{"id":787098,"date":"2026-09-30T05:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T05:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787098\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T05:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T05:08:09","slug":"wigan-hooker-brad-oneill-wins-2026-man-of-steel-award-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787098\/","title":{"rendered":"Wigan hooker Brad O’Neill wins 2026 Man of Steel award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wigan Warriors hooker Brad O’Neill has won the 2026 Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel, the first time he has been given the honour.<\/p>\n

The 24-year-old England hooker beat his Wigan team-mate Adam Keighran and Leeds full-back Lachie Miller to win the award.<\/p>\n

O’Neill has been at the heart of an impressive Wigan side which won the Challenge Cup <\/a>and League Leaders’ Shield in 2026.<\/p>\n

He made 31 appearances in all competitions and was also named Rugby League Writers and Broadcasters Association Player of the Year.<\/p>\n

O’Neill was sin-binned in last year’s Super League Grand Final<\/a> for a wayward tackle on Tyrone May, however he inspired Wigan to two trophies, after a season without silverware in 2025.<\/p>\n

It was a memorable night for the Warriors with Matt Peet also named Betfred Super League Coach of the Year having guided his side to the League Leaders’ Shield and Challenge Cup.<\/p>\n

Wigan earned a clean sweep in the final three shortlist for the Woman of Steel award as Eva Hunter, Jenna Foubister and Megan Willams were all nominated, with Foubister taking the prize.<\/p>\n

It was the second year in a row that three Wigan players were shortlisted, however this year the Warriors missed out on adding the Women’s Super League title to their Women’s Challenge Cup and League Leaders’ Crowns after they were beaten by York Valkyrie on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Halifax Panthers’ Rob Hawkins won the Wheels of Steel award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wigan Warriors hooker Brad O’Neill has won the 2026 Steve Prescott MBE Man of Steel, the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-787098","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\/787098","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=787098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}