Hibs' 2022 end-of-year awards: Player of the year, best signing, best Lee Johnson moment, most improved

As 2021 comes to a close, we look back at the last 12 months at Easter Road by handing out some end-of-year awards.

Player of the year

It’s Ryan Porteous, isn’t it? If you want to balk at that suggestion, take a second and have a think. Yes, he had his disciplinary issues in the first half of the year. Yes, he’s been pretty inconsistent in the second half as speculation over his future has gone into overdrive. But is there seriously anyone else? Does anyone even come close in terms of a combination of availability and performance? Chris Cadden… maybe?

Best goal/’let’s laugh at Hearts’ moment of the year

Martin Boyle's injury-time equaliser against Hearts was one of the highlights of the year for the Hibs faithful. Picture: SNS

There haven’t been many great moments for the green half of Edinburgh in 2022, but this one certainly sparked scenes of jubilation. It was great enough to hear Martin Boyle was coming back after his move to Saudi Arabia. It was even better to know he would be making his second debut in the first Edinburgh derby of the season. But it was pure Roy of the Rovers stuff that he managed to climb off the bench to net a 95th equaliser and stop Robbie Neilson from getting his first win at Easter Road as Hearts boss.

Best signing

How are there simultaneously loads of contenders for this award and very few real contenders for this award? So many players have been brought to Leith over the last 12 months and yet very few have been an unqualified success. It would have been Boyle before his knee injury. Instead, it goes to David Marshall. Whether he’s a better custodian than Ofir Marciano at this stage of his career, the jury is out, but he’s certainly an upgrade on Matt Macey and one of the few things Hibs have undoubtedly got right in the market.

The Lee Johnson award for simply being Lee Johnson

Cards on the table, I like Lee Johnson, most press members do. Instead of managers who are gruff, rude or evasive, Johnson will typically give an honest response and at length. He makes our life easier. Unfortunately, it can also make his life difficult. As with anyone who acts differently and isn’t immediately successful, their eccentricities bring on suspicion and/or ridicule.

So for this award, let’s go for the time he took a pause mid-interview (with club TV no less) to agree with a St Mirren fan heckling him for his team being “absolutely brutal” following the 1-0 defeat in Paisley. Many Hibs supporters actually had his back after this one, so sick were they of Shaun Maloney constantly trying to pull the wool over their eyes during his short reign. They’ve since turned again because, let’s face facts, at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter how you act as a football manager. It’s all about the result on the park.

But Lee, regardless of what happens, you keep doing you.

The Fyre Festival award for biggest organisational farce

We could just call this the Rocky Bushiri chronicles, though that would be harsh on the Belgian defender because none of it is really his fault. But let’s cast our minds back to the summer.

The defender was listed among a group of players announced by Hibs as having kicked their last ball for the club as they were thanked for their services and wished luck on their merry way. Then it was announced it was actually signed permanently on a three-year deal. Then, to make matters worse, he then started in the final Premier Sports Cup group match despite being suspended. What constitutes administration at Easter Road certainly needs improvement.

Signing someone to a three-year deal when you actually wanted rid of them is pretty bad, especially when they would very likely have been knocked out the cup regardless. For that reason, it’s the moment of behind-the-scenes failure (we’ve not even mentioned the whole Chris Mueller debacle) which comes out on top. Though, to be fair to Rocky, it has ended up being a happy accident, as we’ll get to a little later.

The Dylan McGeouch award for biggest injury absence

Hibs have really caught the injury bug in 2022, whether it's Kyle Magennis being absent for most of the year, Kevin Nisbet going down with a knee injury, Aiden McGeady only making his league debut at Ibrox recently or the myriad of other players who've spent time on the treatment table. But the biggest miss has to be the latest man to go down. Losing Martin Boyle for the rest of the season is a hammer blow. Hibs' record with him in the side and without him speaks for itself and there are real fears of how long things could sink without his impact.

Future trivia answer

Nathan Wood one year and Will Fish the next. A tip for the Hibs recruitment team (CC: Ian Gordon) stop signing young and unproven English football loanees to cover at centre-back.

The Martin Boyle award for Most Improved Player

Josh Campbell won it last year and is actually in consideration again. He's taken his play up a level under Johnson and while he may not have kept up the form from earlier this season, when he emerged as a real difference-maker to the attacker, he still showed in the recent defeat at Ibrox that he's certainly a useful member of the first-team squad after many fans would have happily saw him depart in the summer. But no, the biggest transformation belongs to Rocky Bushiri. He didn't look fit for purpose last term after signing in January, but getting the pre-season to get fully fit and further acclimatised to Scottish football has really helped him. He's been one of Hibs' best players this term, consistently impressing at centre-back.

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