There are few more subjective awards than the Rising Star, perhaps none that are based basically on which player which judge has liked best.
At least the All-Australian selectors can squeeze three players on to each line, not have to choose between the apples and oranges. The weekly nomination process is one that recruiting managers are a little bit sceptical of, while secretly hoping their boy gets some recognition.
No one at the Western Bulldogs could contemplate Marcus Bontempelli not winning. No one at the Brisbane Lions thinks Lewy Taylor's season has been bettered, unless by teammate James Aish.
Luke McDonald, Josh Kelly, Kade Kolodjashnij, Zach Merrett, Troy Menzel, Jon Patton, Tom Langdon and Matt Crouch are among the others who would all be hoping to pick up a few votes.
If you were going to draft from this group, it would be tough to pass on Joe Daniher. It's hard to remember a field as even, and difficult to prise apart, as this one.
Do we like the big moments best? Bontempelli has done much more than dish up a few of those. But he does things that are hard to dislodge from your head, or at least resist rewinding to watch again, wondering if you saw what you thought you saw.
His late goal against Melbourne involved a chase, a lunge, a tackle, a knock-on, another tackle, a gather, a duck, a twist, turn, second turn, one step and a kick from tight against the boundary line. It also made sure his team won.
The Bulldogs introduced him a month in, and got him through the season well. If he keeps going - and he has the nature to keep working - he's going to be difficult to match up on.
Are we judging on this season alone? If we are, and history shows that's what the judges do, it would be hard to pass on Taylor, as good as Bontempelli's games have been. He has played every week, played well most weeks, kicked goals, set them up and won plenty of the ball. His energy and bounce is harder to quantify, but has been so important for the beaten-down Lions.
Aish, likewise, slotted in and has got through a season playing in a demanding part of the ground.
Daniher deserves credit given what has been asked of him in his second year. So does Patton, who we unfortunately won't see any more of for a while. Patton kicked 25 games in his 19 games, while also sampling the back line. He's a third-year player, but one who has overcome bad injuries and who must now rebuild his knee again.
Daniher has coped well with a huge amount of responsibility, playing as a key forward alongside Jake Carlisle, who is still learning to play the position himself. He's averaged seven marks a game, and kicked 24 goals in 20 matches.
His teammate, Merrett, has added some sharp foot skills and a nice little bit of "leave it to me" to Essendon's side. He's played a similar role to Taylor, really, and isn't too far behind him.
The most brilliant bits of Troy Menzel's season were as good as anyone's, and the same goes for St Kilda's Jack Billings. Kolodjashnij looked like he knew exactly what he was doing from day one. Langdon ran out of puff, but played with a huge amount of composure in the first half of the season. Luke Dunstan made a powerful start, and Jake Stringer had a strong finish. Harry Cunningham and Jake Lloyd have been impossible to push out of the top-of-the-ladder team.
Jack Martin's round-one shoulder injury cut short what everyone had been waiting to see - even the parents of the kids who played with and against him as a junior talk in awe of the things he can do. It took him about two minutes to get his spot in the Gold Coast side back, and he sums up the best thing about this award: the hope attached to it and the fact that the best is to come.
History shows the winner might not become the best player of his draft class (in fact, he probably won't be), but that he will play a lot of games, and a lot of very good ones. Let's see what happens from here.
