Rhys Hanbury has admitted that he would be thrilled to win the Albert Goldthorpe Medal, but he won’t be keeping an eye on the standings.
The Widnes Vikings full-back currently tops the table in the race for the award after two sensational performances against Wakefield and Leeds.
He has picked up the maximum number of points in both matches, with his form coinciding with a superb start for Denis Betts’ side, who currently top Super League.
Although Hanbury would love nothing more than to win the prestigious award that is voted for by League Express reporters, he insists he will be solely focused on activities on the field.
“It would be an honour to win it,” Hanbury told TotalRL.
“It represents your team. If someone wins it then it is a team medal, because you can’t win it without your team performing well.
“It’s nice to get the points on the board, but at the weekend you could have given three points to anyone in our team, so I was quite lucky to get the points.
“But I’m just worried about getting performances for the team. If that comes then it comes, but if you start looking at those things you end up playing for yourself.”
Widnes made the headlines at the weekend after their stunning annihilation of treble-winners Leeds, a defeat that sent the Rhinos to the foot of the table. Hanbury admitted that he wasn’t surprised that the Vikings picked up the victory, but was bemused by the manner in which Widnes put them to the sword.
“I was quite confident leading into the game,” he said.
“But I don’t think any of us would have ever thought we’d put that scoreline on them. Our middle did a good job of dealing with their offloads. Once we dealt with that we were just 100 miles per hour.”
Widnes will open up a two-point gap at the top of Super League if they can defeat Salford this weekend, who also go into the game on the back off a superb victory over St Helens.
With very few giving Widnes hope of maintaining their early season form, Hanbury is of the belief that the Vikings can continue their crusade throughout the year.
“I don’t see any reason why we can’t.
“We’ve got a good unit that works for each other. A lot of us have been here a long time now and we’ve been through some hard times. Those of us involved last year were disappointed not to make the eight. It’s weird really, we’ve just started on fire.
“There’s a long way to go. We’re not stupid and think we’ll be flying all season. That’s our plan, but we know there’ll be some tough times too, but if we keep getting the points on the board we can make some people eat their words.
“Salford had a great performance against Saints. It’s going to be a hard game for us, they’ve got some new signings that have looked good so we’re going to have our work cut out for us. Hopefully we can produce another win for our fans.”
