NicMaddinson

Nic Maddinson won his first Steve Waugh Medal as the NSW Blues Player of the Year in 2015-16.

The dynamic left-hander was in outstanding touch at the start of the season, scoring 380 runs at 63.33 in the One-Day Cup with a strike rate of 100.52. This included centuries against the Cricket Australia XI and Tasmania.

He was the only NSW player to take part in all 10 Sheffield Shield matches in the 2015-16 season. He produced some crucial knocks for the Blues, including a superb 112 against Queensland at the SCG.

The Nowra-born batsman also showed new determination last summer, batting for more than three hours with a broken finger to help secure a vital draw against Western Australia in Christchurch.

An 18-year-old Maddinson became the youngest NSW player to score a century on debut when he played his first Sheffield Shield match against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval.

He is now seen as one of the leaders in the NSW squad and captained the Blues in six Shield matches in 15-16 following an injury to Moises Henriques.

Maddinson peeled off a century for Australia A against India A in Mackay in August 2016, and thrust himself into Test calculations after scoring the only ton of the match in NSW's Shield clash with Victoria in November 2016 on a turning SCG wicket.

He made his Test debut against South Africa in Adelaide in 2016-17 in the second day-night Test at the venue.

But he struggled for consistency following the last of his three Tests in 2016 and he lost his NSW contract in 2018, moving to Melbourne later that year to try and force his way onto the Vics list through Premier Cricket performances.

He arguably became Victoria's most important batter across his six seasons with the state, scoring 2785 Sheffield Shield runs at 50.64, including 10 centuries, before moving back to NSW ahead of the 2024-25 season.