In Monday’s League Express we will reveal the winners of our annual Readers’ Poll, in which we ask our readers to vote for the Player of the Year, Young Player of the Year, Coach of the Year and a number of other categories, including the Club of the Year.
In each category, our readers were asked to make a choice from five candidates.
In the case of the Player of the Year, the five candidates were: Bevan French (Wigan Warriors), Jonny Lomax (St Helens), Paul McShane (Castleford Tigers), Aidan Sezer (Huddersfield Tigers), Sam Tomkins (Catalans Dragons).
The winner will join a long list of players who have graced Super League over the years.
The first winner in 1999 was Sean Long of St Helens, who followed up his victory by winning again in 2000, before his team-mate Paul Sculthorpe then enjoyed success for the next two years. Kevin Sinfield is the only other player to have been voted the Player of the Year on two separate occasions (2009 and 2012).
The 2019 Player of the Year was Jackson Hastings, then of Salford Red Devils.
Of the current candidates, only Sam Tomkins has won the award previously, having been successful while playing for Wigan in 2011.
The full list of previous winners is shown below.
League Express Player of the Year
1999 Sean Long (St Helens)
2000 Sean Long (St Helens)
2001 Paul Sculthorpe (St Helens)
2002 Paul Sculthorpe (St Helens)
2003 Brian Carney (Wigan Warriors)
2004 Andy Farrell (Wigan Warriors)
2005 Jamie Lyon (St Helens)
2006 Paul Wellens (St Helens)
2007 Trent Barrett (Wigan Warriors)
2008 James Graham (St Helens)
2009 Kevin Sinfield (Leeds Rhinos)
2010 Pat Richards (Wigan Warriors)
2011 Sam Tomkins (Wigan Warriors)
2012 Kevin Sinfield (Leeds Rhinos)
2013 Danny Brough (Huddersfield Giants)
2014 Daryl Clark (Castleford Tigers)
2015 Zak Hardaker (Leeds Rhinos)
2016 Danny Houghton (Hull FC)
2017 Luke Gale (Castleford Tigers)
2018 John Bateman (Wigan Warriors)
2019 Jackson Hastings (Salford Red Devils)
In order to see the results of the 2020 Readers’ Poll, you can subscribe to the print or digital editions of League Express by going to https://www.totalrl.com/league-express/