THE Group 10 season might have been abandoned before they got the chance to play finals football, but Workies Wolves players will still get their chance to claim a major premier league honour.
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They can do it in the form of the Group 10 player of the year award.
The side hasn't won the award since 2011 when Brendan Van Veen won by a point over a group of players including his brother Jono, Ron Lawrence (Cowra) and Tim Bassman (CYMS).
While the same COVID-19 situation which forced the season to be abandoned meant the usual awards evening did not proceed as scheduled either, Group 10 chairman Linore Zamparini has revealed the best players will still have their efforts recognised.
The plan is to combine the awards presentation with the 2022 season launch in February.
"December is probably not the time for it, everyone is probably a bit busy, so we thought we'd do the double and go with the presentation and season launch," Zamparini said.
"We've got the player of the year, the highest point scorer, the rookie of the year and that's all done during the regular season, semi-finals don't come into that.
"It was a shame we didn't get the finals series done, but it is what it is I guess."
While the Workies have fielded players of immense talent in their squads each season, it has been some time since a player from either club has managed to claim the top individual award for premier league.
The same goes for other clubs such as Bathurst Saints and Panthers.
The last time a Saint was named Group 10 premier league player of the year was in 2015 when hooker Benjamin John topped the count, finishing one vote ahead of Bathurst native and Orange CYMS enforcer Simon Osborne.
The following season Panther Jeremy Gordon was named player of the year, nudging out Mudgee's Jack Afamasaga and CYMS' Ben McAlpine by a point.
Gordon was the first Panther to claim the honour since 2006 when fullback Dan Stuart got the nod.
The player of the year count could be just as close for 2021, with Zamparini praising the quality of the competition amidst the challenges the COVID-19 situation presented.
CYMS finished as minor premiers, nudging out Panthers by just two points.
"It was a pretty good season, no doubt. CYMS and Panthers were good, Mudgee were strong all the way through, Pat's had a little bit of a slow start but they were coming home pretty well at the end," he said.
"It was hard because we had no Workies due to the COVID situation, so teams might have had a bye then missed out because they were due to play Workies the next week, so that was a three-week turnaround between games, it made it pretty tough.
"It certainly was tough, at least year year it didn't take off, we played the knockout and that was it, but this year it was a bit of stop-start. It wasn't good because everyone just loses their match fitness."
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