THE three-man shortlist for the 2024 Steve Prescott Man of Steel has been announced.
In alphabetical order, Matt Dufty of Warrington Wolves, Mikey Lewis of Hull KR and Marc Sneyd of Salford Red Devils 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.
The 2024 Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel will be crowned at Rugby League’s Awards Night next Tuesday (October 8) at the Royal Armouries in Leeds – a repeat of the new, inclusive format introduced last year with the outstanding performers from the Betfred Women’s and Wheelchair Super Leagues also recognised with the Woman of Steel and the Wheels of Steel awards.
Of the three nominees, Dufty and 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 night, when Hull KR host Warrington Wolves.
Dufty, a 28-year-old full-back who joined Warrington from Canterbury Bulldogs in 2022, ran for an astonishing 4,234 metres in the regular season – 457m, or 12%, more than his nearest rival, despite missing five matches through injury, giving him an average of more than 192 metres per match. He was outstanding again in their dramatic golden point Eliminator win against St Helens last Saturday, adding another 200 metres to his season’s tally – and was also fourth in the regular-season try-scoring charts with 17.
Lewis, Hull KR’s homegrown 23-year-old half-back who made his England debut against Tonga last year, 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 become the second Hull KR 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 Wolves player to be named Man of Steel, 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, a 33-year-old half-back and goalkicker from Oldham, had been an ever-present for Salford 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.
Having won the Lance Todd Trophy as player of the match in Hull’s Challenge Cup Final victories in 2016 and 2017, he could join an elite group to add the Man of Steel as the outstanding player of the Super League season.
The Man of Steel award was introduced in the 1976-77 season, well before the Super League era, with the Leeds and Great Britain hooker David Ward the first winner.
Ellery Hanley became the first man to win it twice in 1985 and 1987 – then added a third win in 1989, which remains a unique achievement – and Andy Farrell was the first winner following the launch of the Super League in 1996.
The award was renamed after Steve Prescott MBE in 2014, in recognition of the inspirational courage shown by the former St Helens and England full-back following his diagnosis with a rare form of stomach cancer.
A number of different methods have been used to determine the winner over the last five decades, and since 2019 there has been more transparency, with a panel of expert former players awarding points to the outstanding three performers in every Super League fixture.
