2007 Rising Star winner Joel Selwood.
Photo: John Donegan

Cats' Rising Star looks for a flag

Martin Boulton | September 6, 2007

GEELONG assistant coach Brendan McCartney has watched Joel Selwood closer than most this year and marvelled at his uncompromising attack on the ball.

But after the 19-year-old midfielder was yesterday named the 2007 Rising Star, McCartney noted a few other characteristics that made Selwood stand out this season.

"We've only had him for a short time, so I don't think we can pretend to know everything that's in his heart or in his head, but I don't think anything will get in the way of him wanting to achieve long-term success for himself and his team," McCartney said. "And that is the trademark of a good leader."

Selwood, a former member of the Australian Institute of Sport-AFL Academy, is the first recipient of the Ron Evans Medal — named after former AFL chairman Ron Evans, who died in March.

The medal was presented by Evans' wife, Andrea, at the 15th annual awards ceremony.

Selwood is the first Geelong player to win the award, but quickly shifted the focus onto the Cats' finals campaign, beginning with Sunday's qualifying final against the Kangaroos. "It's a great honour to take out the medal, there's been a lot of hype around it," he said.

His older twin brothers, Troy and Adam, were nominees in successive weeks in 2005 with the Brisbane Lions and West Coast respectively. Last year Adam was a member of the Eagles' premiership team.

"It (the grand final) was pretty emotional, I was sitting next to Troy and Mum … one point, there's not many grand finals like that," Joel said. His overriding memory of that day was being in the Eagles' rooms after the match: "The joy the West Coast boys were showing … something I definitely want to be part of."

Selwood, taken by Geelong with pick seven in last year's national draft, soon made his teammates "sit up and take notice", according to McCartney, by the way he went about his training. He made his debut in round one and played 18 games, averaging 19 possessions a game.

"We've got some terrific players down there. At times they've all made massive impacts on games (but) he just hasn't put in a bad game," McCartney said. "He's maintained his attack on the ball, fitted in with how the team's played and just wanted to win, week in and week out."

Of the nine judges, only former West Coast player Chris Mainwaring placed Selwood second, behind Collingwood's Scott Pendlebury, giving Selwood 44 of a possible 45 votes.

Pendlebury finished second with 37 votes, followed by Melbourne midfielder Nathan Jones (17 votes), Port Adelaide's Justin Westhoff (10 votes) and West Coast's Shannon Hurn (nine votes).

The other judges were AFL chief Andrew Demetriou, AFL football operations manager Adrian Anderson, AFL talent manager Kevin Sheehan and former players Rod Austin, Gerard Healy, Mark Bickley, Kevin Bartlett and Robert Walls.

Selwood said he never doubted he would be picked up by an AFL club last year, despite injuring his knee and missing most of his season with the Bendigo Pioneers.

Brisbane Lions coach Leigh Matthews said Selwood's season was worthy of All-Australian selection. "If someone told you he'd been playing for 10 years and he's been All-Australian for the last 10 years, you wouldn't be surprised. He's just a gem," Matthews said.