Calls made for Super League Man of Steel process to be changed

With the regular season over, talks of who will be crowned Super League Man of Steel have led to suggestions the process should be changed.

That’s the view of former St Helens captain Jon Wilkin who argued that the award needs to reflect the best player in the competition as opposed to the best player in an overachieving team. He would even go as far as to suggest that the winner should come from a team that wins silverware, albeit this would be harder to implement unless the award was moved until after the Grand Final.

Speaking on the podcast that he hosts with Jenna Brooks, Wilkin stated: “I want to look at the Man of Steel process and the fact that Man of Steel can be won by not the best player in the competition but by the best player in a team. You could be the best player in a relatively poor team and get a lot of Man of Steel points.”

He would then go on to make reference to Salford star Marc Sneyd, who was leading the Man of Steel points leaderboard before it went dark, suggesting that despite Sneyd’s huge influence, other players are superior and more in sync with what he believes the Super League Man of Steel award should be.

Wilkin noted: “Let’s say for example and I’ll make up a player, call him Snarc Meyd, who is an exceptional kicker, a very influential ball player.

“But what is it? It’s the very very best player in the competition and now who is the very very best player in this competition? It’s probably Bevan French, George Williams at the minute or it’s Mikey Lewis.”

Who should be crowned Super League Man of Steel in 2024?

Sneyd is certainly one of the contenders in 2024, as is Mikey Lewis who has had an incredible season, but last year’s winner Bevan French looks out of the running after the aforementioned pair were selected to the Super League Dream Team ahead of French.

Should Sneyd win he would become the third Salford player in six years to lift the prestigious award after Jackson Hastings and Brodie Croft. Podcast guest Lee Briers referenced Croft’s win, suggesting that Jai Field of Wigan, whom he coached in 2022, should have won that year.

Briers argued: “I remember Brodie Croft winning. Brodie Croft had a great end to the year but Jai Field was by far the best player.”

Wilkin agreed about Field’s brilliant campaign but suggested that silverware should perhaps be requisite to win the award: “Can I make a suggestion that it has to come from a team that wins silverware?”

Explaining that, the two-time Super League winner said: “Whoever it is can get votes and are likely to get votes but we have a lot of players from teams that don’t finish near the top of the table being in contention to win Man of Steel because they are the best at their team.

“Brodie Coft was the best player at Salford by a mile. Jackson Hastings was the best player at Salford by a mile, so they’re sort of picking up points every time they win a game.

“Whereas Jai Field is sharing the limelight with Bevan French, Liam Marshall, Liam Farrell, Harry Smith and everybody else. It doesn’t pick up the best player in the competition, it picks up sometimes the most surprising or the most influential players in their team.”

In the view of many, the Man of Steel running this year will likely be without a player from Wigan for the first time since 2021, with Mikey Lewis, Marc Sneyd and Warrington’s Matt Dufty deemed as the three standout players.