The Group 10 premier league battle is heating up in a big way and so to is the race the competition's highest-individual accolade, with three weeks left in the regular season there's almost a dozen stars looming as contenders to claim player-of-the-year honours.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Unsurprisingly with their sides at the top of the table the likes of Orange Hawks' superstar captain-coach Willie Heta and Bathurst Panthers' rampaging prop Brent Seager, also the reigning Dave Scott Medal winner, are in the mix.
Heta remains the two blues' linchpin even though he has plenty of star power around him and while Seager controls the middle in a massive Panthers pack, he is their go-to forward, which he's proven again in 2019 by continuing the kind of form which inspired is man-of-the-match award in last year's grand final.
Group 10 revealed the 10 front-runners for this year's gong on Sunday morning in no particular order, and while Heta and Seager headline the group, it would take a brave person to confidently pick the leader considering the form some of the players are in.
- Are you a Central Western Daily subscriber? Then why not CLICK HERE and join our new Central West Sports Subscribers Facebook group?
Having acted as Orange CYMS' anchor during their injury-ravaged 2019 season it's no surprise to see nippy dummy-half Ryan Griffin among the contenders, nor is it shocking to see Mudgee captain-coach Jack Littlejohn or star Cowra duo Blake Tidswell and Warren Williams in the mix.
Littlejohn's led Mudgee to the top three in his first season mentoring the Dragons, who missed the finals last season, while with reigning MVP Josh Rainbow forced into retirement and 2017 winner Jeremy Gordon missing for a large chunk of the season Tidswell and Williams have shouldered the load for the Magpies.
Jack Siejka is the other Bathurst Panther among the front-runners while, in his first season in Group 10, boom Hawks hooker Alex Prout has polled well too.
Oberon five-eighth Farren Lamb is among the front-runners too while Lithgow Workies Cody Godden is in contention too.
For those playing at home Group 10's player-of-the-year gong, the competition's equivalent of the NRL's Dally M Medal, is for all intents and purposes actually decided by the clubs rather than the referees, as Central West Rugby Union's is for example.
In each game both sides award best and fairest points across the clash, not necessarily just to their own players, and from there those points are combined, the players with the highest combined tallies then poll either three, two or one player-of-the-year points.
WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS AND SPORT?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
