Super League have announced changes to the points system for this year’s Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel award.
Due to uncertainty surrounding the number of games each team will play in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has already seen the league table changed to a points percentage system, the accolade will now be determined by average points per game.
The revised scoring system is calculated by dividing the number of points attained by the player by the number of games played by that player’s team.
Players must play a minimum of 15 games this season in order to be considered for the award.
Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel chairman Ellery Hanley said: “The panel has had to come up with some innovative solutions given the challenges we have faced this season.
“This process has been about maintaining the integrity of the Man of Steel competition amid huge disruption and we are all in agreement that, given the circumstances, this is the fairest option available to us.
“We couldn’t have a situation where we were electing a Man of Steel whose team had played more games than that of his nearest competition.
“As we enter the ‘dark’ phase of the competition – the point at which votes aren’t published – we are confident this will allow the best players in Super League 2020 to finish off the season knowing their efforts will be rewarded fairly at the end of it.
“We still have a very exciting contest on our hands because there have been some outstanding performances from a number of players since the season restarted in August.”
Here’s how the standings currently look in the race for the Man of Steel award, with the points from hereon in not published.
| Position | Player | Club | Points per game |
| 1 | Aidan Sezer | Huddersfield Giants | 1.33 |
| 2 | Paul McShane | Castleford Tigers | 1.29 |
| 3 | Lachlan Coote | St Helens | 1.14 |
| = | Liam Farrell | Wigan Warriors | 1.14 |
| 5 | Sam Tomkins | Catalans Dragons | 1.00 |
| 6 | Alex Walmsley | St Helens | 0.86 |
| 7 | Jonny Lomax | St Helens | 0.79 |
| 8 | Ash Handley | Leeds Rhinos | 0.77 |
| 9 | Tom Davies | Catalans Dragons | 0.75 |
| 10 | Bevan French | Wigan Warriors | 0.71 |
