Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues superstar Tom Trbojevic has capped a remarkable season after being named The Players’ Champion by the Rugby League Players’ Association (RLPA).
The award was announced at halftime of the NRL Grand Final between Penrith Panthers and South Sydney Rabbitohs at Suncorp Stadium and is voted on by the players.
Trbojevic became the first player from Manly Warringah Sea Eagles to achieve the honour and was chosen ahead of True Blues James Tedesco, Nathan Cleary, Cody Walker and Payne Haas.
Trbojevic has already won the Dally M Medal and the Wally Lewis Medal; at the Sea Eagles he took out the ‘Roy Bull’ Best and Fairest Player, the Players’ Player, Leading Try Scorer and the ‘Gordon Willoughby’ Medal as the Members’ Best Player’; he claimed the NRL and RLPA’s Academic Player of the Year; and was also named at Fullback in both the Dally M and RLPA Teams of the Year.
RLPA Chief Executive Officer, Clint Newton, congratulated all award recipients for excelling in the unique conditions that the 2021 season presented.
“I would like to congratulate Tom on being voted by his peers as the game’s best for 2021,” Newton said.
“Despite the challenges of 2021, this year’s finalists all had amazing season’s, but Tom’s season reached new and extraordinary heights and will definitely go down as one of the most brilliant individual performances in Rugby League history.”
Trbojevic’s performances this season are even more stunning when you consider he missed the first five games through injury and other NRL matches through representative honours with the Brydens Lawyers NSW Blues.
He played 18 games for 28 tries, 28 try assists, 128 tackle breaks, 33 line breaks and an average running metres per match of 209. He also scored a hat-trick on five separate occasions including for the Blues in the opening game of the Ampol State of Origin series in Townsville.
