Jai Murray, an emerging Gold Coast sports star who chose AFL over rugby league, has become Queensland football\u2019s 36th nomination for the AFL Rising Star Award.<\/p>\n
Murray was recognised by the selection panel for 17 possessions, five tackles and five clearances in his third game for the SUNS against Hawthorn at Carrara last Friday night.<\/p>\n
He is the third member of the six-man \u2018Burleigh Bombers\u2019 contingent at the SUNS to win a Rising Star nomination after Bodhi Uwland and Leo Lombard.<\/p>\n
Murray, who has looked very comfortable at the level after his debut in Round 13, has been one of few shining lights in a Gold Coast side clinging desperately to a fading finals chance after they were premiership favourites at Round 3.<\/p>\n
Already the 19-year-old midfielder\/utility has been a major \u2018win\u2019 for the code after he was torn between the football codes in winter growing up.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the lead-up to his draft last year he said,\u00a0 \u201cI was rugby league first as a kid, from Under 12s to probably Under 14\u2019s. Then I started really getting into my footy. I probably started loving the game and really getting into it in Under 16\u2019s.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Son of Mike Murray, a one-time world surf ski champion and Coolangatta Gold competitor, he was also an outstanding junior surf lifesaver at North Burleigh, and won a Queensland junior board title.<\/p>\n
Murray is the eighth Queenslander to win a Rising Star nomination at the SUNS and joins a Rising Star history which dates back to Round 1 1994, when Cairns junior Che Cockato-Collins was recognised when he had 21 possessions and kicked three goals on debut.<\/p>\n
Cockatoo-Collins is one of three Queenslanders nominated on debut. The others were North Melbourne\u2019s Brad Moran in 2006 and Bailey Scott in 2019.<\/p>\n
Three players polled Brownlow Medal votes in their nomination game \u2013 Will Ashcroft picked up three votes for 31 possessions and a goal in his second game, Lachie Weller two votes for 22 possessions and a career-high four goals in his 15th game, and Nick Riewoldt one vote for 17 possessions.<\/p>\n
Zac Smith, too, had a special nomination \u2013 he had 20 possessions, two goals, 17 hit-outs and six clearances in QClash #1 at the Gabba in 2011.<\/p>\n
There have been two sets of Brisbane nominated \u2013 Dayne and Claye Beams, and Will and Levi Ashcroft.<\/p>\n
Brisbane (10) and Gold Coast (8) head the Queensland nomination count from North (3), Adelaide, Collingwood, Richmond and StKilda (2), Carlton, Essendon, Fremantle, Hawthorn, Melbourne, Sydney and Western Bulldogs (1).<\/p>\n
In order, Queenslanders nominated for what is effectively the Rookie\u2019s Brownlow Medal, with the game in which they were nominated, and any special statistical highlights, have been:-<\/p>\n
Che Cockatoo (Ess) \u2013 1994 – debut \u2013 21 possessions, 3 goalsSteven Lawrence (Bris) \u2013 1995 – 4\u00a0games \u2013 22 possessionsMal Michael (Coll) \u2013 1997 – 9 gamesBrett Backwell (Carl) \u2013 1999 – 3 games \u2013 12 possessions, 3 goals (career-best)Robert Copeland (Bris) \u2013 2001 – 11 games \u2013 13 possessions, 3 goals (equal career-best)Nick Riewoldt (StK) \u2013 2002 \u2013 11 games \u2013 17 possessions, 1 Brownlow voteJamie Charman (Bris) \u2013 2002 \u2013 20 games, 20 hit-outsMichael Osborne (Haw) \u2013 2003 \u2013 14 possessions \u2013 3rd seasonAndrew Raines (Rich) \u2013 2006 \u2013 11 possessionsCheynee Stiller (Bris) \u2013 2006 \u2013 28 possessions, 1 goalBrad Moran (NM) \u2013 2006 – 21 possessions, 10 hit-outsRicky Petterd (Melb) \u2013 2007 \u2013 2 games \u2013 24 possessionsSam Gilbert (StK) – 2007 \u2013 14 games \u2013 22 possessionsTom Williams (WB) \u2013 2007 – 9 games \u2013 18 possessionsKurt Tippett (Adel) \u2013 2008 – 8 games \u2013 7 possessions, 4 goalsGavin Urquhart (NM) \u2013 2008 – 9 games \u2013 22 possessionsDayne Beams (Coll) \u2013 2009 – 11 games \u2013 21 possessions, 2 goalsJesse White (Syd) \u2013 2009 \u2013 20 games – 10 possessions, 3 goals\u00a0 Zac Smith (GC) \u2013 2011 \u2013 6 games \u2013 20 possessions, 2 goals, 17HO, 6 clearancesClaye Beams (Bris) \u2013 2012 \u2013 6 games \u2013 25 possessionsCharlie Cameron (Adel) \u2013 2015 \u2013 18 games \u2013 13 possessions, 1 goalHarris Andrews (Bris) \u2013 2015 \u2013 14 games \u2013 22 possessions, 3 contested marksLachie Weller (Frem) \u2013 2016 – 15 games \u2013 22 possessions, 4 goals (career best), 2 votesEric Hipwood (Bris) \u2013 2017 – 15 games \u2013 12 possessions, 3 goalsBailey Scott (NM) \u2013 2019 \u2013 debut \u2013 21 possessions, 2 goalsConnor Budarick (GC) \u2013 2020 \u2013 3 games \u2013 16 possessions, 1 goalNoah Cumberland (Rich) \u2013 2022 \u2013 5 games \u2013 8 possessions, 5 goals (career-best)Will Ashcroft (Bris) \u2013 2023 \u2013 2 games \u2013 31 possessions, 1 one, 9 clearances, 3 votesJaspa Fletcher (Bris) \u2013 2023 \u2013 6 games \u2013 19 possessionsJake Rogers (GC) \u2013 2024 \u2013 2 games \u2013 22 possessions, 1 goalBodhi Uwland (GC) \u2013 2024 \u2013 13 games \u2013 19 possessionsWill Graham (GC) \u2013 2024 \u2013 9 games \u2013 12 possessions, 1 goalLevi Ashcroft (Bris) \u2013 2025 \u2013 2 games \u2013 17 possessionsEthan Read (GC) \u2013 2025 \u2013 19 games \u2013 13 possessions, 2 goalsLeo Lombard (Bris) \u2013 2026 \u2013 5 games \u2013 15 possessions, 2 goalsJai Murray (GC) \u2013 2026 \u2013 3 games \u2013 17 possessions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jai Murray, an emerging Gold Coast sports star who chose AFL over rugby league, has become Queensland football\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-754289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754289","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=754289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}