GROUP 11 will take a different approach to recognising the competition's best this season with the staging of a presentation night instead of the annual grand final breakfast.
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The inaugural presentation night will be held at the Dubbo RSL Memorial Club on the Friday, August 28, before the grand final on the Sunday.
Group 11 secretary Ross McDermott said on?Tuesday the idea was the brainchild of president Derrick Hoe and was hopeful it would put more focus on the awards and make the presentations more prestigious.
"On grand final day with the breakfast people have to rush up to the ground and with the league tag introduced this season it's going to be an even bigger grand final day," he said.
"We've got support from Tooheys and we expect all clubs to provide players for it and we're expecting 100 to 200 people."
The night will be even more of a special event with former Australian rugby league representative Paul Sironen and Max Krilich to act as special guests.
The pair, who played a combined 34 tests for their country, will also be hitting the fairways at Dubbo Golf Club on Friday with fans able to join in.
Major Group 11 awards such as the Club Championships and Most Tries were normally awarded at the grand final breakfast while the majority of the player of the year awards were handed out during grand final day.
But all awards will now be presented on the Friday night while a brand new award, a Volunteer of the Year, will also be presented.
"With the noise and people there sometimes they don't get recognised the way the winner's deserve," McDermott said, before speaking about the volunteer award.
"As well as all the regular awards like the players of the year, referees' award, most tries and club championships we'll also be calling on all clubs to put forward volunteer of the year nominations because the clubs can't survive without them.
"The winner of that award will then go into next year's Community One Volunteer of the Year award and they will also get grand final tickets."
In other Group 11 news, the management committee will meet on Friday evening at the conclusion of the penultimate round of the season in order to start planning the finals series.
McDermott confirmed the Group would again look to give each of the top fives sides a home match with the allocations expected to be released on Monday.
