Max Douglas deserved 2022 Catchpole Medal recipient
While Max Douglas may have been surprised to hear his named called out at the Catchpole Medal last Wednesday evening, anyone that had watched the 22-year old forward for Manly this year probably wasn’t.
After leading the Marlins back to the Shute Shield finals, Douglas received the Catchpole Medal, awarded to the Shute Shield’s most valuable player each year, from Wallaby Tim Horan and Mrs June Catchpole.
“I’m really surprised to be honest. They showed the leaderboard after the first nine rounds and I wasn’t even in the top 10 so I wasn’t expecting to win,” the Marlin told Rugby News shortly after receiving the award.
A Harbord Harlequin junior, alongside the likes of Reece Hodge, Langi Gleeson and Harry and Teddy Wilson, just to name a few, Douglas has spent the past two seasons at the Waratahs but played most of his rugby at Manly Oval this year. Despite that, he credits a lot of his improvement this year, to the work done in and around the training fields at Daceyville.
“The coaching staff at the Waratahs have done a great job with the entire squad, from the guys starting every week for the Tahs to the guys like me who were only getting the odd run and playing a lot of Shute Shield.
“I’ve learnt so much from those coaches and they’ve worked really hard to develop our game so that we can take it back to Shute Shield level and play well for our clubs and I think there are a lot of other young guys like me that have done that this year.”
While Douglas didn’t play as much Super Rugby in 2022 as he would have liked, he said the time he has spent in the Shute Shield this yer has been equally as valuable.
“Playing 80 minutes back to back each week at such a high standard has been really good for my development and I think you see that right across the competition.”
Douglas’ father Cameron is a former Waratah and current president of the Manly Rugby Club but Max said his mother Monique deserves most of the credit for helping him to where he is today.
“Dad probably steals most of the credit because he’s an ex footballer but mum has probably done more of the work behind the scenes. She’s had to wash a lot of dirty footy clothes over the years as I was growing up and plenty of other tough jobs like it. I’m really lucky to have great family and friends around me and they’ve obviously played a massive part in me winning tonight’s award.”
While Manly have lost six of their past seven matches heading into the finals, Douglas warned fans not to write off the Marlin’s just yet.
“From the outside I think most people are counting us out after a pretty tough month or so but I think if you watched the match against Sydney Uni on the weekend closely, you’d see that we played a lot of really good rugby and were potentially a little unlucky in the end.
“Sydney Uni are one of the best teams in the competition and that game went right down to the wire so I think we’re building nicely and we’re capable of giving the finals a real shake.”
2022 Ken Catchpole Awards Evening winners:
Ken Catchpole Medal:
Max Douglas (Manly)
David Brockhoff Medal (Coach of the Year):
Scott Coleman (Hunter) & Sean Hedger (Sydney Uni)
Dick Byres Medal (Ref of the Year):
David Conway
2022 Rookie of the Year:
Conor Hickey (Warringah)
Roscoe Fay Trophy (Highest Points Scorer):
Reece Macdonald (Gordon)
Sir Roden Cutler Shield:
Randwick
ES Marks Shield Shute Shield Minor Premiers:
Northern Suburbs
Gregor George Trophy for Club Champions:
Sydney University
Eric Spilsted Shield for Colts Club Championship:
Sydney University
Most Tries:
Phillip Bradford (Hunter)