{"id":777108,"date":"2026-09-20T20:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T20:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777108\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T20:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T20:04:14","slug":"man-of-steel-ten-player-shortlist-revealed-as-wigan-warriors-dominate-nominations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777108\/","title":{"rendered":"Man of Steel ten-player shortlist revealed as Wigan Warriors dominate nominations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AW5_9284.jpg\" class=\"attachment- size- wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The ten-player shortlist for the third episode of Man of Steel: The Panel has officially been revealed, with League Leaders\u2019 Shield winners Wigan Warriors dominating half of the nominations following the conclusion of the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>The award, which will be presented at the Rugby League Awards Night in Manchester on Tuesday, September 29, sees ten of Super League\u2019s biggest stars come under the microscope for their performances between Round 19 and Round 27. The panel will now vote to whittle the list down to a top five.<\/p>\n<p>Wigan Warriors dominate the selections with five players nominated after their commanding end to the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>Reigning Man of Steel winner Jake Connor joins Leeds Rhinos teammate Brodie Croft on the list, while dynamic prop Caleb Hamlin-Uele represents Wakefield Trinity alongside Leigh Leopards duo Joe Ofahengaue and Umyla Hanley.<\/p>\n<p>The selections will be debated by an elite five-man panel of former award winners\u2014Ellery Hanley MBE, Paul Sculthorpe MBE, Sam Tomkins, James Roby, and Joe Lydon\u2014hosted by Brian Carney on SuperLeague+.<\/p>\n<p>Reflecting on the difficulty of narrowing down the contenders, former St Helens and England hooker James Roby highlighted the fierce debate among the panel:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s been some terrific individual performances in the last nine rounds of the regular Super League season.<\/p>\n<p>    Most Read on Serious About Rugby League<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s plenty of debate in the show and it\u2019s never easy whittling the ten down to five.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t all agree \u2013 you can tell that with the voting \u2013 but the final five is impressive and they\u2019ll now go into our thinking when it comes to making our final decision on the 2026 Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following Monday night\u2019s broadcast, the panel will meet one final time to determine a three-man shortlist encompassing the entire campaign before crowning the 2026 Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel.<\/p>\n<p>Super League Dream Team reaction, England selection debate, and are Wigan Warriors unstoppable? \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FvHvwDgv2mE\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ten-man shortlist for the 2026 Man of Steel award:<\/p>\n<p>Wigan Warriors: Adam Keighran, Bevan French, Harry Smith, Brad O\u2019Neill, Jai Field.<\/p>\n<p>Leeds Rhinos: Jake Connor, Brodie Croft.<\/p>\n<p>Leigh Leopards: Joe Ofahengaue, Umyla Hanley.<\/p>\n<p>Wakefield Trinity: Caleb Hamlin-Uele.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1789934654_157_srl-logo.png\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ten-player shortlist for the third episode of Man of Steel: The Panel has officially been revealed, with&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}