Carlton stars Darcy Vescio, Brianna Davey and Danielle Hardiman have been nominated for the AFL Players’ Association’s highest accolade, the MVP Award.

If named the most valuable player for the inaugural year, they will join the likes of Patrick Dangerfield, Nat Fyfe, Gary Ablett and Leigh Matthews who are previous winners of the esteemed award.

After a standout season, Carlton’s marquee player Brianna Davey has also been nominated for the AFLW Players’ Most Courageous Award. 

A dedicated event will be held on the first Monday following the women’s season to celebrate those who have received an award for their efforts in the maiden year of the competition. 

With a range of awards to be won, including the AFLW Players’ Most Courageous Award, an Education and Development Award for those pursuing study away from the field and Players’ Best Captain Award, which all eight AFLW team captains are automatically in the running to win. 

MVP voting is a two-stage process, beginning with each player voting for the three teammates she considers to have been the most valuable this season. Each club’s votes are then tallied to form a nomination list comprising 24 players across the eight teams.

In the second round of voting, all players vote for their MVP on a 3, 2, 1 basis from the nominees of the seven other clubs. The votes are tallied and the player with the highest score wins the honour of MVP. Players cannot vote for their own teammates in stage two of the process.

A similar process will decide the Most Courageous Award, but every captain is automatically nominated for the Best Captain Award. The Education and Development Award will see nominations made by club Player Development Managers and the winner decided through a selection panel.