His scorching pace, handy step and strong palm made countless meters for the Bulldogs and earned the talented back plenty of tries. Then at the breakdown, to cheers of ‘Go Buzz’, he forced props twice his size off the ball, pilfered possession and hit like a brick wall.

It was that sort of rugby which saw Webber named the Bathurst Bulldogs’ first grade best and fairest for 2018 when the club staged its presentation evening.

“He has got a cult following, he’s a quirky guy and we love having him around the club,” Bulldogs president Greg Reid said of Webber.

“When he gets the ball everyone stands up – you know you’ve got a great player when that happens every time he touches the ball. But his defence is outstanding as well.

“He runs like he is always going to beat you and I think that is part of the confidence that comes with him.”

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Webber was just one of a host of Bulldogs who were acknowledged at the annual awards night as the club drew an impressive season to a close. All grades qualified for finals in 2018, earning Bathurst the club championship, while the women’s team and second grade went on to grand final glory.

“We had such a stellar year it was hard to pick winners, I know the coaches deliberated hard and long to come up with the appropriate winners,” Reid said.

“There are quite a few dual winners too … we couldn’t split Nick Hart and Pip McIntosh for the clubman award.

“I got to pay tribute to John Maynard in my speech for his 20 years of service as president of Bulldogs … he was president when most people we have at the club were boys.

“We renamed an award after him, we’ve now called it the John Maynard Encouragement Award, and soon a sign will go up on our number two oval which will be the John Maynard Field.”

It was Mandy Scott who was given the encouragement award while for the first time a female player – Marita Shoulders – was presented with the President’s Trophy for most successful representative.

“Marita got player of the [NSW] Country carnival and she also represented the Australian Police Force against the armed forces, so she had a stellar year. Mandy, she did a lot of work for the girls this year and broadly for the club, she’s a leader and we want to hold onto that sort of talent,” Reid said.