Cam Rayner and Alex Witherden will fly the Brisbane Lions’ flag at today’s AFL Rising Star presentation, hoping to extend the Club’s proud tradition in the coveted award.

Both will take strong statistical claims into the final judgement, which will be announced in Melbourne this afternoon.

Rayner, the Round 15 nominee, is one of only three among 23 contenders to have played every game this season, alongside Sydney’s Ollie Florent and Collingwood’s Jaidyn Stephenson.

He ranks #2 among nominees for contested possessions and #3 in clearances and goals.

Witherden, the Round 9 nominee who missed the final round through injury, ranks #1 in possessions.

In 22 games this season Rayner averaged 13.50 possessions, kicked 20 goals, made 52 tackles, had 130 contested possessions, 37 clearances and 17 one-percenters.

In 21 games Witherden averaged 22.43 possessions, kicked one goal, made 34 tackles, had 79 contested possessions, 15 clearances and 37 one-percenters.

The 23 nominees in the star-studded field, with statistics for average possessions, goals, tackles, clearances, contested possessions and one-percenters are:

Rayner and Witherden will be hoping to become the Lions' fifth winner of what is loosely called the Under 21’s Brownlow Medal behind Nathan Buckley (1993), Chris Scott (1994), Daniel Rich (2009) and Lewis Taylor (2014).

It is a record which sees the club at the top of the Rising Star list ahead of Sydney, who have won the award three times via behind Adam Goodes (1999), Dan Hannebery (2010) and Callum Mills (2016).

The winner will receive the Ron Evans Medal, a $20,000 personal investment folio and a dedicated personal banker, courtesy of NAB.

To be eligible for the award, which was first won by Buckley in 1993, players must be under the age as of 21 at 1 January, 2018, and have played no more than 10 AFL games.

Among the winners are current AFL coaches Buckley and Scott, current AFL captains Joel Selwood and Dyson Heppell, and Brownlow Medallists Buckley, Goodes, Ben Cousins and Sam Mitchell.

In total, 48 Bears/Lions players have won 50 Rising Star nominations, including two each to Witherden, who was also nominated last year, and Luke Power, nominated in 1998 and 1999.

Bears/Lions nominees have been:

1993 – Nathan Buckley, Nathan Chapman
1994 – Chris Scott, Matthew Clarke, John Barker, Simon Hawking, Chris Johnson, Jarrod Molloy
1995 – Steven Lawrence
1996 - Matthew Primus, Nick Carter
1997 – Daniel Bradshaw
1998 – Luke Power
1999 – Shane O’Bree, Simon Black, Luke Power (2), Tim Notting
2000 – Beau McDonald
2001 – Damien 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 – Clay 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.

Taylor won the overall award in 2014 with 39 votes from the Western Bulldogs’ Marcus Bontempelli (38), North Melbourne’s Luke McDonald (32) and teammate James Aish (19).

Rich took the overall prize in 2009 with 45 votes from Adelaide’s Andy Ottens (30) and Essendon’s Tate Pears (28).

Dayne Beams, then playing with Collingwood, was fourth in 2009 with 10 votes ahead of Fremantle’s Stephen Hill (9), GWS co-captain Callan Ward (9) and Patrick Dangerfield, then playing with Adelaide, on four.

The final votes when Buckley and Scott won the first two Rising Star awards were not disclosed.

Seven other Brisbane players have finished top five in the final voting, which was made public from 1995 onwards.

Daniel Bradshaw was equal fifth behind Port Adelaide’s Michael Wilson in 1997, and Simon Black was third behind Sydney’s Goodes and Adelaide’s Brett Burton in 1999.

Beau McDonald was third behind Fremantle’s Paul Hasleby and Essendon’s Adam Ramanauskas in 2000, and Richard Hadley was third behind Melbourne pair Jared Rivers and Aaron Davey in 2004.

Jed Adcock, former captain turned assistant-coach, was fifth in 2005 when Richmond’s Brett Deledio was the overall winner, and Tom Rockliff, another former captain, was third overall behind Sydney’s Dan Hannebery and Melbourne’s Tom Scully in 2010.

Eric Hipwood was fifth overall last year when Essendon’s Andrew McGrath won from Hawthorn’s Ryan Burton, Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper and Carlton’s Charlie Curnow.

Also last night, Rayner finished third in the AFLPA Best First Year Player award, as voted by his peers, He polled 38 votes to rank behind Geelong's mature age draftee Tim Kelly (380) and Collingwood's Rising Star fancy Stephensen (173), and ahead of Richmond's Jack Higgins (25) and the Bulldogs' Ed Richards (25).

And Harris Andrews, Eric Hipwood and Alex Witherden were selected in the AFLPA 22Under22 Team of the Year, as voted by the fans after the AFLPA executive had chosen a preliminary squad.