Stars of the footy world from both past and present flocked to Sydney’s Royal Randwick Racecourse on Wednesday night, as the NRL and NRLW’s players of the season were crowned.
James Tedesco and Tamika Upton walked away with the coveted best and fairest awards while Kieran Foran stole the show with an emotional speech after he was awarded the Ken Stephen Medal, recognising his work away from the pitch as an advocate for youth mental health.
But not everyone appears to be a fan of the NRL’s night of nights, with the entire Newcastle Knights men’s squad opting to snub the awards ceremony, according to reports in the Daily Telegraph.
The team was represented solely by their NRLW side, as star half-back Jesse Southwell placed third in the voting, while Yasmin Clydsdale polled 21 votes, to finish seventh in the final Dally M leaderboard.
But none of the Knights’ men’s players were able to crack the top 10 on the NRL Dally M leaderboard.
There were also no senior leaders from the men’s team in attendance at the awards night.
None of the Newcastle Knights NRL team were present at Wednesday night’s Dally M awards, according to reports
It came as James Tedesco (left) and Tamika Upton (right) were crowned the NRL and NRLW Dally M winners on Wednesday
None of the Knights NRL squad had placed inside the top 10 of the Dally M’s NRL leaderboard
The reasoning for the snub is unclear. The Daily Mail has contacted the Knights for comment.
Meanwhile, the team’s outgoing coach Adam O’Brien was also not in attendance during the evening, and neither was Gold Coast boss Des Hasler, who is also set to leave his role at the Titans next year.
It appears many other coaches opted not to attend the showpiece event, with Ricky Stuart, Cameron Ciraldo, Craig Fitzgibbon, Andrew Webster and Kristian Woolf, the only five coaches out of the 17 NRL teams making the trip to Randwick for the awards evening.
Craig Bellamy and Michael Maguire, who will guide their sides out at the Accor Stadium on Sunday in the NRL Grand Final, were understandably not in attendance and had made NRL chief Andrew Abdo aware of their absence before the evening, according to The Daily Telegraph.
Nathan Cleary, meanwhile, was the lone Penrith player to attend the awards after his side suffered an agonising two-point defeat by Brisbane in Sunday’s preliminary-final.
It came after his beau Mary Fowler sparkled on the catwalk during Paris fashion week, with the Panthers playmaker, who clinched the Half-back of the Year award on Wednesday, also showcasing that he too knows a bit about fashion, donning a pair of classy white Alexander McQueen sneakers, which cost around $1000.
Cleary placed second in the Dally M medal race to Tedesco, but there was a bizarre moment on stage after he was named in the NRL’s team of the season, after he appeared to fumble a handshake with Erin Clark of the New Zealand Warriors.
Clark stepped on stage to collect his award for lock of the year, and began to shake the hands of the players already on stage.
There was an awkward moment during the ceremony where Nathan Cleary fumbled a handshake
Cleary hadn’t noticed that Clark had reached out for a handshake, with the Penrith star missing out on congratulating the Warriors star as he made his way to the side of the stage
Fowler paid tribute to her boyfriend on Instagram on Wednesday after he was named in the team of the season
Cleary was speaking to Brisbane star Payne Haas at the time and didn’t notice that Clark had reached out to shake his too.
He reached out his hand to shake Clark’s hand, but was too late, awkwardly missing the handshake as the Warriors star had already moved on to shake the next player’s hand.
While Penrith’s hopes of making a sixth-straight Grand Final were extinguished by the Broncos on Sunday, the 27-year-old has enjoyed an excellent season, setting up 17 tries, while amassing 184 points.
On Wednesday, he was praised by his girlfriend, Fowler, who took to Instagram to hail her boyfriend.
She republished an image of Cleary being crowned half-back of the year, with the caption ‘Him’ adding two love eye face emojis.
