2005 End-Of-Year Awards
Inspirational front rower Danny Nutley was announced as the Sharks Player of the Year at the Player Presentation night held at Sharkies Leagues club on Sunday.
Nutley was rewarded for his tireless efforts during a season where he again led the Sharks with his non-stop performances. In a big year for the former Queenslander, Nutley also made his State of Origin debut when he was named for Queensland in game three of the 2005 Origin series.
With the award based on coaches 3-2-1 votes throughout the season, Nutley narrowly won the Player of the Year accolade from the likes of tough back rower Paul Gallen and skipper Brett Kimmorley.
Gallen, who led the NRL in both hit ups and off loads, was presented with the Chairman?s Award by Sharks President Barry Pierce. In playing all 24 regular season games for the Sharks, Gallen was considered unlucky in some quarters not to be included in some of the representative teams earlier this year.
Phil Leuluai was named as the Sharks Rookie of the Year, while David Peachey collected the Try of the Year for orchestrating a spectacular David Simmons touchdown in a round 18 match against Souths.
In the Premier League, the Player of the Year award was taken out by Nathan Merritt, with the winger/fullback crossing for an amazing 28 tries in Premier League during the season.
Young front rower Jacob Selmes accepted the Jersey Flegg Player of the Year, while exciting fullback Mitch Brown won the Player?s Player award in the Flegg.
The evening was attended by over 200 people, with David Peachey, Jason Stevens and Dr Peter Malouf given an emotional send off, league legend Norm Provan was on hand to present a couple of the awards and the crowd on the night was also entertained by the String Angels show, Mick Meredith of Footy Show fame and by video highlights of the Sharks 2005 campaign.
All three teams play in finals this weekend, the first time in recent memory that the Sharks have had all three grades involved in the finals during the same year.
The NRL finals match will see the Sharks take on St George Illawarra on Saturday evening at 8.30pm, in the Premier League the Newtown side plays the Raiders in Canberra at 1.30pm on Saturday afternoon, while in the Jersey Flegg the Sharks take on the Western Suburbs Magpies in a match to be played at Toyota Park at 2.30pm, also on Saturday.
