There are some really strong accusations on Twitter of players not taking the Man of Steel voting seriously , well let’s look at the votes and you can decide for yourself . Firstly though every player that takes the field deserves to be nominated , they are putting their bodies on the line weekly for our entertainment .
All players pick a top 3 of who they would like to win the award , all clubs in Super League had at least one player nominated .
Most players picked one or two of last night’s final 3 Tommy Lee , Danny Tickle , Mark Flanagan , Ryan Hampshire picked all 3 but kudos to Matt Parcell and Ted Chapelhow who had the final 3 also with Barba in no 1 spot . Obviously St Helens and Wigan players couldn’t pick all 3 as you can’t pick a player from your own club .
Now the more bizarre ,
Catalans Dragons Lambert Belmas picked Chris Aitken Theo Fages Leroy Cudjoe , obviously Fages could be the French Connection .
Catalans Dragons Vincent Duport picked Theo Fages Morgan Escare Romain Navarette , you certainly can’t question his loyalty to France . The French players playing outside Perpignan were unsurprisingly popular amongst the Dragons picks .
Possibly the most left field choice from the South of France could be Catalans Dragons Jason Baitieri who picked Greg Burke , Jake Bibby , and Craig Hall . I’d love to hear his reasons behind those choices and he could be a target for the likes of Gary Schofield on twitter .
Salford’s Gavin Bennion picked Regan Grace as his man of steel which could cause controversy , but he also picked Barba and Casty .
I can’t really see any Yorkshire /Lancashire bias but plenty picked players from former clubs led by Matty Smith who picked Bateman , Tomkins and Micky Mac ( now at Catalans ) .
These 2 deserve a mention from left field , an interesting choice
St Helens Rob Fairclough picked Tony Gigot , Jez Litten and Josh Charnley .
Wakefield Trinity Justin Horo picked , Jason Baitieri Joe Philbin and Luke Burgess .
We’ll leave the best till last though , Warrington Wolves Toby King picked Louis Senior , Jake Trueman and Sam Wilde , to be fair though Trueman was Young Player of the year .
Looking at the picks there is no real evidence of too many players disrespecting the award , anyone that has can explain why to the family of Steve Prescott who the trophy is named after .
Maybe the likes of Dan Sargissson are a bit left field , but this is a guy who took the field the week after a family tragedy , anyone that has the balls to pick up a rugby ball and rub at the likes of Greg Bird gets my full admiration and deserving of any accolade .
For the full list check out http://www.rugby-league.com/man_of_steel_votes
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