Tuivasa-sheck top Warrior
Warriors captain Roger Tuivasasheck is this year’s player of the year for the club.
The 24-year-old, who had to handle the pressure of leading the team for the first time in what was a dreadfully disappointing season, was still able to impress every week and is the deserved winner.
He was consistently the Warriors’ most threatening player on attack and as well as being dependable on defence.
It was regarded as a two-horse race for the award this year, with the other leading candidate being five-time winner Simon Mannering, although the other finalist, Shaun Johnson did have a strong season, his was interrupted by injury.
Tuivasa-sheck, who received his award at the club’s end of season function at Sky City in Auckland on Tuesday night is just the fifth back to become the Warriors’ player of the year, the last being Manu Vatuvei in 2010.
The fullback began the season returning from a serious knee injury and played in 23 games, scoring 10 tries, the second highest tally in his already illustrious career.
In the club’s final match against Wests Tigers, Tuivasa-sheck made 207 metres from 18 runs, the 13th time he gained 200 metres or more during the season.
His total of 4172 metres – an average of 181.4 metres a game – was bettered by only North Queensland’s Jason Taumalolo (4469) and Cronulla’s Paul Gallen (4387) in the regular season.
While Mannering missed out on the main award, the 31-year-old won the Vodafone People’s Choice Award.
The ever-consistent Mannering clocked 986 tackles (the second most in the regular season) – an average of 44.8 a game – as well as averaging 14.8 runs and 128.3 metres a game while making just six errors.
Last year he averaged 47.4 tackles, 11.3 runs and 90 metres a game.
Charnze Nicoll-klokstad, who made his NRL debut this year, was named the Clubman of the Year while Bunty Afoa was singled out as the NRL Rookie of the Year ahead of Ata Hingano and Nicollklokstad.
Finalists for the reserve grade Player of the Year were Matt Allwood, James Bell, Mason Lino and Ofahiki Ogden with captain and halfback Lino taking out the award.