He has had a brilliant season in 2018, his second year as Captain, taking the team to new heights. Under his leadership, the Warriors made their first finals appearance in seven years and is only the second Kiwi International to ever win the award. His personal performance throughout the season also saw him win the Dally M Full Back of the Year and he was also nominated for Dally M Captain of the Year. Taking a look at his key stats, he scored three tries, eight assists, 13 line breaks, 112 tackle breaks and a total of 4,109 running meters for the season.
“I remember the first time I came to these awards in 2013, Cooper Cronk won the Dally M and I remembered sitting there thinking, ‘Man, it would be a dream to win this award’.
“I didn’t know that day would come, so I feel truly blessed to be holding this trophy and wearing this medal.”
Moments after his speech, his team mates and fellow players performed an impromptu haka as a mark of honour and respect – the emotion in the room was obvious and Tuivasa-Sheck himself was almost reduced to tears.
RTS suffered a medial ligament and meniscal injury in his final game of the season which required surgery. This means he will unfortunately miss the Kiwis end of year Test series. RTS is in rehab mode, aiming to be back on form for Warriors pre-season training in November.
Many experts had tipped RTS to win the medal and it seems the industry and media agree that he certainly is the most deserving winner for 2018. Congratulations Roger!