2014 Player of the Year Awards

On Thursday last week the team held its end of season Players Awards Dinner. It was a splendid occasion with lovely food, witty banter, a terrific emcee (Breffni O’Rourke from The Breeze) and players & team management dressed very nicely for their better halves.

The big winners on the night were David Havili, Joe Wheeler, Alex Ainley and Marty Banks.

First award for the evening, and a new one at that, was Rookie Of the Year. Nominees included flanker Pete Samu and Jimmy Cowan however the winner was our young back David Havili.

Defender of the Year is a stats based decision and finalists included Shane Christie and Alex Ainley. The winner with a 91% tackle completion rate and the ability to prevent off-loads was our second-rower Joe Wheeler.

The Mako Man award is voted on by the players and recognises the Makos who put in tremendously both on and off the field. Alex Ainley, our ever-green second rower, was a great choice.

The final and biggest award is Player Of The Year and is determined by the coaches, KK & Leon. To win this you have to be a pretty special player and finalists included Bryce Heem and Alex again. Marty Banks, our prolific first-five can be very proud to have won the admiration of his coaches.

An interesting stat is that Marty is only the second NPC player (the other being Grant Fox) to have scored over 150 points in each of two seasons.

Congratulations to the award winners but also to the team as a whole who helped these players to shine.