By Tania Phillips
Captain courageous himself, Mitch Wilson, was the man of the hour on Friday night at the Warwick Cowboys Rugby Club presentation night.
Wilson, who is about to become a dad, announced his retirement from football at the end of the 2024 season and was named the Cowboys “Footballer of the Year” at the presentation held the Cowboys club house.
More than a hundred people were there to see Wilson take the prize along with the award for best tackle average in the club and best defender.
Best and fairest awards went to Martin Bell in Under 19s, Dan Howard in reserve grade and Nick Chapman in A grade while Dan Howard was named Colt of the year and Eamon Brownlie and Mitch McMahon won the Tom Barrett Memorial Trophy for loyalty and service to the club on and off the field and Mark Sullivan was volunteer of the year.
The player awards were taken out by Matthew Watt in Under 19s, Lance Grady in reserves and Nick Chapman for A grade.
It was also a big night for the New Zealand-born Vite brothers with Alifeleti (Freddy) named player of the TRL Final Series and Joseph taking the Special Achievement honours while Freddy was named most improved forward in reserve grade and Joseph was best back in A grade.
Cowboys president Dayne Barrett said it was a good night and good way to wrap up a strong season for the club which saw A grade and Reserves remain undefeated for most of the year and both make strong impressions in the finals.
“It was a good night we had quite a few speakers and it went really well,” he said.
“We had 95-100 people at the club house with some worthy winners on the night – all the trophies were well deserved.
“We had a couple of highlights through the night. My brother Frank Barrett is the media manager for the Newcastle Knights and he hosted the night and he interviewed former coach Les Lane and life member Glen Whitton. We got a lounge in and they were a bit more casual and sat at the front and had a yarn for five to 10 minutes. We didn’t have a lot of speeches; Frank did most of the speeches and we got it over and one with nice and fast.
“Mitch Wilson, who has been a warrior on the field, told us he has hung up the boots so we had a presentation for him as well as his awards. He and Maxine are about to have a little baby later in the year.
“We had my cousin, Jo Barrett who is a former Jillaroo player, came and did a little bit of the presentations and commentating and had a bit of a talk about what’s happening her world.”
Barrett said it will be right back into football for him this coming week with a meeting scheduled to discuss next season.
