Warrington's Matt Dufty, Hull KR’s Mikey Lewis and Salford’s Marc Sneyd have been shortlisted to be crowned the 2024 Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel.
The leading trio have been rated Betfred Super League’s top players for the season with the winner being announced at Rugby League’s Awards Night in Leeds next Tuesday.
There will be few complaints with the top-three although Wigan, the League Leaders’ Shield winners, might be surprised reigning Man of Steel Bevan French didn’t get in the frame and England captain George Williams has also been outstanding for Warrington.
However, Dufty, Lewis and Sneyd occupied the top three positions in a table formed by votes for performances throughout the season, awarded by the same panel of former players who selected the 2024 Betfred Super League Dream Team.
Of the three nominees, Aussie full-back Dufty and England scrum-half Lewis will go head to head in the first of this weekend’s Betfred Super League semi-finals at Sewell Park Craven Park on Friday, when KR host Warrington.
Dufty, 28, ran for an astonishing 4,234 metres in the regular season – 457m more than his nearest rival - despite missing five matches through injury, giving him an average of more than 192 metres per match. He was was also fourth in the regular-season try-scoring charts with 17.
Lewis, 23, scored two tries more (19), leaving him third in the final table, in addition to kicking 70 goals for a total of 216 points – and also features prominently in a range of other statistical categories, including tackle busts and clean breaks.
He could only become the second Robins player to be named Man of Steel in the award’s 47-year history, after Gavin Miller – the Australian loose forward who was the first overseas winner in 1986.
Dufty would become only the third Warrington player to do so and the first since Jonathan Davies in 1994. (The first was Ken Kelly in 1981). In contrast Salford have had their only two Man of Steel winners in the last five years, both Australian half-backs – Jackson Hastings in 2019, and Brodie Croft in 2022.
Sneyd,33, had been an ever-present in the 2024 season until their last match at Wigan, and has been the competition’s top marksman with 97 goals, in addition to four drop goals – while his tally of 22 try assists has been beaten by only Lewis and Leigh’s Lachlan Lam.