Bradford lads for me - Westwood & Bateman

Westwood because he is a machine and fits the bill perfectly, he literally is a man of steel

Bateman, whilst not having a full year, due to injury, suspension and captaining his Country, for 18 years old and playing in the forwards he has been nothing short of a revelation. He has stood toe to toe with the "men" and not looked out of place, he can tackle, evade defence and has super ball handling skills.

How Finch never made the shortlist I do not know, he would of been my MOS, he has made Wigan tick this year and going to be a big loss.

Bumped for added Poll.

I hope Robes gets it, as he puts his body on the line each week, 100% in both attack and defence. Westwood would also be a worthy winner.

Tomkins has got something special, there is no doubt about that, he is so slippery and he has a great side step. But for me Man Of Steel should be based on power, work rate, tackling etc. Tomkins does very little in defence in comparison to the other two.

Man of Steel basically means "Best Player". I don't know why people get so hung-up on the title. It's the same award that has been won by Sean Long, Iestyn Harris and Jamie Lyon, because they were the best player that year, not the hardest or tackled the best.

It's funny that it's only in the last couple of years people have tried re-defining the award.

Man of Steel is (or rather was) a totally different award to the player of the year.

The players' player of the year? That is essentially the Man of Steel now.

No, clearly it doesn't when you consider that the likes of James Lowes, Adrian Vowles, Andy Farrell, Paul Wellens, Brett Hodgson and Pat Richards have won it in the past and were never the best player in Super League. The likes of Keiron Cunningham and Sam Tomkins have never won it. Man of Steel is the player who has had the biggest individual impact on his team. A player from a lower ranked side could win it if he performed brilliantly all season, even if those performances were still way below that of a 'better' player. Hence the reason the likes of Lowes, Vowles and Hodgson won it.

This. Man of Steel should not mean "best forward". What's the point in that? Don't think it's just been the last couple of years though, people always say it - it is just a name.

I somewhat agree, the form player of the year is not always the same as the best player, full stop.

Tomkins is a good player - no argument there.

But the lad is out the game so much and comes in with bits of show piece magic (sometimes)

The likes of Roby or Westwood play a totally different game, solid and in it 100% of the time.

Roby and Westwood both put as many tackles in 3 games as Tomkins DOES all season. End of Chat.

One attribute i look for in a fullback is the ability to put in 30-40 tackles a game. That's really what a fullback should be doing.

Perhaps this is why i loiter on RL forums and have never been offered a coaching job.

hey ho


By the way, Tomkins probably has about 3 times more tackle busts that those two combined.

Love the comments about Farrell and Richards not being the best players in SL. Richards' 2010 season was absolutely sensational (and as a Wigan fan who has seen the likes of Offiah and Robinson I don't say that lightly) and as for Farrell, well with the greatest of respect to Cunningham, who I think was an amazing player, Farrell was the best British player of his generation.

Tomkins should have won it last season, he made a huge impact on his team and SL.

Westwood and Hardaker.

Roby and Hardaker

I posted this on a similar thread on one of the other boards.
Whilst I have seen a lot more of my team than others this year, I did have the pleasure of seeing two absolutely towering performances by Ben Westwood against my team and Wigan in the space of a couple of weeks.
He was outstanding in victories over the other 2 teams in the top 3 of the league. Whilst you might not think of him in the same way as Tomkins in terms of [idoing things no one else can[/i, it takes a special player to stand up so well and so consistently no matter how big the game.
Without wanting to suggest that the award name should effect the type of player that wins it, Westwood leads from the front, never takes a backwards step, dominates his opposition in defence and attack, takes countless high shots - only to take the ball up again and again without flinching, works hard and (according to wire fans) does it to a consistantly high standard every week.

If we had a half back playing as well as this 2nd row does, I reckon he'd have walked away with the award by now.