Austin installed as Man Of Steel favourite

New Warrington signing Blake Austin is 10/1 co favourite with super league sponsors Betfred to win the man of Steel award , Steve Prescott Trophy , in his 1st season in England .

The star signing from Canberra played 88 games for the Raiders scoring 34 tries and will surely be a major threat for individual awards at the end of next season .

Surprisingly half backs haven’t fared too well for the award with only 3 winning it since Sean Long won in 2000 , the last being Luke Gale ,who is also a 10/1 co favourite , in 2017 . Overseas players don’t have a good record either at winning the award , mind you Austin does qualify to play for England , but Ben Barba did win it 2 weeks ago ( ending a run of 6 homegrown players ) .
Austin is as low as 6/1 with some firms .

The 3rd co favourite at 10/1 is Castleford hooker Paul McShane , who many felt was unlucky to miss out on the final 3 this year .
2 of the last 4 winners have been number nines .
Someone who did make this years final 3 , James Roby , is next in the betting at 12/1 .Roby last won the award in 2007 .

Full backs dominate the betting after this with Ratchford and Hardaker both 16/1. No 1’s have a good record at winning the award with 3 of the last 7 wearing that jersey including Hardaker himself in Leeds treble Year of 2015 ( what a turnaround in fortune it would be if he won again ) .

Also at 16/1 are Daryl Clark , Jonny Lomax and Danny Richardson with Alex Walmsley the shortest price prop at 20/1 alongside the likes of Sam Tomkins , Albert Kelly and George Williams . Jake Connor also looks decent value at 25/1 .

Leeds new signing Konrad Hurrell is 66/1 . There’s lots of other players quoted on the Betfred site if you want to know the price of the player you think could win the award in 2019 .

Plenty of value in a wide open market but there’s obviously a long way to go with more players to come surely ? As always please gamble responsibly.