Leeds Rhinos and St Helens, who play in Saturday’s engage Grand Final, were snubbed in terms of the significant Super League honours at last night’s awards ceremony in Manchester.

Brett Hodgson, the Huddersfield Giants full back, was named the 2009 Man of Steel and became only the fourth Australian winner of the game’s highest individual accolade, after Gavin Miller (1986), Adrian Vowles (1999) and Jamie Lyon (2005), since the award was instigated in 1977.

It is the fourth time that a player not involved in the Grand Final has won the prize for the player deemed to have made the biggest impact on the season by his Super League peers.

Huddersfield finished the regular season behind Leeds and St Helens, who meet for a third successive year at Old Trafford, but the Giants were the evening’s big winners. Nathan Brown, like Hodgson a new arrival from the NRL this season, was named coach of the year and the Giants the Super League club of the year for their investment in coaching and talent development.

Despite the progress of young players such as Leroy Cudjoe and Michael Lawrence, though, the influence of Hodgson, 31, the former New South Wales State of Origin player who was signed from Wests Tigers, was profound in Huddersfield’s Super League high point of a third-place finish and reaching a second Carnegie Challenge Cup final in four years, where they were beaten by Warrington Wolves at Wembley.

As club captain, Hodgson’s consistency throughout the 27 Super League rounds was matched by his peerless leadership, bravery under the high ball and breathless interventions from full back. As Brown described him, “he’s the all-round package.”

Sam Tomkins, 20, the Wigan Warriors stand-off, rounded off his meteoric rise with the young player prize. He beat two more British half backs to the award, Richard Myler, of Salford City Reds, who has signed for Warrington, and Kyle Eastmond, of St Helens.

Martin Offiah, the former Great Britain wing, who oversaw Myler’s move to Warrington, is also agent for Eastmond, 20, who is linked with a possible code switch to Sale Sharks.

“Kyle has come through the grades as a rugby league player, and it seems pointless for him to switch at this stage of his career, but there’s always going to be speculation when a player of his credentials has only a year left on his contract,” Offiah said.

Keiron Cunningham, the St Helens captain, who played in the 14-10 semi-final win against Wigan after pain-killing injections, missed the traditional Monday Grand Final press conference at Old Trafford to have scans on a hairline fracture in his hand, although the veteran hooker is expected to play. Leeds should also be at full strength, with the exception of Danny Buderus, a long-term absentee, although Brian McClennan, the Rhinos coach, would not specify an injury to Brent Webb, who missed Leeds’ 2008 Grand Final win with a serious back complaint and has been omitted from New Zealand’s Gillette Four Nations squad. “He’ll definitely end up in the 17,” McClennan said.

Craig Bellamy, the Melbourne Storm coach, said after the club’s NRL Grand Final victory over Parramatta Eels on Sunday that he was resigned to losing Michael Maguire, the assistant coach. He is expected to be confirmed tomorrow as Wigan’s replacement head coach for Brian Noble. “He is a very talented coach and he thinks he is ready for a head coach’s job and I think he is, too,” Bellamy said.

Roll of honour:

Man of Steel: Brett Hodgson (Huddersfield Giants). Coach: Nathan Brown (Huddersfield Giants). Young player: Sam Tomkins (Wigan Warriors). Club: Huddersfield Giants. Top tryscorer: Ryan Hall (Leeds Rhinos), 28 tries. Metre Maker: James Graham (St Helens), 4,752m. Hit Man: Malcolm Alker (Salford City Reds), 981 tackles. Mike Gregory Spirit of Rugby League Award: Steve Prescott. Carnegie Community player: Lee Radford (Hull). Frontline Fairplay Index winners: Hull.