2024 Marathon Stadium Awards!

On the men's side of things, this was an absolute landslide. The only other try to rate a mention was Ponga's twisting run ending in a beautiful pass to send Brodie Jones over agains the Titans in Round 27. But the winner had to be Fletcher Sharpe's stroke-of-halftime miracle en-rout to four tries against the Tigers in Round 23!

 
Houston we have a problem with the Jersey Flegg Player of the Year, we have about a six way tie lol. Would anyone who hasn't voted in this category like to DM me a deciding vote? 😂
 
The Jersey Flegg Player of the Year has been decided! Thank you @Lefty for a last moment vote. Beating out Jack Cullen, Fletcher Hunt, Liam Sutton, Jermaine McEwen and Haami Loza who all received votes, it's Connor Votano! Well done to all players mentioned though, the future must look bright if we have that many stand outs.

In keeping with the NSW Under 19s theme, here's Votano crossing in the sky blue this year:

 
In keeping with the promising young players theme, it's onto our Rookie of the Year. For our NRLW team, just edging it from Tenika Willison by a single vote, it is once again Evah McEwan! At just 18 years of age she only played two games in the top grade, but made a huge impression ... and went on to represent Samoa as well. A try-scorer in our finals loss to the Roosters, hopefully many more to come:

 
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And for our NRL team, in the the most lop-sided vote of the awards, your Rookie of the Year is Fletcher Sharpe! At only 20 years of age and seen as cover for fullback, we didn't expect to see much of him in 2024. But he took his chance when Ponga and Armstrong both went down injured, and played so well that by the end of the season he had well and truly cemented a starting wing spot. Here he is scoring an explosive try against the Panthers:

 
Match of the Year for our NRLW side - we had votes for our Round 1 defence heavy win against the Roosters, but taking it out by one vote was our Round 2 win against the Roosters - decided in the final minute by a penalty try, it was definitely a nail-biter!

 
Our NRL Match of the Year had a load of different nominations - Round 3 vs the Storm, Round 17 vs Parramatta, Round 25 vs Souths, our Finals Match vs the Cowboys, our games vs the Titans in Rounds 11 and 26 both got votes, but the winner was our final round match-up against the Dolphins. Winner makes the finals, in front of a sold out Marathon McDonald-Jones Stadium. It was tense, tight, finals football come a week early - but there could only be one winner!

 
Well I might as well announce the winners of our main awards. Every week you put in your votes for the Marathon Stadium Knight of the Week (temporarily renamed the OK Champ Knight of the Week at one stage in 2024). These are tallied each week, and split into a 3-2-1 vote. This ensures all games are weighted equally - if you just total them up then you get a lot more points towards wins, and early season and finals matches.

So, with that methodology, we have dual winners for our NRLW side! Quite a way ahead in the points given the short season, your 2024 Marathon Stadium Knights of the Year are Yasmin Clydsdale and Tamika Upton!

This is the first time we've had a joint overall winner since Jarrod Mullen and Danny Buderus in 2012! A fitting way to leave the Knights for Upton after three amazing seasons that yielded two premierships. She was truly the heart and soul of the side while she was here. And for Clydsdale, recognition that she has reached that elite level herself, standing out for the Knights, NSW and the Jillaroos in 2024. Congrats to both players, and may you enjoy your solid gold crowns of glory!


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The full leaderboard for 2024:

Yasmin Clydsdale 12
Tamika Upton 12
Shanice Parker 7
Rima Butler 5
Laishon Albert-Jones 5
Olivia Higgins 5
Jesse Southwell 3
Hannah Southwell 3
Georgia Roche 3
Sheridan Gallagher 3
Lilly-Ann White 2
 
And our NRL Player of the Year - actually a lot closer than you might expect! Dylan Lucas takes third place with 15 points. Then Kalyn Ponga - despite only playing 16 out of 25 matches - tallied 22 points and only 3 off the lead! But as we probably expected, he had a wonderful season for us, filling in as captain for a four match winning streak, scoring 8 tries from 22 games, regained his Queensland Origin jersey and gave 100% every match, showing the value of 290 games of first grade experience. For the second time, having previously won in 2015, congratulations Dane Gagai! Here's your solid gold crown Dane ... well, don't look too excited.

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The full leaderboard for 2024:

Dane Gagai 25
Kalyn Ponga 22
Dylan Lucas 15
Tyson Frizell 12
Greg Marzhew 11
Bradman Best 10
Leo Thompson 8
Kai Pearce-Paul 7
Fletcher Sharpe 7
David Armstrong 6
Adam Elliott 5
Phoenix Crossland 4
Jacob Saifiti 3
Enari Tuala 3
Tyson Gamble 3
Jackson Hastings 3
Krystian Mapapalangi 2
Brodie Jones 2
Jack Hetherington 1
Will Pryce 1
Mat Croker 1
David Saifiti 1
Jack Cogger 1
 
That concludes our 2024 awards, but I just want to say thank you for another great year on the forum. This place is really easy to run with the way you all contribute ... it's such a friendly caring place to be and I think it's really special, when you compare it to the other 99% hellscape of the internet lol.

Special shout out to @Billy for running the MSKOTW every week, which is a huge task. @Lefty for doing a great job setting up match threads every week. And the awesome @Still_Nutty for running our member 2299 Tipping Comp every year.

Can't wait till 2025 - bring it on!!!

Oh and please, chat about the awards for goodness sake! I can't believe nobody else has commented! 😂
 
Oh yeah, and here's our winners of the main awards over the years:

Marathon Stadium Knight of the Year Men's awards:

2008: Kurt Gidley
2009: Jarrod Mullen
2010: Akuila Uate
2011: Chris Houston
2012: Jarrod Mullen & Danny Buderus
2013: Jarrod Mullen
2014: Beau Scott
2015: Dane Gagai
2016: Nathan Ross
2017: Daniel Saifiti
2018: Kalyn Ponga
2019: David Klemmer
2020: Kalyn Ponga
2021: Jayden Brailey
2022: David Klemmer
2023: Kalyn Ponga
2024: Dane Gagai

Marathon Stadium Knight of the Year Women's awards:

2022: Jesse Southwell
2023: Tamika Upton
2024: Yasmin Clydsdale & Tamika Upton

Full lists are here, I've updated it with tonight's awards: https://marathonstadium.com/threads/the-marathon-stadium-hall-of-fame.11152
 
jamesgould said:
Oh yeah, and here's our winners of the main awards over the years:

Marathon Stadium Knight of the Year Men's awards:

2008: Kurt Gidley
2009: Jarrod Mullen
2010: Akuila Uate
2011: Chris Houston
2012: Jarrod Mullen & Danny Buderus
2013: Jarrod Mullen
2014: Beau Scott
2015: Dane Gagai
2016: Nathan Ross
2017: Daniel Saifiti
2018: Kalyn Ponga
2019: David Klemmer
2020: Kalyn Ponga
2021: Jayden Brailey
2022: David Klemmer
2023: Kalyn Ponga
2024: Dane Gagai

Marathon Stadium Knight of the Year Women's awards:

2022: Jesse Southwell
2023: Tamika Upton
2024: Yasmin Clydsdale & Tamika Upton

Full lists are here, I've updated it with tonight's awards: https://marathonstadium.com/threads/the-marathon-stadium-hall-of-fame.11152
Click to expand...
Extra motivation next year then for KP to eclipse Mullen and take his number of awards to 4!
 
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