The AFL Players’ Association has launched an exciting new concept to recognise the individual performances of the game’s most valuable throughout the season.

Each month, players will vote to decide their Most Valuable Player of the Month (starting with April), and every winner will be automatically nominated for the end-of-season AFL Players’ MVP Award (Leigh Matthews Trophy).

AFL Players’ MVP winners Leigh Matthews (1982), Gerard Healy (1988), Tim Watson (1989) and Chris Judd (2006, 2011) will be responsible for compiling a list of nominees before the current male players vote to decide the monthly winner.

Those nominees will then be put to all current AFL players for a vote to declare the official AFL Players’ MVP of the Month.

Matthews, the inaugural AFL Players’ MVP winner, believes this concept will create an interesting talking point throughout the season.

“Six rounds in and many players have displayed stellar early season form. It will be intriguing to see which player has most impressed his peers by receiving their top votes for the previous month,” Matthews said.

The six MVP of the Month nominees for April, as determined by the MVP winners, can be viewed below:

Rory Sloane

Games: 6

Disposals (avg.): 29.5

Contested possessions (avg.): 15.7 (ranked #3)

Tackles (avg.): 9.7 (ranked #1)

Clearances (avg.): 7.7 (ranked #3)

Centre clearances (total): 23 (ranked #6)

Score involvements (total): 54 (ranked #4)

Dustin Martin

Games: 6

Disposals (avg.): 28.5

Contested possessions (avg.): 14.2 (ranked #10)

Tackles (avg.): 4.5

Kicks (avg.): 20.5 (ranked #3)

Clearances (avg.): 6.8 (ranked #9)

Inside 50s (avg.): 6.2 (ranked #1)

Metres gained (total: 3728 (ranked #1)

Ollie Wines

Games: 6

Disposals (avg.): 28

Contested possessions: 13.7 per game (ranked #13)

Total goal assists: 7 (ranked #6)

Eddie Betts

Games: 6

Goals (total): 20 (ranked #2)

Disposals: 16.2 (career-high)

Marks (avg.): 4 (career-high)

Tackles (avg.): 3

Marks inside 50 (avg.): 3 (ranked #7)

Score involvements (total): 51 (ranked #9)

Joel Selwood

Games: 6

Disposals (avg.): 29.5

Tackles: 7.3 (ranked #7)

Total goal assists: 11 (ranked #2)

Total effective disposals (avg.): 22.50 (ranked #7)

Contested possessions (avg.): 14.33 (ranked #9)

Zach Merrett

Games: 6

Disposals (avg.): 33 (ranked #2)

Kicks (avg.): 21.7 (ranked #2)

Metres gained (avg.): 615.9 per game (ranked #2)

Total uncontested possessions: 137 (ranked #3)

The MVP of the Month for April will be revealed on the AFL Players’ Association website this Wednesday afternoon.

The fans will also gain the opportunity to have their say, with the ability to vote for the player they deem to be the best of the month. Click here to cast your vote!

THE VOTING PROCESS

• The MVP winners (Matthews, Judd, Healy and Watson) will nominate six players they believe to be the best for the month.
• Current players will then vote to decide who they believe is the MVP of the Month from the six nominees
• The monthly winner will be automatically nominated for the end-of-season AFL Players’ MVP Award (Leigh Matthews Trophy).

VOTING PERIODS

March/April — Rounds 1-6

May — Rounds 7-10

June — Rounds 11-15

July — Rounds 16-19

August — Rounds 20-23