Rhys Unwin<\/a>
Jayden Nguyen<\/a>
Archer Day-Wicks<\/a>
Kayle Gerreyn<\/a>
Vigo Visentini<\/a><\/p>\n

Fremantle (9)
Ryda Luke<\/a>
Adam Sweid<\/a>
Toby Whan<\/a>
Leon Kickett<\/a>
Charlie Nicholls<\/a>
Aiden Riddle<\/a>
Ollie Murphy<\/a>
Tobyn Murray<\/a>
Cooper Simpson<\/a><\/p>\n

Geelong (10)
Harley Barker<\/a>
Nick Driscoll<\/a>
Hunter Holmes<\/a>
Jesse Mellor<\/a>
Lennox Hofmann<\/a>
Jay Polkinghorne<\/a>
Keighton Matofai-Forbes<\/a>
Mitchell Edwards<\/a>
Joe Pike<\/a>
George Stevens<\/a><\/p>\n

Gold Coast (10)
Avery Thomas<\/a>
Dylan Patterson<\/a>
Koby Coulson<\/a>
Zeke Uwland<\/a>
Jai Murray<\/a>
Beau Addinsall<\/a>
Cooper Bell<\/a>
Lachlan Gulbin<\/a>
Leo Lombard<\/a>
Asher Eastham<\/a><\/p>\n

GWS (11)
Oskar Taylor<\/a>
Finn Davis<\/a>
Jack Ough<\/a>
Logan Smith<\/a>
Oliver Hannaford<\/a>
Riley Hamilton<\/a>
Josaia Delana<\/a>
Harrison Oliver<\/a>
Cody Angove<\/a>
James Leake<\/a>
Phoenix Gothard<\/a><\/p>\n

Hawthorn (9)
Aidan Schubert<\/a>
Cam Nairn<\/a>
Jack Dalton<\/a>
Matt LeRay<\/a>
Ollie Greeves<\/a>
Noah Mraz<\/a>
Cody Anderson<\/a>
Will McCabe<\/a>
Bodie Ryan<\/a><\/p>\n

Melbourne (7)
Kalani White<\/a>
Riley Onley<\/a>
Thomas Matthews<\/a>
Xavier Taylor<\/a>
Ricky Mentha<\/a>
Latrelle Pickett<\/a>
Luker Kentfield<\/a><\/p>\n

North Melbourne (9)
Blake Thredgold<\/a>
Lachy Dovaston<\/a>
Hugo Mikunda<\/a>
Luke Urquhart<\/a>
River Stevens<\/a>
Matt Whitlock<\/a>
Wil Dawson<\/a>
Cooper Trembath<\/a>
Taylor Goad<\/a><\/p>\n

Port Adelaide (8)
Harrison Ramm<\/a>
Jack Whitlock<\/a>
Benny Barrett<\/a>
Tom Cochrane<\/a>
Josh Lai<\/a>
Xavier Walsh<\/a>
Tom Anastasopoulos<\/a>
Will Lorenz<\/a><\/p>\n

Richmond (10)
Zane Peucker<\/a>
Sam Cumming<\/a>
Sam Grlj<\/a>
Noah Roberts-Thomson<\/a>
Jasper Alger<\/a>
Taj Hotton<\/a>
Harry Armstrong<\/a>
Josh Smillie<\/a>
Patrick Retschko<\/a>
Liam Fawcett<\/a><\/p>\n

St Kilda (7)
Kye Fincher<\/a>
Charlie Banfield<\/a>
James Barrat<\/a>
Alix Tauru<\/a>
Eamonn Armstrong<\/a>
Alex Dodson<\/a>
Patrick Said<\/a><\/p>\n

Sydney (11)
Harry Kyle<\/a>
Liam Hetherton<\/a>
Jevan Phillipou<\/a>
Noah Chamberlain<\/a>
Max King<\/a>
Ned Bowman<\/a>
Jesse Dattoli<\/a>
Riak Andrew<\/a>
Will Green<\/a>
Patrick Snell<\/a>
Tom Hanily<\/a><\/p>\n

West Coast (14)
Cooper Duff-Tytler<\/a>
Fred Rodriguez<\/a>
Willem Duursma<\/a>
Josh Lindsay<\/a>
Tylah Williams<\/a>
Sam Allen<\/a>
Lucca Grego<\/a>
Tom Gross<\/a>
Jobe Shanahan<\/a>
Malakai Champion<\/a>
Hamish Davis<\/a>
Jacob Newton<\/a>
Bo Allan<\/a>
Harvey Johnston<\/a><\/p>\n

Western Bulldogs (9)
Lachy Carmichael<\/a>
Louis Emmett<\/a>
Will Darcy<\/a>
Luke Kennedy<\/a>
Lachie Jaques<\/a>
Zac Walker<\/a>
Cooper Hynes<\/a>
Lachlan Smith<\/a>
Jordan Croft<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Close to 170 AFL players will enter the 2026 season eligible for the Rising Star Award, with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-346376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-afl","8":"tag-afl","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-australian-football-league","12":"tag-australianfootballleague","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}