\n Ethan Read is the Telstra AFL Rising Star nominee for round 21\n <\/p>\n
Ethan Read in action during Gold Coast’s clash against Richmond in round 21, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos<\/p>\n
YOUNG Gold Coast forward Ethan Read says it’s a St Kilda great he wants to model his game off as he strives to lock down a career at the top level.<\/p>\n
Read has been rewarded for the best game of his short career against Richmond on Saturday by earning the round 21 Telstra AFL Rising Star nomination.<\/p>\n
RISING STAR HUB Check out all this year’s nominees<\/a><\/p>\n The Suns Academy graduate kicked 2.2 from his 13 disposals that included nine score involvements and a career-high nine marks.<\/p>\n The 202cm ruck\/forward turned heads at the Telstra AFL Draft Combine in 2023 when he ran a barely believable 2km time trial of under six minutes.<\/p>\n The Suns matched a bid by Geelong at No.9 in that year\u2019s draft to take their home-grown talent.<\/p>\n With aerobic capacity few men his size can match, it’s little surprise Read eyed off another player that grew up on the Gold Coast as someone to take notes from \u2013 Saints champion, Nick Riewoldt.<\/p>\n “He’s someone I try and model my game off,” Read said on Monday.<\/p>\n “Just outworking my opponent and grinding them down slowly. That’s only going to improve over time.”<\/p>\n While that side of his game continues to improve, the recently turned 20-year-old says it’s his physicality that demands most attention.<\/p>\n With Damien Hardwick dropping Read’s great mate Jed Walter a fortnight ago, more onus has been placed on the former as a dual key threat alongside Ben King in the wins over Brisbane and the Tigers.<\/p>\n Ethan Read celebrates during Gold Coast’s clash against Brisbane in round 20, 2025. Picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n “Coming into the AFL there was a different level physicality, and I’ve gone to work on that,” he said.<\/p>\n “I’m just trying to stand up against these more physical defenders. I think I’m getting better at that every week.<\/p>\n “I’m a good runner, so I guess I can cover the ground all right. I think my skill level is good as well, it’s just that physical side that needs to improve.<\/p>\n “I’m still working on that, but I’m getting there.”<\/p>\n Read has kicked 15 goals from 15 games in 2025 and 18 from 19 in his two-season career.<\/p>\n 2025 Telstra AFL Rising Star nominees<\/p>\n Round one: Sam Lalor (Richmond)<\/a>
Round two:\u00a0Connor O’Sullivan (Geelong)<\/a>
Round three:\u00a0Harvey Langford (Melbourne)<\/a>
Round four: Levi Ashcroft (Brisbane)<\/a>
Round five:\u00a0Archie Roberts (Essendon)<\/a>
Round six: Murphy Reid (Fremantle)<\/a>
Round seven: Xavier Lindsay (Melbourne)<\/a>
Round eight:\u00a0Hugo Garcia (St Kilda)<\/a>
Round nine: Nate Caddy (Essendon)<\/a>
Round 10: Cooper Lord (Carlton)<\/a>
Round 11: Angus Clarke (Essendon)<\/a>
Round 12:\u00a0Ed Allan (Collingwood)<\/a>
Round 13:\u00a0Dan Curtin (Adelaide)<\/a>
Round 14:\u00a0Tyrell Dewar (West Coast)<\/a>
Round 15:\u00a0Finn O’Sullivan (North Melbourne)<\/a>
Round 16:\u00a0Clay Hall (West Coast)<\/a>
Round 17:\u00a0Isaac Kako (Essendon)<\/a>
Round 18:\u00a0Luke Trainor (Richmond)<\/a>
Round 19: Ashton Moir (Carlton)<\/a>
Round 20: Joe Fonti (Greater Western Sydney)<\/a>
Round 21:\u00a0Ethan Read (Gold Coast)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ethan Read is the Telstra AFL Rising Star nominee for round 21 Ethan Read in action during Gold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,83,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-43184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-text","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43184","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=43184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}