YORK City Knights winger AJ Towse has narrowly missed out on the Betfred Championship’s young player of the year award.

Towse had a breakout season in 2022, standing in for Will Oakes who, due to injury, played just nine times throughout the campaign.

The 19-year-old scored eight tries in 16 appearances for the Knights in the regular season, notching braces against London Broncos, Whitehaven and Newcastle Thunder.

Towse played an important role for the Knights who made it to the play-off semi-finals for the first time in their history, where they were ultimately beaten 70-10 by Leigh Centurions with a squad of just 17 players.

He played in both the semi-final and York’s stunning quarter-final victory, where they beat Halifax Panthers 26-24 at the Shay.

The former Heworth amateur was part of a three-player shortlist that included London Broncos half-back Oli Leyland and prop forward Sam Eseh, the latter going on to win the coveted award.

Leyland notched 47 goals and two tries throughout the season, making 25 appearances for London.

Eseh, who featured for both Featherstone Rovers and Barrow Raiders on loan from Wakefield Trinity across the term, bagged eight tries. Three came for Featherstone, while five came for the Raiders.

Elsewhere, Edwin Ipape of Leigh Centurions was named the Championship player of the year after a stellar season.

The hooker beat off competition from Leigh teammate John Asiata, as well as Joe Keyes of Halifax and Tee Ritson of Barrow.

After steering the Raiders to a fourth-placed finish, Paul Crarey was named Championship coach of the year.