Penrith's senior team looked back on their season at their presentation night last Friday, in many ways it had been very similar to the season before but a disappointing lapse at towards the end of the season had seen them slip to sixth place rather than the fourth place they looked more than capable of.
After an excellent meal and a summary of the season by captain Tama Toomata the Team Manager Mike Sanderson presented the season's trophies. He started with the top try scorer which went to next season's captain elect Mike Fearon, after scoring only two tries in his previous season and a half with the club he had notched up 12 touchdowns and was also the clubs' top points scorer amassing 107 points with the boot making a grand total of 167. No doubt his increased try tally coincided with his move to inside centre after the introduction of Matt Allinson to stand off, Allinson had shared the kicking duties with him and had clocked up 92 points with the boot and a try.
The young player award went to Jamie McNaughton for the second year running, he was only beaten by one score in the try scoring stakes and had only missed two games, those being right at the end of the season with a hamstring injury. He had shown good form throughout and at all times looked dangerous with ball in hand.
The Most Improved Player went to Scott Lancaster, he had turned up to training at the beginning of the season without having been near to playing first team rugby before. He got stuck in, showed an excellent attitude and once he got chance of a game took his opportunity and became a fixture in the side.
The Players' player trophy went to the third highest try scorer Kris Bratton, he had broken his shoulder pre-season and didn't start to play till after the Christmas break and still scored nine times. His defence was top notch at all times and whenever he had the ball in space he frightened the opposition to death and scored some stunning tries.
22 players who had made more than 10 appearances were invited to vote in the players' player award and nine different players received votes so it showed how wide open the competition was when the management team came to sort out the Player of the Year. No one had appeared in every fixture but three players had missed only one and they were all in the running, Arran Sullivam who had just come to the club this season at prop had transformed the team's srcummaging, Matt Allinson at stand off who was as dangerous without the ball as with it with his aggressive tackling and workhorse Mike Stephens who had featured highly in the players voting for his cussedness. Their final decision went to Mike Fearon for his overall play, point scoring and organisation of the side's three quarters.