Fullback is worthy of top gong at awards

Tuivasa-Sheck stands out from the chaos

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is a deserved winner of the Warriors’ Player of the Year award. Cynics might suggest the club could have cancelled their awards night this year, after one of the most disappointing NRL seasons in recent memory but Tuivasa-Sheck — and a handful of others — emerged with credit from the rubble.

The 24-year-old didn’t always find his best form, and admitted last month that he was only happy with about “40 per cent” of his games this year. But his effort, energy and work ethic was consistently outstanding, especially with the chaos all around.

In February, Tuivasa-Sheck was handed the skipper’s armband by coach Stephen Kearney, inheriting arguably the toughest captaincy assignment across the NRL.

It was a rough learning curve. There was the Kieran Foran dramas that overshadowed the start of the season, and he was let down by the inconsistency of his senior lieutenants as well as the form lapses of the younger players at the club.

Tuivasa-Sheck wasn’t helped by some poor coaching and selection decisions, and there was an underlying feeling that the game plan adopted never made the most of his talents.

But nevertheless, Tuivasa-Sheck emerged from this season with his reputation intact. He admitted that the leadership responsibilities took the edge off his game at times — but it wasn’t from a want of trying.

Coming back from knee surgery, Tuivasa-Sheck appeared in all but one of the Warriors’ 24 games, scoring 10 tries (the second highest tally of his career). Only wing David Fusitu’a (12) scored more this year.

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