Warriors captain Simon Mannering has become only the second double winner of the Player of the Year accolade at the club's gala awards dinner at Auckland's Skycity Convention Centre.
After previously winning the award in 2008, Mannering last year matched the twin wins in 2005 and 2006 by Steve Price,the man he succeeded as captain last.
Mannering was one of the four finalists for the NRL Captain of the Year title at the Dally M Awards in Sydney last week.
The youngest captain in the club's history, Mannering is one of only three players who have appeared in each of the Warriors' 25 matches so far this season. He's set to make it 26 on end when he leads the side in his 144th career appearance in Friday night's NRL semi-final against Wests Tigers.
Mannering was honoured in front of 600 guests, marking a year in which he has been named the players' player of the day five times so far. He has been on the field longer than any of his team-mates this year - 1931 minutes - and also averages the most minutes per game of all the forwards (77.2). He averages 30.6 tackles a game (only Micheal Luck heads him), 80.5m a game and he is second on the side's list of off loaders behind Feleti Mateo.
Former winner Luck and first-year Warrior Mateo were nominees for the premier award along with Aaron Heremaia, Kevin Locke and James Maloney.
A special presentation was made to departing Warriors head coach Ivan Cleary, who has guided the club to the NRL finals four times in the last five years. In all Cleary has spent 10 years with the club, first as a player from 2000-2002 followed by a year as assistant coach in 2005 and six seasons as head coach from 2006.
Also acknowledged for his contribution to the Vodafone Warriors was departing 10-year veteran Lance Hohaia, who has played 182 times at NRL level since his debut in 2002.
Winners of the Warriors' Player of the Year Award:
1995 Tea Ropati 1996 Stephen Kearney 1997 Stacey Jones 1998 Joe Vagana 1999 Jason Death 2000 Robert Mears 2001 Jerry Seuseu 2002 Ali Lauitiiti 2003 Francis Meli 2004 Wairangi Koopu 2005 Ruben Wiki 2006 Steve Price 2007 Steve Price 2008 Simon Mannering 2009 Micheal Luck 2010 Manu Vatuvei 2011 Simon Mannering
