Newtown Rugby League Football Club - 1908-2008
Top performers take the major prizes at the Newtown Jets Centenary Awards Night

Australian Rugby League's oldest club celebrates an exciting and
successful centenary season

The Newtown Jets staged their annual Awards Night at the Bowlers' Club of NSW on Monday evening, 13 October.

A big crowd was in attendance including the Mayor of Marrickville Councillor, Sam Iskandar, and Sydney Roosters CEO, Brian Canavan.

Apologies and goodwill messages were received from Federal MP's Anthony Albanese and Tanya Plibersek and State MP's Carmel Tebbutt, Kristina Keneally and Linda Burney.

The major prize winners were high-performance players Sean Rudder, Mickey Paea, Byron Ford, Rory Kostjasyn and Hep Cahill.

Praise from the Sydney Roosters, Newtown's joint venture partner

Sydney Roosters CEO, Brian Canavan, praised the Jets for their many achievements in their centenary year and emphasised how well the Rugby League partnership between the Roosters and Jets was working.

Jets Coach, Greg "Matto" Matterson, reports on a successful year of football.

Director's report

Club Director, Terry Rowney, warmly thanked the Jets' many sponsors and confirmed the club's determination to lift the status and profile of the NSW Cup competition, in close cooperation with the NSW Rugby League and all the clubs competing in this second tier competition.

Newtown's website, www.newtownjets.com, was accorded high praise for the quality of its content and presentation. No Rugby League club could boast a better-presented and more informative website.

Website monitoring stats prove that the Newtown website is an extremely valuable publicity mechanism for this club and an excellent promotional showcase for our business sponsors.

2008 winners list

Coach's award	Hep Cahill
Players' Player award	Mickey Paea
Top Try Scorer	Byron Ford (15 tries)
Rookie of the Year	Tyrone Shelley
Top Points Scorer	Ben Green (74 points)
Best Back	Byron Ford
Best and Fairest and Best Forward	Rory Kostjasyn
Fred Daly award for the player giving the best service to the club during the year	Sean Rudder
Clubman of the Year	Terry Williams author of the club's well-reviewed centenary history Through Blue Eyes: a Pictorial History of the Newtown RLFC

A special moment

One of the unexpected highlights of the night was the very generous and touching gesture made by wildcard Newtown Jets centre and winger Damon Alley-Tovio.

"Damo" took to the stage and announced that he was donating his Grand Finalist's medal to disabled Jets supporter Anthony Rowan. The impromptu presentation won the admiration of everybody at the function and drew sustained applause from the crowd.

Gary Sutherland's photo captures that memorable moment from Monday night as big-hearted "Damo" on the left shakes hands with avid Jets fan Anthony Rowan.

Next Newtown centenary event

The Jets' next club function is the highly-acclaimed Birth of Origin Show, starring Tommy Raudonikis and Arthur Beetson.

The function will held at the Bowlers' Club of NSW, 95 York Street, Sydney, Thursday, 30 October at 7.00pm.

For more details and bookings call the club administrator Stu McCarthy on 0447 046 516 or email jets@newtownjets.com.