The Tom Bergin Trophy was an award given to the man-of-the-match in the annual

Championship Grand Final The Championship Grand Final (previously the National League One Grand Final) is the championship-deciding game of the Championship competition via the playoffs. Since 2022 the Grand Final has also been used to determine promotion to Super Leag ...

. The award is named after Tom Bergin, a former president of the

Rugby League Writers' Association The Rugby League Writers' Association is made up from accredited members of the English news media who write about rugby league in newspapers or present for television and radio programmes. Members of the Association who are present at the Challeng ...

and former editor for the '' Salford City Reporter''. The trophy was first awarded in the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

Premiership Final of the 1986–87 season. In 1998, the Divisional Premiership final was replaced with a play-off system, and the trophy continued to be used as a man-of-the-match award for the Grand Final of the second division. The trophy was last awarded in 2014 to

Martyn Ridyard Martyn Ridyard (born 25 July 1986) is an English professional rugby league footballer who last played as a goal-kicking or for Rochdale Hornets in the RFL League 1. He played for the Leigh Centurions in two separate spells in the Championsh ...

. Following the introduction of the Super 8s in the 2015 season, the Championship Grand Final was replaced by the

Million Pound Game Million Pound Game (stylized as £1M Game) was an annual playoff final rugby league game that decides which Championship team will be promoted to Super League the following season. Between 2015 and 2018, the game was played as part of The Qualif ...

, and the trophy was no longer used. Despite the reintroduction of the Grand Final in 2019, the award was not reinstated.

Recipients

References

{{RFL Championship Rugby league trophies and awards Championship (rugby league) Rugby Football League Championship