A JUNIOR and senior team of the year will be presented as part of the Manning Sport Awards night to be held on Friday (April 5) at Club Taree.
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This follows a strong response to nominations.
"We made the decision to split the award because of the exceptional standard of nominations,'' sport award committee chairman Garry Stephen said.
"I know this sounds cliché, but every nomination deserved to be a winner. So to be fair, and make our job easier, we've divided them into junior and senior.''
The award night was inaugurated last year.
The time-honoured Manning River Times (Ken McDonald Memorial) Sportstar of the Year will be announced while champion jockey Corey Brown from Wingham will be inducted into the Manning Valley Sporting Hall of Fame. The hall of fame had been in hiatus since 2010, however, was resurrected last year as part of the sport award program and squash star Kasey Brown was inducted.
The other awards to be presented on Friday night will be the Hugh McCrindle Medal for Service to Sport; the Kasey Brown Perpetual Junior Sportstar of the Year; the All Abilities Sportstar of the Year and the junior and senior team of the year.
Major sponsors are the Manning River Times (sportstar of the year), 2RE 88 9/Max FM 107 3 (Hugh McCrindle Medal), Colliers Engineering and Design/McGlashan and Crisp Surveyors (junior sportstar of the year) and Valley Industries (all abilities sportstar of the year).
Nominees are:
Sportstar of the year
Priya Bourke (hockey)
Saffron Grass (football)
Troy Lewis (sailing)
Ca'Naan O'Donnell (boxing)
Lara Watts (hockey)
Hugh McCrindle Medal
Gwyn (Chip) Stokes (AFL)
Jane Lynch (surf lifesaving/football)
Terry Launders (sailing)
Michael Wallace (football)
Gordon Cross (cricket)
Len Whitnall (athletics)
Ryan Merrick (rugby league)
Andrew Wilkes (rugby league)
Melissa Griffiths (netball)
Wendy Bosher (netball)
Junior sportstar
Hannah Brown-Stokes (AFL)
Jett Gilbert (rugby league)
Sienna Agnew (netball)
Sophie Drury (netball)
All abilities
Jeremy Ussher (athletics)
Kya Cheers (touch football)
Cooper Davies (athletics)
Johanness Ussher (athletics)
Team of the year
Taree Wildcats under 18s (football)
Old Bar Pirates first grade (rugby league
Taree Little Athletics under 15 state relay (athletics)
Manning under 13s (cricket)
Taree United Tier 1 (cricket)
Manning Valley Netball Association Regional League (netball)
Ticketing details for next Friday night's function can be found on the Manning Sports Awards Facebook page.
Meanwhile, Manning Valley Race Club's meeting on Tuesday (April 2) will have a sporting hall of fame theme. This is to mark Corey Brown's inauguration into the Manning Valley hall of fame.
Races will be named after Brown and current hall of famers Grahame Moran, Kylie Hilder, Murray Doust, Danny Buderus, Kasey Brown and Nick Gates. Most are expected to be in attendance.
