Tyler Broad named Rams' MVP while Cowley honoured at Awards Evening

Wed Dec 06 2017

Tyler Broad took top honours and there was a fitting send-off to retiring Rams stalwart Adam Cowley at the team’s end-of-season Awards Evening.

Second-year safety Broad scooped up three prestigious awards, including the overall MVP honour and the newly inaugurated Play of the Year, as he continued his emergence as a key figure in a young Rams defence.

Other winners included Cowley, Chris Winrow, Charlie Gough, Lil Bush and Phil Gatenby as the prizes were shared out between a strong team unit after another creditable play-off season.

Lauren Stewart, the Rams’ social secretary last season and now moving to the role of treasurer as well as gameday host, was stunned to receive the first of the main honours, the Committee’s Choice award, before immediately stepping up to the podium in flustered fashion to host the ceremony.

Fit-again safety Chris Lawton managed to wrestle the Maniac of the Year award away from regular winner Cowley, while Gatenby landed the Offensive Lineman of the Year prize for the second straight year.

Just one vote separated the top three in the Play of the Year voting, with Elliott Jackson’s long touchdown against the West Coast Trojans and Bush’s history-making two-point conversion against the Doncaster Mustangs edged into joint second by Broad’s length-of-the-field interception touchdown at home to the Trojans.

Bush was named Rookie of the Year after adapting impressively to the move from women’s football into the BAFA National League, while the Ram of the Year award went to Cowley.

The coaches’ awards were next up, with head coach David Pawson presenting defensive honours to influential linebacker Gough and the offensive prize to a shocked Gatenby.

That just left the MVP awards, voted for by the team, with versatile receiver Winrow the winner on offence while Broad scooped the defensive and overall MVP trophies.

The stage typically belongs to Cowley at these events, though, and having started the night by leaving his team-mates squirming during the traditional joke awards, he ended it with tears in his eyes after receiving a memento to mark his retirement.

Coach Pawson returned to the stage to present Cowley, a defensive leader during his nine years playing for the Rams, with a signed ball to honour his contribution. An emotional Cowley thanked the team and said: “My son will ask me about that in years to come and I can tell him what it’s all about.”

We will have more from Cowley soon as he reflects on his retirement and his move into coaching, and keep checking the site before our season begins for more on our award winners - congratulations to all those who took home trophies on the night.

Photos by Stewart Hegarty and Ben Simmons, video by Brad Perigo/Yorkshire Rams