North Queensland captain Johnathan Thurston will head into Friday night's elimination final against Sydney Roosters with renewed confidence after being voted by his peers as the best player at club and representative level.
Thurston, who has starred for Queensland and Australia as well as the Cowboys, edged out Jarryd Hayne, Gareth Widdop, Anthony Milford and Jesse Bromwich to win the Rugby League Players' Association medal for a third time after previously receiving the honour in 2005 and last year.
"I pride myself on the way that I play so to be able to accept this award is truly humbling," Thurston told the RLPA awards dinner in Sydney on Tuesday night via video from Townsville.
"In my eyes, there is no higher honour in the game [than] to be voted one of the best by your peers. So I thank you for that."
The RLPA medal is determined by votes lodged by players after each game of the regular season, and in a sign of his consistent form over the past 12 months Thurston was also awarded the Australian representative player of the year for his performances across the World Cup, Test and Origin competitions.
"It was a privilege to be nominated but to actually receive this is truly humbling," Thurston said. "It's a highly contested award and there's a lot of great players out there in the representative arena.
"I'd like to thank those who voted. It's no doubt an honour I will cherish for many years to come."
Warriors halfback Shaun Johnson was named the New Zealand representative player of the year after a stunning World Cup in which he scored the match-winning try at Wembley Stadium against England with just seconds on the clock to secure the Kiwis a berth in the final.
Canberra fullback Milford received the inaugural Rest of the World representative player of the year award for his performances with Samoa in the World Cup.
Other award winners included Wests Tigers halfback Luke Brooks, who was named the RLPA rookie of the year, while Newcastle's Sione Mata'utia was the National Youth Competition player of the year.
Roosters captain Anthony Minichiello, Penrith prop Brent Kite and Cronulla hooker John Morris were presented with the RLPA milestone award for the achievement of playing 300 NRL matches, while Greg Bird, Luke Bailey, Steve Menzies and Trevor Gillmeister were inducted into the RLPA Origin Gold Club in recognition of having made more than 15 appearances for their state.
Eleven Kangaroos and Kiwis players also received the RLPA chairman's award to mark their Test debuts, while Gold Coast co-captain Nate Myles was presented with the RLPA Dennis Tutty Award by the former Balmain forward in whose honour the award was named.
"We were thrilled to have Dennis Tutty join us tonight, not least because of his significant contribution to the rights rugby league players enjoy today," RLPA chief executive David Garnsey said. "Nate continues the tradition of leadership both on the field and off and has taken an active role at the Titans, and more widely, in promoting player rights and in engaging others in the debate about issues of concern to all players."