SAINTS star Lee Gaskell has been nominated on the shortlist for this season’s Albert Goldthorpe Super League Rookie of the Year Medal.
The solid silver medal, and a cash prize of £500, will be awarded by the Rugby League Express newspaper to the winner at this year’s Albert Goldthorpe Medal lunch, which will be held at Huddersfield Giants’ Galpharm Stadium on Wednesday 13 September.
Each member of an expert panel was asked to nominate five players for the award, and each player nominated has been included on the shortlist.
To qualify for the award, a player must have played ten or fewer Super League games in previous seasons.
The Tigers are the only club to have two nominees, in centre Joe Arundel and hooker Daryl Clark, while Bradford Bulls’ Tom Burgess could follow in the footsteps of his oldest brother Luke, who won the award in 2008, its inaugural season.
The nominees include four backs and four forwards. Wakefield’s Paul Johnson, at the age of 23, is the oldest nominee, while Clark, 18, is the youngest. The Catalans’ Elio Pelissier is the first player from the Dragons to have been nominated for this award.
Arundel is the nominee with the longest current run of consecutive appearances, having made 30 successive appearances for Castleford, while Wigan’s Josh Charnley, with 16 Super League tries and five goals, is the highest scorer of the eight nominees, with 74 points.
The nominees are: Joe Arundel (Castleford), Tom Burgess (Bradford), Josh Charnley (Wigan), Daryl Clark (Castleford), Lee Gaskell (St Helens), Paul Johnson (Wakefield), Jermaine McGillvary (Huddersfield), Eloi Pelissier (Catalans).
