St Helens star Jack Welsby beats out Leeds Rhinos’ Morgan Gannon to award

Jack Welsby has gone from strength to strength in recent years.

He could have been defined by a single moment when he scored the winning try in the 2020 Grand Final against Wigan after a drop goal attempt missed and bounced up to set up Welsby for history.

However, Welsby has refused to be defined by the moment, instead outgrowing the moment with some brilliant form over the last two seasons.

He starred last year as St Helens won the double and he picked up the Young Player of the Year award and in 2022 he has been even better.

The injury to Lewis Dodd has heaped more pressure on him in 2022 to play a key role in the creating and scoring of tries and he’s lived up to it and has been awarded a second consecutive Young Player of the Year award beating off Morgan Gannon of Leeds Rhinos as well as electric young halfback Mikey Lewis of Hull KR to claim the award.

Welsby is a nominee for the Man of Steel as he looks to pick up both awards proving himself as the future of English rugby league.

He is up against Jai Field and Brodie Croft when it comes to the biggest individual honour in British rugby league.

Even if he misses out on the honour, it’s likely we’ll see him pick up the award at some stage in the near future.

He has already been named in the Dream Team twice being named at centre in 2021 prior to being selected at stand-off in 2022.

He’ll only continue to develop and be a star of Super League, even more so than he already is, in the years to come.

Fortunately, we will still get to see him star on the biggest stage in the Grand Final as he lines up for the Champions against Leeds in the title decider having avoided a ban for a thunderous tackle on Chris Atkin in the semi-final.