If Nathan Hindmarsh wins the 2010 Favourite Son award, his award acceptance speech should be brilliant. Even his reaction to finding out about his nomination was perfect.

“It’s a great honour just to be nominated, to be thought of like that by the public.”

If we didn’t know for a fact he was surprised, we’d think he’d scripted it.

According to Hindy, the NRL this year is stacked with more players than ever who deserve recognition for their work in the community. He puts it down to players starting to understand just how influential they are as sportsmen.

“I think there are a lot of people that could be nominated,” he says. “I think rugby league’s changed a lot since I’ve been playing. We went through a rough patch with off-field incidents, but I think everyone’s understanding now how professional the game is, both on and off the field, I think players have taken a huge step forward in recognizing that and I think things are looking bright.”

He also thinks the nomination will come as a massive shock to his mother.

“She’ll tell everyone how lazy I was as a kid, that I never did anything unless I was paid to do it, and my elder brother was the workaholic, while I was the Playstation person and busy watching cricket matches,” Hindy says.

“She usually gives me a bit of a stitch up, but I hope she’ll vote for me.”

In the last year, Hindmarsh donated half of his winnings from the Ken Stephens medal to the Children’s Hospital at Westmead, and travelled to Rwanda for the second time to work on the construction of the Village of Hope, a Hope Rwanda initiative for the widows and orphans of the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

He’s also a believer that the most important qualities in a son are the simplest.

“Growing up, my parents were on making sure I was polite, always saying my ‘pleases’ and ‘thank yous’, stuff like that,” he says.

“I think the main thing I’d want my kids to learn from rugby league would be that they try their hardest every week. And if they do become a professional sportsman that they just find the time to sign a few autographs, don’t be scared to hang around after the game and sign stuff. And of course, just be polite.”

And when she’s not busy stitching up her younger son, Fiona Hindmarsh is also a footy coach of sorts, and a person to turn to for unvarnished feedback on her son’s on-field performances.

“I guess when I was young, the main thing was that she was the one that drove me to every single football game, all the way from Robertson up to Parramatta and Cronulla and Newcastle. If it wasn’t for her you never know where I’d be today.

“She’s also got a fair knowledge and she enjoys watching the game. She doesn’t go to the football to sit and talk to someone. She likes to keep an eye on the game and at the end of the game I’ll see her and she’ll say ‘you played well’ or ‘you played like crap’”.

“Not many people know what they’re talking about but she’s seen enough of my football to know if I’ve played a good game or not and she’ll tell it straight. And I value that.”