Joel Farrell crowned as 2024 Men's Player of the Year!

23/09/2024

Joel Farrell capped off his sixth season as a Sheffield Eagles player as he was crowned the 2024 Men’s Player of the Year, at our awards night held at Bramall Lane on Saturday evening.

The second row forward has had an impressive year in 2024, scoring 9 tries in 27 appearances this season, and he was also recognised by the fans after being named the ‘Supporters Player of the Year’.

We had six Player of the Year awards handed out in total, with our red, gold and PD sides all recognised

Lisa Parker, who has appeared on dual-reg this season for York Valkyrie and helped them reach the Betfred Women’s Super League Grand Final last night, was named as the Women’s Red Player of the Year for 2024. Leah Steel also picked up a Player of the Year accolade as she picked up the Women’s Gold award.

Wheelchair Red player Chris Haynes retained the Player of the Year award for a second year in a row, and he was joined by Stuart Wilkinson, who was presented as the 2024 Wheelchair Gold Player of the Year.

The awards night also saw the inaugural PDRL Player of the Year award handed out, which was awarded to Alfie Holmes.

A handful of different awards were also handed out to each of our teams, with Players’ Player of the Year becoming another big one for our Men’s, Women’s and Wheelchair sides.

Matty Marsh capped off his first season with the Sheffield Eagles as he was named Players’ Player for the Men’s team, as Agnes Wood collected the Women’s Players’ Player, an individual who has also been selected to play for York Valkyrie this season.

Chris Haynes picked up another award on the night as he collected the Wheelchair’s Players’ Player of the Year award for 2024.

Three players collected Most Improved Player of the Year for 2024. Bayley Liu collected it for the Men’s Team, Simone Saunders was awarded this for the Women’s Team (collected on the night by captain Sarah Palmer), whilst Jenny Pearson collected this award for the Wheelchair team respectively.

Two shooting star awards were also handed out on a busy night for awards. Leah Steel picked up her second award of the night for the Women’s team, whilst Ben Simpson capped off an impressive year for the Wheelchair team as he collected this award. There was no men’s young player of the year handed out this year.

There was also a special mention to all of the players from our LDSL team, who all picked up medals on the stage which were presented to them by Bayley Liu and Cory Aston from the team’s sponsor, No Limits.

Whilst the players from all of our sides were recognised, it was also important to recognise some of the special work done by our supporters and volunteers.

With our yearly ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award up for grabs, this was awarded to Ian Swain for all of his great work this year contributing to the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project, whilst Liz Elfleet was crowned as our 2024 ‘Club Personality of the Year’, in recognition of her great work on a matchday which has seen her operate the turnstiles for fourteen years.

Long-standing media volunteers Lewis and Alex Coleman were also recognised with an honoury trophy, in recognition of their great work in helping with the club’s media work on a daily-basis, and on a matchday over the last number of years. Both Lewis and Alex will be stepping down from the media team at the end of the season, and we’d like to extend our thanks for the great work that the two of them have done over a number of years for this club.

Richard King was also presented with a framed 2024 Heritage Shirt, for his work he has delivered with the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project over the last two-and-a-half years. 

There were two new inductees into the club's Hall of Fame, with David Mycoe and Dominic Brambani both being recognised for their contributions to the Sheffield Eagles. 

In what was a great night for all winners and attendees, we’d like to thank everyone for their support and we hope to see as many of you at Olympic Legacy Park in 2025.

We’d also like to send a big thank you to all of our Executive Partners; Evogo, GRI, Steelphalt and Big Fish Little Fish for their continued support of this club, as well as our Main Club Partners; Buckingham Insurance, CMD, Albion Detection, Pinders, Brook Corporate, Claydon Accountancy Services, and Living Care.

Please find a full album from Saturday's presentation night by clicking HERE.