The G.J. Gardner Homes Tauihi season is quickly heading towards this year's finals, and while every player is chasing the team glory of winning a championship, the 2024 individual awards will also soon be decided.
The most sought-after individual awards each year are the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and selection to the All Star 5.
Voting for these awards actually happens across the full home and away season (finals are not included) and those with the biggest say in the players who win these awards are the five team head coaches.
How Does Tauihi MVP Voting Work?
After every game the coach from each team votes for five players based on those who have performed the best in the game - 5 votes for the best player, 4 votes for the next best, and so on down to 1 vote for the fifth best player. The only additional requirements are that coaches must include at least two players from the opposition team, and coaches should not show bias in their voting - their votes should fairly (in order) represent the best five players.
Once the regular season is complete, the top 10 players with the most accumulated votes go into the final MVP voting - for this the five team head coaches vote again and are joined by a panel of between 4-6 independent parties, usually Sky Sport commentators or other media, with a requirement that the independent panel members must have watched most, if not all, games during the regular season.
With the top 10 players with the most votes from the regular season in hand, each member of the voting panel must award 10 votes to the player they deem to be the MVP of the season (regardless of the top 10 order), with 9 votes then awarded to their second choice, 8 votes to their third choice, and so on down to 1 vote for the player they select as the 10th best on the list of 10 players.
The votes from the panel are added up, and the player with the most votes is awarded the season MVP.
How Does Tauihi All Star 5 Voting Work?
In a similar way to the MVP voting, and again based on the votes awarded by the 5 team head coaches during the regular season (not including finals), the 10 players with the most votes who play as a forward or a centre, and the 10 players with the most votes who play as a guard, go into the final vote, which is conducted by the same panel as the MVP.
This time, each panel member must select five players - made up of either 3 x Forward/Centres and 2 x Guards, or 2 x Forward/Centres and 3 x Guards. Based on all the voting by the panel, the All Star 5 is decided.
Other Awards Voted Upon By The Panel
Defensive Player of the Year - each of the five team head coaches are asked to submit three players (from any team, including their own) whom they believe are the three best defensive players in the competition. The top 5-6 players based on these submissions will go through to the final panel vote - the panel will this time award 3-2-1 votes (selecting their top three players) with 3 votes being awarded to their top selection. The player with the most votes, wins the award.
Youth Player of the Year - the same system as Defensive Player of the Year is used for this award. The key criteria is the player must be aged 21-years or under.
Coach of the Year - all five coaches are nominated and similar to the final MVP voting, the panel must award votes to every coach - 5,4,3,2,1 - with 5 votes going to their top selection. And yes, the coaches must award themselves votes.
Sky Broadband Rapid League Awards
The Rapid League has awards for MVP and All Star 5 and the voting process is exactly the same as Tauihi, which also includes coaches awarding votes - 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - after every regular season game with the top collection of players at each position eligible for AS5 and the top ten of the list eligible for MVP voting.
Team Awards
There are a number of Team Awards presented each year. These awards are decided upon by League Management & Staff. The awards are:
