Daniel Talia is the only player to win it in his 3rd season, 2012. (From Jeremy Cameron, Mitch Wallis, Adam Treloar) **Interestingly, GC Suns entered the competition in 2011 and GWS Giants entered in 2012. Both teams monopolized young talent in their respective drafts, but reasonably, changed the landscape for first-year players. Increased opportunity, decreased support, increased competition.
In 2012, GWS had EIGHT players get Rising Star nominations, which is an absolute aberration.
Winners in their second season are: Luke Jackson (2021), Jesse Hogan (2015), Daniel Hanneberry (2010), Danyle Pearce (2006), Jared Rivers (2004), Sam Mitchell (2003), Nick Reiwoldt (2002), Byron Pickett (1998) since 1997. Earlier than '97 used a different system to award the winner.
That's 8 first year players in the last 10 years, (80%) compared to 10 first year players across the first 17 years (58%) (from '97).
Surely it's just a factor that any player good enough to win the Rising Star would have played over 10 games in their first three seasons. Would have to be a very small sample size. I wouldn't be ruling Sheldrick out purely because of the above.