Jake Connor on three-strong Man of Steel shortlist with Wigan and Hull KR stars also named

Leeds Rhinos star Jake Connor is among three players in the running to be crowned Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel for the first time, after the full shortlist for the award was revealed.

Connor has been one of the stars of the 2025 Super League season and has proven to be a talismanic figure for the Rhinos, helping them to a fourth-placed finish ahead of this weekend’s play-offs getting underway.

He led the Man of Steel leaderboard when it went dark earlier this summer by five points ahead of Hull prop Herman Ese’ese, and it has now been confirmed that the Rhinos star is in the final three and in the mix to win the honour for the first time.

However, so too is reigning holder Mikey Lewis, whose impressive second half of the year has seen him rise from fifth place at the time the leaderboard went dark after Round 15 and up into the top three. Should he win, Lewis would become only the second man to win the award in consecutive years after Paul Sculthorpe in the early-2000s.

Connor and Lewis are joined by another man who was inside the top three at that time, Wigan Warriors fullback Jai Field, who is bidding to be crowned Man of Steel for the first time in his career.

Ese’ese’s strong year for Hull has proven to ultimately not be enough for him to make the shortlist, however.

Connor would be only the second Leeds player this century to win the award should he be crowned at an awards ceremony in Manchester next month. Zak Hardaker was the latest Rhinos star to be named Man of Steel, all the way back in 2015.

But Lewis is perhaps the slight favourite – and he could become just the fifth man to be named Man of Steel on multiple occasions, joining Sculthorpe, Andy Farrell, Sam Tomkins and Ellery Hanley in that list.

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