Carlton stars Kade Simpson, Sam Docherty and Bryce Gibbs have been nominated for the AFL Players Association MVP award, to be announced on September 13 in Melbourne.

Jacob Weitering has been nominated for the Best First Year Player award, while Simpson has also been nominated for the Most Courageous Player award.

Skipper Marc Murphy is in the running for the Best Captain award. 

The nomination for the MVP Award is a two-stage process, with the first involving players nominating three teammates for the award, before three nominees from every club are presented to the wider playing group for a vote to decide the winner.

Players cannot vote for their own teammates in stage two of the process.

A similar process is followed for the Best First Year player and Most Courageous categories, however just one player is nominated from each club.

2016 will see the 35th Annual AFL Players’ Association MVP Awards and the winners will be announced on Tuesday 13 September at Peninsula in Docklands.

There have been 26 winners of the Leigh Matthews Trophy (AFLPA MVP) with Gary Ablett (five), Greg Williams Wayne Carey, Chris Judd, Michael Voss and Nat Fyfe (two) the only multiples.

The 2016 AFLPA MVP Awards will be broadcast live on Fox Footy on Tuesday 13 September from 8.30pm. 

On Monday, both Simpson and Docherty were nominated for the 2016 All-Australian squad, with the final team to be unveiled on Thursday evening at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.