Bradford Bulls chairman Chris Caisley today said it was "outrageous" that Brian Noble had not been recognised as Coach of the Year in last night's Man of Steel awards.

The Bulls coach was short-listed, along with Wigan's Stuart Raper.

But the award went instead to Neil Kelly, who guided Super League newcomers Widnes to seventh place out of 12 in the Tetley's Super League table.

Caisley (pictured), who attended the awards dinner in Manchester, said: "It is outrageous after all that Brian has done.

"The Bulls have won the World Club Championship, which put more publicity into our game this year than anything else, and we also won the Twickenham Sevens, and are in the Grand Final for the second year in a row.

"To find that his only recognition is to be short-listed is bizarre.

"Also it is disrespectful of the effort that Brian has put into the club, and it is also disrespectful of the efforts that the players have put in. We haven't won anything here since Leon Pryce was voted Young Player of the Year in 1999." Noble said: "It doesn't worry me in the slightest that I haven't won the award. We will do our talking on the field."

St Helens' Paul Sculthorpe created history by being named Man of Steel for a second successive year.

Sculthorpe was also short-listed, along with London's Dennis Moran, for the Players' Player of the Year, but that went to Adrian Lam (Wigan). Richard Horne (Hull) was Young Player of the Year and Russell Smith Referee of the Year.