Ollie Florent and Ben Ronke will fly the Sydney Swans flag at today’s AFL Rising Star function.

The 20-year-old pair will take strong statistical claims into the final judgement, which will be announced in Melbourne this afternoon.

Florent, the Round 11 nominee, is one of only three among 23 contenders to have played every game this season, alongside Brisbane’s Cam Rayner and Collingwood’s Jaidyn Stephenson. He ranks first among nominees for contested possessions and second in clearances behind Carlton’s Paddy Dow.

Ronke, the Round 8 nominee, ranks second in goals kicked this season behind Stephenson and second in tackles behind Fremantle’s Adam Cerra.

In 22 games this season, Florent averaged 16.96 possessions, kicked nine goals, made 55 tackles, had 154 contested possessions, 43 clearances and 27 one-percenters.

In 17 games, Ronke averaged 12.82 possessions, kicked 23 goals, made 70 tackles, had 96 contested possessions, six clearances and 12 one-percenters.

The 23 nominees, with statistics for average possessions, goals, tackles, clearances, contested possessions are one-percenters are:

Florent and Ronke will be hoping to become the Swans’ fourth overall winner of the Rising Star award behind Adam Goodes (1999), Dan Hannebery (2010) and Callum Mills (2016).

The Club’s proud record is second only to Brisbane’s four winners – Nathan Buckley (1993), Chris Scott (1994), Daniel Rich (2009) and Lewis Taylor (2014).

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

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

It is an award that has been won by some of the superstars of the game, including 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 1999, Goodes polled 33 votes in the final count to win from Adelaide’s Brett Burton (24), Brisbane’s Simon Black (22), Essendon’s Dean Rioli (7) and Brisbane’s Luke Power (5).

In 2010, Hannebery polled 45 votes to win from Melbourne’s Tom Scully (35), Brisbane’s Tom Rockliff (34), Melbourne’s Jack Trengove (11), North Mebourne’s Ryan Bastinac (6), Carlton’s Jeff Garlett (5), Fremantle’s Nat Fyfe (3), Essendon’s Michael Hurley (2), West Coast’s Nick Naitanui (2), Collingwood’s Ben Reid (1) and Hawthorn’s Ben Stratton (1).

And in 2016 Mills polled 49 votes to win from Western Bulldogs’ Caleb Daniels (41), Carlton’s Jacob Weitering (26), Essendon’s Darcy Parish (19), Collingwood’s Darcy Moore (9), Melbourne’s Christian Petracca (2), St Kilda’s Jade Gresham (2), Melbourne’s Clayton Oliver (1) and Fremantle’s Lachie Weller (1).

Among other Swans to figure in the final voting, Stefan Carey was equal second behind Port Adelaide’s Michael Wilson in 1997, with Troy Cook seventh, and Jude Bolton was sixth behind Fremantle’s Paul Hasleby in 2000.

Tadhg Kennelly was eighth behind St Kilda’s Nick Riewoldt in 2002, Adam Schneider was fifth behind Hawthorn’s Sam Mitchell in 2003, and Paul Bevan was equal fourth behind Melbourne’s Jared Rivers in 2004.

Sam Reid was sixth behind Essendon’s Heppell in 2011, and Tom Mitchell was equal fourth behind Gold Coast’s Jaeger O’Meara in 2013, and Harry Cunningham was eighth in 2014 behind Brisbane’s Taylor after his narrow win over the Bulldogs’ Marcus Bontempelli.

Isaac Heeney was fourth in 2015 behind Melbourne’s Jesse Hogan. Hogan polled 49 votes to beat Carlton’s Patrick Cripps (41), West Coast’s Dom Sheed (27), Heeney (12), Melbourne’s Angus Brayshaw (8), Gold Coast’s Touk Miller (6) and Adam Saad (3), Adelaide’s Jake Lever (2), Collingwood’s Jordan DeGoey (1) and Geelong’s Jackson Thurlow (1).

Twelve members of the 2018 Swans playing list are among 29 Sydney players to have received a weekly nomination for the Rising Star award – Florent, Ronke, Kieren Jack, Hannebery, Reid, Cunningham, Jake Lloyd, Heeney, Tom Papley, Mills, Lewis Melican and Will Hayward.

The full list of Swans nominees is:

1995 – Michael O’Loughlin, Justin Crawford
1996 – Shannon Grant, Daniel McPherson
1997 – Stefan Carey, Troy Cook
1998 – Jason Saddington, Jared Crouch
1999 – Adam Goodes, Ben Mathews
2000 – Jude Bolton
2002 – Tadhg Kennelly
2003 – Adam Schneider, Lewis Roberts-Thomson
2004 – Paul Bevan
2008 – Kieren Jack
2009 – Jesse White
2010 – Dan Hannebery
2011 – Sam Reid
2013 – Tom Mitchell
2014 – Harry Cunningham, Jake Lloyd
2015 – Isaac Heeney
2016 – Tom Papley, Callum Mills
2017 – Lewis Melican, Will Hayward
2018 – Ben Ronke, Oliver Florent