Former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon remains convinced that Gold Coast’s Matt Rowell should win the 2020 Rising Star award.
Rowell dominated the opening month of the season, earning 30 votes in the AFL Coaches Association Player of the Year award and looked like the Suns’ most important player.
Fremantle’s Caleb Serong and Gold Coast’s Noah Anderson are the favourites to wing the award given their body of work across the season, but Lyon believes Rowell’s early dominance proves he is the competition’s ‘rising star’.
“For the selectors, either you give Matt Rowell the (maximum) five votes or you give him none,” Lyon told SEN Breakfast.
“You can’t give him two or three. You’ve got to make your mind up.
“The argument (against Rowell) is the body of work over the course of the season and longevity and needing to play more games than not and all those sorts of things, but he is the rising star of the competition, Matt Rowell.”
If voting for Rowell is off the table, Lyon’s next pick would be Hawthorn defender Will Day.
“I love Will Day, he would be my second pick. I just love what he has done at Hawthorn,” he said.
“Noah Anderson has had a fantastic year as well and Caleb Serong’s a star, but Will Day would be my pick of all those players, but it’s in the eye of the beholder.”
Day impressed quickly for the Hawks, averaging 16 disposals per game across half back.
