PROMISING young Demon Eden Zanker has been nominated for the 2019 NAB AFLW Rising Star Award in Round 3.

Zanker received the nomination on the back of her performance against Brisbane at Hickey Park on Sunday. 

The 19-year-old gathered an equal career-high 11 disposals and booted a goal in Melbourne’s 39-point victory over the Lions and said she was humbled by the accolade.

“It’s quite an honour actually, but credit to the coaches and staff,” Zanker told Melbourne Media.

“We’ve put an abundant amount of work into getting me to where I am today.

“Individually it’s awesome and a privilege to have people out there looking up to me and recognising my achievements and how much work I’ve put into the season and my game.”

The versatile tall received the exciting news on Monday evening, but was initially concerned when she received the call. 

“I was at home last night just watching a movie and then I got a phone call from Todd Patterson and usually when he calls he makes it sound like you’ve done something wrong,” Zanker said.

“I’ve answered the phone call and he’s like ‘are you alone?’.

“I wasn’t alone at the time, so I walked outside and I told him that I was all ears, so fire away.

“He had a second there between us talking and then mentioned I was Rising Star, so he got me a bit stressed, but it was a sense of relief when he told me.”

Zanker showed plenty of promise in her debut season last year after being drafted to the club with pick No.6 in the inaugural AFLW Draft. 

And after a solid season in the VFLW, the versatile tall is now prepared for a big 2019 campaign. 

“I’m pretty confident in the forward line – obviously we’re still working on a few things,” Zanker said.

“I’m pretty new to the ruck – I played a fair bit there through the VFL season, but it’s just getting up to that elite level and rising to Lozzy-P’s (Lauren Pearce’s) standards in the ruck.

“We’re just tweaking a few things but definitely becoming more confident in both of those aspects of the game.”

Melbourne is preparing to face the undefeated Kangaroos this weekend at Casey Fields in what is set to be a challenging match up.

But Zanker has full confidence in her side’s ability to mix it with the best this season.

“It’s looking really good at the moment,” she said.

“We’ve obviously got a tough week ahead of us facing North - they’re undefeated at the minute. 

“We’ll just stick to our own game style and hopefully we’ll get the better of them.”