Hinton edges out teammate for major gong

[Pumba]

Hinton edges out teammate for major gong
BY NEIL GOFFET

WESTERN Suburbs five-eighth Nathan Hinton was crowned Newcastle Rugby League Player of the Year ahead of the Rosellas' major semi-final against Cessnock at Harker Oval tomorrow.

The announcement was made at yesterday's NRL presentation at Newcastle Leagues Club.

Hinton's teammate, hooker Matt Thurston, was named Newcastle's representative player of the year.

The pair went head-to-head in the race for player of the year honours.

Thurston drew level on 23 points after his man-of-the-match performance in West's last-round win over Raymond Terrace.

But Hinton also starred in the 56-10 victory and received two points, which was enough to take the title.

"Winning an award like this is not possible unless you are in a good team, and we've also got a good coach in Hank [West coach Kurt Hancock]," Hinton said.

West cleaned up the team and club awards, but Cessnock took the rest of the individual honours.

Todd Edwards was named coach of the year, five-eighth Kane Bradley was the leading pointscorer with 207 points and left winger Chris Pyne scored the most tries with 26.

Cessnock's backs racked up the points, but Hinton believed their forwards posed the greatest threat.

"Their forwards are really strong, and we need to match them up front," Hinton said.

"If they go forward Kane Bradley and Jamie Battye will tear us apart."

Hinton said West captain Daniel Quinn and his front-row partner Warren Schillings are the equal of any in the competition and Colin Clarke at lock is another likely to shine.

West finished the season in style, winning their last six matches to steal the minor premiership off Cessnock, who led the competition for 17 of the 18 rounds.

Included in that winning streak was a 25-24 victory over the Goannas at Cessnock Sportsground five weeks ago.

The 2004 premiers also defeated Central Charlestown (26-24) and Macquarie (48-18), who will do battle in today's minor semi-final at Passmore Oval.

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[macavity]

2 guys that should still be on our books.

 

[Karmawave]

Thurston would have been a decent back up to the Buderus/Hilder injuries when we were stretched there at one stage.

 

[antonius]

Hinton brained it playing in the halves this year.

 

[roopy]

Not many years ago very few ex-knights bothered to play in the local comp, but i'd say there would be a couple of teams full of them this year.
Wests and Central in particular seem to be mostly ex knights juniors.

 

[Karmawave]

There'll be more playing local next year when 12 of our 20 top NYC contracted players are no longer eligible for NYC anymore, because frankly I can't see too many of them going onto NRL first grade anytime soon.

 

[roopy]

Some like Tovo, Fruen and Iosefo will probably go back to sydney - Richo has already got a run with Wentworthville or Parra - and i expect some like Dobbins, Edwards, Issac and maybe a few others will get a run with the NSW cup side - but hopefully we will see guys like Burro, Jenko and Owen all add some class to the local comp rather than giving the game away.
We have used nearly 50 players in NYC this year, and while only a dozen or so are too old next season, i expect 25 or more won't get a run next year as younger guys push them out of the team. In the past these guys would have given the game away at age 19, but most seem to go on for a few years now.