<blockquote>Eagle Luke Shuey accepted a reprimand and 93.75 points against his record for engaging in rough conduct against Collingwood's Tom Hunter in last week's NAB Cup semi-final at Patersons Stadium.</blockquote>Does this mean Shuey is ineligible for the NAB Rising Star award in 2011?
I don't believe so. Isn't it the same rule as the Brownlow - pre-season games don't affect eligibility (god forbid that Jamison and Ellard would be ineligible for the Brownlow)? Interesting to see how many nominations GCS get this year for Rising Star. I'm going for 8.
I think you can safely say that GCS nominees would be Swallow, Jolly, Bennell, Matera, Prestia, Toy, McKenzie - so an easy 7 for sure. However i don't think this years award holds a clear winner, with 3 or 4 of the GCS boys, plus Heppell and Conca sure to put their claims forward - will be interesting to see how the voting ends up.
Blair would have been...had he not played finals Armstrong, Gysberts, Bail, Colyer, Webberley? And the Great Gary Rohan. Rohan does look good this year and if he settles he will more than give Swallow a shake. Back to back for the Red and the White
My son is a coach in the VFL reserves and saw Swallow tear it up in one game last year with 30+ touches and 4 goals. Got to be a shoo in for the Nab rising star. Mature body, great tackler and is the total package.