This year's resurrection of The People's Choice Group 10 Team Of The Year continues with the hooker, the dummy-half, the rake... and this is a serious group to choose from.
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There's not a side in the Group 10 competition right now that doesn't have one, or two in some cases, excellent hookers, so as you can imagine we had a difficult job narrowing the nominees down to just five.
Only one can make the cut though, cast your vote.
- READ MORE: Vote for the best props of 2019
1 BEN THOMPSON (Mudgee Dragons)
Hostile, confrontational, physical and above all incredibly skillful, Thompson had another massive season for the Dragons and was at the heart of all of their attacking movements.
Found space in behind the ruck when there seemingly wasn't any there and formed a nice combinations with Jack Littlejohn in his first season, but it was his work defensively that was as impressive as anything.
Built the foundations perfectly early in games that allowed Jack Beasley to run riot from the bench. Despite playing halfback at the start of the season, missing some with injury and then being injected for impact, Beasley was still very close to earning a nod here too.
2 RYAN GRIFFIN (Orange CYMS)
It actually came as a genuine shock to this desk that Griffin didn't win Group 10 player-of-the-year, such was his performance for the green and golds this year.
He's long-been among Western's premier hookers but he was unstoppable in 2019, in a side that battled through a lot of the season Griffin was the shining light. He was consistently CYMS' best and that was reflected in the club's best and fairest and player-of-the-year awards.
He topped the competition's try-scoring list and would've been close in terms of line breaks too. Was as strong without the ball as he was with it, and for some reason opposition teams keep forgetting he loves to go himself close to the line.
3 HUDSON WHITE ( St Pat's)
This one may surprise some considering Bathurst St Pat's glaring troubles this year, but while the side as a whole struggled White didn't at all, and was consistently among the Saints' best in every game he played.
This one was simply a case of White playing a starring role without much support from the supporting cast, which of course had nothing to with lack of effort, things just didn't go to plan this year for St Pat's.
4 ALEX PROUT (Orange Hawks)
Prout was an excellent signing for Orange Hawks, adding plenty to a two blues outfit that had missed a genuine hooker in their run to the 2018 preliminary final - despite strong efforts from several.
The former Parkes Spacemen rake had no issue handling the shift from Group 11's expanses to the tighter, more-structured play of Group 10, and thrived in fact. He was the catalyst for countless of Hawks' attacking raids, and was versatile enough to shift into the halves on a few occasions too.
Don't be surprised to potentially see him move there full-time in 2020.
5 NICK LOADER (Bathurst Panthers)
Played all 19 games for Bathurst Panthers this year and continued the kind of form that has led many to label him Group 10's best dummy-half in recent years.
In unleashing Panthers' monster pack he once again too full advantage of the space their barnstorming hit-ups and quick-the-balls afforded him to record countless line breaks, scored plenty of tries and consistently spark the men in black in attack.