Ardmore Marist were rated the best team, Patumahoe the best club, Bruce Pulman Park the best venue and Reon Graham the best coach in a poll of the McNamara Cup coaches.
The coaches were polled in secret with only the collated answers revealed. Coaches were not allowed to select their own clubs for any answers.
Ardmore Marist received four votes as the best team in the 2021 championship while Manurewa was tipped three times and Patumahoe twice.
Patumahoe were nominated as the most under-rated team in the competition, picking up six votes while coach Reon Graham was ranked as the competition’s best coach. Graham collected five votes compared to Ardmore Marist’s Doug Sanft and Waiuku’s Peter Nock, who collected a pair of votes each.
Pukekohe number eight Sam Slade was the only player to receive more than one vote as the competition’s best player while Steelers teammates Alamanda Motuga (Ardmore Marist) and Viliami Taulani (Manurewa), Bombay’s Adam Brash, Patumahoe’s Liam Daniela and Manurewa’s Steven Leavasa also featured.
Ardmore Marist first-five Ume Fosita picked up three votes as the most influential player in the McNamara Cup. Karaka’s Orbyn Leger and Ardmore Marist prop Ezekiel Lindenmuth were the only other players to get nods from those that will take place in Saturday’s competition final.
No one player stood out as the competition’s most under-rated player with each coach choosing a different player. Adam Brash (Bombay), Thor Manase (Manurewa), Siate Taupaki (Patumahoe), Riley Hohepa (Patumahoe) and Asaeli Tikoirotuma (Manurewa) were all mentioned by the various coaches.
Manurewa lock Leavasa was confirmed as the competition’s hardest hitter, collecting more than half the votes in the category on the back of a superb season.
Karaka speedster Benji Malimali was selected by the coaches as the fastest player in the competition while Patumahoe halfback Liam Daniela was an almost unanimous choice as the best sledger/trash talker in the game.
One coach made the comment that Daniela is: “not a dick but he does a good job of getting into your head.”
Bruce Pulman Park picked up six votes as the best venue to play at while Bombay and Waiuku were chosen as the two venues teams least liked playing at.
Onewhero was chosen by half the coaches as the place for the best after match feed, while Waiuku also received multiple votes in that category.
Patumahoe was picked by the coaches as having the best culture (more than half of all votes) as well as being tipped as the best run club in the competition, backing up the fact that all five senior men’s teams made their respective semi-finals this season.
Karaka and Pukekohe each received multiple votes in the best run club too.
Veteran referee Nigel Bradley and CMRFU Referee Education Officer Brandon Roberts were jointly chosen as the best referee in the competition. John Wright, Lauren Jenner, James Imlach, Harley Brown and Robert Shaw all got one vote each.
The coaches were split on what the best number of teams is for the 2022 McNamara Cup competition. Four coaches chose eight as the ideal number and four preferred 10 teams. One team wanted nine.
The coaches were also split on the idea of playing Friday night games next season – with half keen on the idea and half against it.
There was support for a North v South or City v Country Steelers trial game with eight of the coaches keen to see it happen.
Seven of the coaches wanted to see more media content on club rugby while two thought the current amount was about right.
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