Congratulations to both Luke Cain and Hayley Maddick for taking out the 2019 NRL Touch Premiership Dally M Medals!
On the evening of Wednesday 2nd October at Rugby League’s night of nights, the Dally M Awards, elite touch football players were also honoured, with the female and male NRL Touch Premiership Player of the Year Awards presented by Fox Sports’ Matt Shirvington.
The 2019 Female Player of the Year Award was presented to Brisbane Broncos NRL Touch Premiership player Hayley Maddick, 27, who’s from the Sunshine Coast.
The 2019 Male Player of the Year Award was presented to Wests Tigers NRL Touch Premiership player Luke Cain, 20, from NSW’s Central Coast.
As with the NRL’s Dally M Medal, these Player of the Year recipients were determined via the allocation of 3-2-1 points throughout the 2019 NRL Touch Premiership season, which ran from 6th April through to the Grand Final on 18th August.
Touch Football Australia CEO Jamie O’Connor, who handed the medals to Cain and Maddick on-stage, said both players had outstanding seasons that “neither of them will forget any time soon”.
“Hayley has achieved everything there is to achieve in the game in just six months,” he said. “She was a member of the all-conquering Australian Emus Women’s Open team that defeated New Zealand in the World Cup Final in May, has won a Premiership Grand Final with the Broncos on the hallowed turf of the Sydney Cricket Ground and caps it off with the NRL Touch Premiership Player of the Year at the Dally Ms. It’s been quite a season for her; she’s arguably the most dominant player in the world right now.”
Cain’s journey has been a little different, he said. “As a 20-year-old rookie, Luke found himself at the Tigers after being unable to crack into a very strong Newcastle Knights outfit and in his debut game at Mt Smart Stadium he was the Tigers’ standout player. That soon became the Premiership’s standout player as he lapped the field polling votes in every one of his matches. That’s extraordinary when you look at the calibre of players in that team. He’s a prodigious talent and a great story for all those up and coming players waiting for their Premiership opportunity.
2019 saw the second year of the NRL Touch Premiership, an elite touch football tournament where men’s and women’s teams representing eight NRL clubs played at major stadiums around Australia and New Zealand, with games broadcast on Fox League, Kayo Sports and NRL.com.
The Brisbane Broncos were the 2019 Women’s Premiers, while the North Queensland Cowboys were the Men’s Premiers.