Awesome foursome in hot contest to be pick of young guns

A FOUR-WAY fight is looming in today’s AFL Rising Star vote count.

Andy McGrath has the No.1 defensive rating in the AFL. The Canadian-born Bomber has blanketed some of the game’s best forwards in his first season, in Round 21 keeping Eddie Betts goalless and to his smallest disposal count in four years.

“If he doesn’t win the Rising Star, I’m pretty sure it’s rigged,” Essendon teammate Brendon Goddard said.

Carlton forward Charlie Curnow has charged to the finish line like the champion racehorse Winx.

From rounds 13 to 23, he was ranked the fifth-best key forward behind Lance Franklin, Tom Hawkins, Jarryd Roughead and Jon Patton.

“This kid is the buy of the footy world,” Melbourne great Garry Lyon declared as the curly haired Curnow caught fire. Curnow was the last, and the best, of a club-record five Blues nominees.

This week the first four all backed Curnow to give Carlton its first Rising Star winner.

While he improved through the season, Port Adelaide’s Sam Powell-Pepper burst out of the gates. His aggression was lauded from his first pre- season session with the Power.

After Powell-Pepper kicked two monster goals and scored the Round 1 nomination, Port champion Kane Cornes predicted he would be every bit as good as Ollie Wines.

As his fend-off became a feature in games, he was likened to Dustin Martin.

And then there was Ryan Burton, deployed by Haw- thorn coach Alastair Clarkson as a polished distributor behind the ball. Burton beat Adelaide star Taylor Walker twice this year and former Hawk Daniel Harford said Clarkson could build a team around him.

“Quite honestly any of the four could get your best vote,” AFL talent manager and judge Kevin Sheehan said.