Thursday 9 October 2014 12:09, UK
Daryl Clark won the Steve Prescott Man of Steel award as Castleford swept the board at the Super League's award ceremony in Manchester.
The Tigers' best-ever top-flight season was rewarded at the gala dinner at Old Trafford cricket ground with Clark also collecting the Young Player of the Year award and Tigers boss Daryl Powell named Coach of the Year.
Castleford lost to Leeds in the Challenge Cup final at Wembley and narrowly missed out on finishing top of the league for the first time in their 88-year history.
Clark, 21, whose scintillating form has earned him a place in the England squad for the 2014 Four Nations Series, is only the third player in the 37-year history of the Man of Steel awards to claim both individual titles.
Leeds hooker David Ward did the double in the inaugural season of 1977 and Widnes centre Joe Lydon emulated him in 1984.
"I'd have been happy with just the young player," he said. "I don't think I could have complained if it had gone to any of the other three nominees. They've all had great seasons.
"I'm pretty speechless really. I didn't expect to come here tonight and win both awards. It was a pretty amazing moment for me."
Clark, who is moving to Warrington in 2015, beat off competition from two former winners, Jamie Peacock (Leeds) and James Roby (St Helens), as well as Warrington's England prop Chris Hill to scoop the highly-prestigious award.
The award has been renamed in memory of Steve Prescott, one of rugby league's most respected players, who passed away 11 months ago after a long and courageous battle against a rare form of stomach cancer.
Clark got the nod for young player of 2014 ahead of Wigan centre Dan Sarginson and Leeds stand-off Liam Sutcliffe while Powell topped the poll of his fellow coaches.
Roby received the hit-man award after making 1,054 tackles in Super League this year and Warrington full-back Matty Russell was the top metre maker with 3,546 metres.
Warrington winger Joel Monaghan received a prize for topping the try chart with 28 and St Helens goalkicker Luke Walsh was named top gun after enjoying a success rate of 78.57 per cent with the boot.
Seven players were presented with awards to mark their retirement from the game after more than 200 appearances.They were Matt Diskin (Bradford), Jon Clarke (Widnes), Richard Horne (Hull), David Hodgson (Hull KR), Willie Manu (St Helens), Martin Gleeson (Salford) and Francis Meli (Salford).
Widnes were named club of the year and a foundation award went to Warrington while the annual Mike Gregory Spirit of RL Award was presented to Terry Flanagan, the former Oldham and Great Britain forward, who has played a leading role in the foundation of the sport's charity Rugby League Cares.
