Sam Burgess Wins the Jack Rayner Players’ Player Award for Season 2014

Author: Words & Video: Tom Skolarikis & Chris Beavon
Timestamp: Fri 10 Oct 2014, 10:00 PM

Rabbitohs forward Sam Burgess has been judged by his fellow team mates as the best player of season 2014, taking out the 2014 Jack Rayner Players’ Player Award for the third time in his career.

Rabbitohs players all cast their votes after each game, with Burgess finishing atop the season 2014 tally.

In his 26 appearances this year, ‘Slammin’ Sam scored 10 tries for 40 points, averaging 35.2 tackles and a whopping 178.4 metres per game. Add in 66 tackle breaks, 13 line-breaks and 61 offloads, and Burgess was without doubt one of the side’s hardest working players in season 2014.

Burgess was one of the forward leaders in the Rabbitohs pack throughout the 2014 season in what many pundits described as the Englishman’s best season yet.

The Players’ Player award is named after legendary Rabbitohs player and coach, Jack Rayner. Rayner won five premierships with South Sydney in six seasons in the Club’s golden era between 1950 and 1955, as both a captain and captain/coach. His legacy at the Rabbitohs lives on to this day, remembered as an honest, tough, hardworking forward during the days when some of the most brutal Rugby League was played.

Rabbitohs CEO Shane Richardson presented the Players’ Player award to Sam on behalf of the Rayner family.

Previous Winners:

2003 – Luke Stuart

2004 – Ashley Harrison

2005 – Peter Cusack

2006 – Nathan Merritt

2007 – Roy Asotasi

2008 – Luke Stuart and Nathan Merritt

2009 – Luke Stuart

2010 – Sam Burgess

2011 – Chris Sandow

2012 – Greg Inglis