Luke Gale among three new additions to Man of Steel panel
Ellery Hanley has revealed three new faces that will sit on his expert panel to determine the winner of the Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel Award.
The current panel format was introduced in 2019, where the experts select three stand-outs from every Super League game and they accumulate points towards the Man of Steel standings.
At a point in the season, the votes are blacked out, meaning secrecy on who tops the table until it is announced at the annual Super League awards dinner.
Joining Hanley on the panel is former Man of Steel Luke Gale, who won the award in 2017, Super League winning prop Kyle Amor and pundit Danika Priim.
Hanley, the only man to win the Man of Steel award three times, said: “Being the Chair of the Man of Steel panel is a role I take very seriously, and treat as professionally as I did my playing career, and the same goes for the rest of the panel.
“It’s so important that we recognise and congratulate the outstanding athletes in our sport.
“I’m delighted by the additions to the panel this year. They all have recent experience of playing Rugby League at the highest level, and add to the variety of perspectives we have to analyse all the matches.”
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Priim “really honoured” to join Man of Steel panel
Priim was a prop for England, Bradford and Leeds and has earned accolades for her work on the broadcast team at Channel 4 and BBC.
She joins former team-mate, and current Leeds head coach, Lois Forsell on the panel.
Priim added: “I’m really honoured by this. First and foremost I’m a fan of Rugby League, and I have been since I first went to Headingley in 1996. To be asked to join the Man of Steel panel, with people who have been my heroes, is incredible. I love watching the game, I love analysing it and talking about it, and to have my opinion counting is just incredible.”
Both Gale and Amor are playing in the Championship this season for Keighley and Widnes respectively. Amor too has built a profile as a media pundit, working for Sky Sports, Channel 4, ViaPlay and the BBC, combining that with his new career as a science teacher.
Salford’s Brodie Croft won the 2022 award, following on from Jackson Hastings who won in the first year of the current voting system in 2019.
Castleford’s Paul McShane and England and Catalans full-back Sam Tomkins won it in between.
Hanley is the chairman of a panel which when launched in 2019, had 21 members.
It included former players such as Paul Sculthorpe, Robbie Hunter-Paul, Jason Robinson and Garry Schofield.
Man of Steel panel members since 2019
- Ellery Hanley
- Kyle Amor
- Denis Betts
- Phil Clarke
- Paul Cooke
- Eorl Crabtree
- Jonathan Davies
- Luke Gale
- Jerome Guisset
- Robbie Hunter-Paul
- Chris Joynt
- Andy Lynch
- Barrie McDermott
- Adrian Morley
- Terry O’Connor
- Martin Offiah
- Jamie Peacock
- Danika Priim
- Mal Reilly
- Jason Robinson
- Garry Schofield
- Paul Sculthorpe
- Keith Senior
- Ben Westwood
- Johnny Whiteley (RIP)