Barrass made his WAFL senior debut against Peel Thunder in round 5 of the 2015 season , recording nine marks . Gavin Bell , West Coast 's Head of Development , was impressed with Barrass 's performance and noted his marking and ball use as standouts . Teammate Josh Hill likened him to fellow defender Jeremy McGovern for his intercept marking and ability to " read " the play , a comparison later echoed by teammate Mark LeCras . In July , coach Adam Simpson said Barrass was ready to play at AFL level , but noted the backline was " pretty settled " and it would be hard for the defender to claim a spot . After McGovern hurt his left hamstring against , Barrass replaced him in the senior side against in round 17 of the 2015 AFL season . On debut , he recorded 15 disposals and five marks . Simpson was happy with Barrass 's performance , saying " it 's good to get exposure in such a big game " , and noted the side 's scarcity of key defenders after Will Schofield injured his calf . Fellow backman Xavier Ellis praised his efforts to play on dual Brownlow medallist Adam Goodes . Barrass played two more matches to end the year ; round 18 versus and round 22 against . Barrass missed the first half of the 2016 AFL season but replaced Eric Mackenzie in round 12 after the defender fell ill . In July he was named as one of West Coast 's key players under 23 by AFL.com.au journalist Alex Malcolm . He retained his spot for the majority of the second half of the season , culminating in a 2016 AFL Rising Star nomination after a twenty-nine point win against Adelaide in round 23 . Barrass recorded seventeen disposals at 94.1 % efficiency , ten spoils and ten marks , six of them interceptions . He polled one Brownlow vote for the performance . Barrass said he had been galvanised by his previous match against Adelaide in 2015 , when he had been outplayed by their forwards . He went on to play in his first AFL finals series , but only managed an elimination final after West Coast were knocked out by the . Barrass had eleven disposals and took six marks ; his performance was rated a 6 out of 10 by AFL.com.au journalist David Reed , who noted he improved after a slow start on Tom Boyd and took several crucial marks . Post-season , Barrass won West Coast 's Rookie of the Year award
2016 AFL Rising Star
2016 AFL Rising Star
Tom Barrass