Mitch Barnett named Warriors Player of the Year

It has been a big year for Warriors forward Mitchell Barnett.

In his second season with the club, the 30-year-old discovered some of the best form of his career and earned a State of Origin debut for New South Wales. Barnett had career highs in tackle breaks (46), post-contact metres (1409), offloads (28), tackle efficiency (94%), and total running metres (3441) with the Warriors, spending time playing in both the front row and second row.

It was a disappointing year results-wise for the Warriors, but Barnett, who also took on captaincy duties in the absence of Tohu Harris through the second half of the season, was among the shining lights for the side - missing just one of their 24 matches this season.

To cap off his strong individual campaign, Barnett claimed both the Simon Mannering Medal for Warriors’ player of the year and People’s Choice award at the team’s end-of-season awards night on Sunday.

Mitchell won the Simon Mannering Medal ahead of departing prop Addin Fonua-Blake, centre Roger Tuivasa-Sheck – who also filled in at fullback and on the wing – and halfback Te Maire Martin. Fonua-Blake was voted the players’ player of the year by his peers ahead of Barnett and Martin.

In other awards, half Luke Metcalf was named the clubman of the year, Jacob Laban claimed rookie of the year honours, while promising young centre Moala Graham-Taufa took out both the New South Wales Cup supreme player of the year and players’ player of the year awards.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission