It was a worthy honour for the South Australian football prodigy, who was typically humble upon receiving the honour.
“Obviously it’s a great privilege to receive a nomination, but I am just stoked that the boys were able to get the four points last week,” Aish said.
“I feel very lucky to have been able to play Senior footy so early in my career and my focus is on being a consistent contributor every week.”
But Aish might just be the first of many Rising Star nominees at the Lions in 2014, with a total of 15 other players currently eligible for the honour.
Aish himself took to Twitter on Tuesday to ask “which player will be next? Plenty to choose from.”
Among those are his fellow 2013 draftees Lewis Taylor, Nick Robertson, Darcy Gardiner, and Tom Cutler – all of whom have tasted senior AFL action so far this season.
Then there’s Marco Paparone and Michael Close, who are seeing more regular senior game-time in the second season.
To be eligible for nomination, a player must be under the age of 21 at January 1 of that year and must not have played more than 10 games to the start of that season.
Since the merge in 1997, the most nominees in a single season at the Lions has been four.
This happened in both 1999 (Shane O’Bree, Simon Black, Luke Power, Tim Notting) and 2005 (Justin Sherman, Jed Adcock, Troy Selwood, Anthony Corrie).
The Club has previously had three winners of the AFL Rising Star award – Nathan Buckley, Chris Scott and Daniel Rich – while Luke Power remains the only player in Lions history to have received two nominations – in both 1998 and 1999.
Check out the full list of Fitzroy, Bears, and Brisbane Lions Rising Star nominees since the award was introduced back in 1993
ELIGIBLE RISING STARS
Jordon Bourke
Michael Close
Isaac Conway
Tom Cutler
Jonathan Freeman
Darcy Gardiner
Nick Hayes
Daniel McStay
Sam Michael
Jackson Paine
Marco Paparone
Nick Robertson
Archie Smith
Lewis Taylor
Patrick Wearden
What @brisbanelions player will be next? Plenty to choose from..
— James Aish (@JamesAish) April 28, 2014
