Ty Gallop’s Round 16 nomination after the emphatic win over Sydney at the Gabba last Thursday night gives Brisbane 54 nominees since the inception of the award in 1993, equalling the Essendon total.

Melbourne (52), West Coast (49), Hawthorn (47), Richmond (46), Collingwood, Fremantle and Western Bulldogs (43), Carlton (42), Port Adelaide (39), Geelong, North Melbourne and Sydney (38), Adelaide (37), StKilda (35), expansion clubs Gold Coast (29) and GWS (28), and Fitzroy (6).

Brisbane also shares top spot on the all-time Rising Star winners list with four – Nathan Buckley (1993), Chris Scott (1994), Daniel Rich (2009) and Lewis Taylor (2014).

Other overall winners have come from Fremantle (4), Melbourne, Sydney (3), Collingwood, Essendon, Geelong, Hawthorn, North, Port and StKilda (2), Adelaide, Carlton, Gold Coast, Richmond and West Coast (1).

GWS and Western Bulldogs have not won the award. Likewise Fitzroy, whose six nominations were Chris Johnson, Jarrod Molloy, John Barker, Nick Carter and Simon Hawking, who were part of the ‘Chosen Eight’ who headed to Brisbane via the merger, and Matthew Primus, who rejection an invitation to do likewise.

Gallop is also just the third player among 761 Rising Star nominees all-time to have won a premiership before his nomination.

The others have been Brisbane’s Richard Hardley, who was a premiership player in 2003 before he was nominated in 2004, and Melbourne’s Jake Bowey, a 2021 premiership player nominated in 2022.

Quite remarkably, too, Gallop was nominated on the back of his outstanding form this year in defence – despite having played his entire junior career and his 2025 debut season as a forward. And after he was not invited to the AFL Draft Combine in his draft year.

He debuted in Round 13 only to be dropped the following week, and was only recalled in Round 24 after fellow Sunshine Coaster Eric Hipwood blew out his knee. Yet he finished his first season with four finals, kicking three goals in an MCG preliminary final against Collingwood.

It’s all part of a remarkable draft story in which Gallop was ignored 41 times by 15 rival clubs in the 2024 National Draft – Richmond no less than seven times, GWS four times, and St.Kilda, Essendon, Port Adelaide, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs three times.

The ongoing silence was a delight to the ears of Brisbane recruiting staff, who had already matched a Melbourne bid at #5 to claim Levi Ashcroft and a Sydney bid at #25 to secure Sam Marshall on the first night of the draft, held at Marvel Stadium on 20 November.

As the second night began they waited until Geelong, who had not had a pick to that point, bid on Gallup. Lions list boss Dom Ambrogio couldn’t match the bid quickly enough, locking away the then 18-year-old Sunshine Coaster, who was a product of the Lions Academy.

Nineteen months later Gallop, 19 games into his career, sits 17^th on the games list from the 2024 Draft.

Levi Ashcroft heads the list with 42, having never missed a game, from Fremantle pick #17 Murphy Reid (38), Melbourne #6 Harvey Langford (37), North Melbourne #2 Finn O’Sullivan (32), Sydney #41 Riley Bice (31), Fremantle pre-season supplementary pick Isaiah Dudley (30), Essendon #13 Isaac Kako (28), and Richmond #21 Luke Trainor and Bulldogs #51 Sam Davidson (28), and Port Adelaide #15 Joe Berry (27).

Others ahead of Gallop are Richmond #14 Jonty Faull (26), Essendon mid-season pick-up Lachie Blakiston (25), Melbourne #11 Xavier Lindsay and West Coast #65 Hamish Davis (23), Bulldogs #20 Cooper Hynes and Port #38 Christian Moraes (21).

But the games statistics that matters most are finals and premierships. Gallop, Ashcroft and Marshall each played four finals and won a flag in their first season, while Reid and Dudley, with one final each for Fremantle, are the only others to have played in September.

Gallop’s nomination means the current Lions squad has no less than 13 nominees – Darcy Gardiner, Harris Andrews, Eric Hipwood, Hugh McCluggage, Cam Rayner, Noah Answerth, Will Ashcroft, Darcy Wilmot, Jaspa Fletcher, Kai Lohmann, Logan Morris, Levi Ashcroft, Ty Gallop.

Brisbane Rising Star nominees have been:-

1993 – Nathan Chapman, Nathan Buckley
1994 – Chris Scott, Matthew Clarke
1995 – Steven Lawrence
1997 – Daniel Bradshaw
1998 – Luke Power
1999 – Shane O’Bree, Simon Black, Luke Power (2), Tim Notting
2000 – Beau McDonald
2001 – Damian Cupido, Robert Copeland
2002 – Jamie Charman
2003 – Jared Brennan, Ash McGrath
2004 – Richard Hadley
2005 – Justin Sherman, Jed Adcock, Troy Selwood, Anthony Corrie
2006 – Michael Rischitelli, Cheynee Stiller, Matthew Moody
2007 – Cameron Wood, Mitch Clark
2008 – Bradd Dalziell
2009 – Daniel Rich
2010 – Todd Banfield, Tom Rockliff, Jack Redden
2012 – Claye Beams, Mitch Golby
2013 – Sam Mayes
2014 – James Aish, Lewis Taylor, Darcy Gardiner
2015 – Harris Andrews
2017 – Eric Hipwood, Hugh McCluggage, Alex Witherden
2018 – Alex Witherden (2), Cam Rayner
2019 – Noah Answerth
2020 - Brandon Starcevich
2021 – Deven Robertson
2023 – Will Ashcroft, Darcy Wilmot, Jaspa Fletcher
2024 – Kai Lohmann, Logan Morris
2025 – Levi Ashcroft
2026 – Ty Gallop