Thanks for joining me for today's Super League Dream Team announcement. Apologies again for the delay midway through.

See you again on Thursday for the first of our Super League semi-finals!

For more details about the Dream Team line-up, click on the link below.

Good news for Huddersfield Giants fans - their England star is signed up to stay with the club for another five years...

Perhaps, if he hadn't had the start of his season hampered by injury, the flier would be in this team?

Image source, SWPIX.COM

A gripping Qualifiers section threw up all sorts of surprise results and permutations, and three clubs - Salford Red Devils, Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR - emerged with their Super League status intact.

With Widnes Vikings relegated, the top tier is certain to have some new blood in 2019 - but will it be Toronto Wolfpack or London Broncos?

The Canadian side will host Sunday's Million Pound Game, with the winners earning promotion.

Jay Freeman
BBC Sport at Old Trafford

Today's Dream Team announcement is doubling as an opportunity for the press to speak to this season's Super League semi-finalists.

There's a palpable buzz about the room as us journalists make our way around to speak to selected players and coaches, who are in fine form as we reach the tail end of the 2018 campaign.

Which of these players will be enjoying more success by the end of play this weekend?

Image source, Jay Freeman

Image source, SWPIX.COM

Do you fancy yourself as the next Dave Woods or, dare I say it, the next Matt Newsum?! (I'm that handsome chap on the second from the left, by the way... should have edited a few chins off!)

If you love sport and you're aged between 11 and 15, then you could be BBC Radio 5 live's next commentary star!

For entry details and more information about what you need to take part, click here.

Having already been named best in their positions by the media vote, St Helens full-back Ben Barba, hooker James Roby and Wigan back-rower John Bateman are also the three nominees for the 2018 Steve Prescott Man of Steel award.

North Queensland Cowboys-bound Barba, 29, has been a stand-out player in the Super League this season, top-scoring with 28 tries.

Skipper Roby, 32, has led Saints to the League Leaders' Shield and the Super League semi-finals and is aiming to reclaim the award he first won in 2007.

England international Bateman, 24, is hoping to sign off with another Grand Final success before he departs for Canberra Raiders in 2019.

The winner will be announced next Monday.

Steven Murgatroyd: Nothing less than a fully deserved place in the Super League Dream Team for Tom Johnstone. One of the most talented players I've seen in a Wakefield shirt!

Jay Freeman
BBC Sport at Old Trafford

And here they are, this year's Dream Team. A fine line-up.

Image source, Jay Freeman

Right, here's your recap. The Dream Team line-up in full:

• Ben Barba (St Helens)
• Tommy Makinson (St Helens)
• Mark Percival (St Helens)
• Bill Tupou (Wakefield Trinity)
• Tom Johnstone (Wakefield Trinity)
• Jonny Lomax (St Helens)
• Danny Richardson (St Helens)
• Luke Thompson (St Helens)
• James Roby (St Helens)
• Remi Casty (Catalans Dragons)
• John Bateman (Wigan Warriors)
• Matty Ashurst (Wakefield Trinity)
• Sean O'Loughlin (Wigan Warriors)

It's seven Dream Team appearances in nine years now for Wigan's talismanic captain Sean O'Loughlin.

After the pain of missing out on last year's World Cup final defeat by Australia because of injury, the veteran loose forward has excelled once more in Super League and helped Wigan to within one game of the Grand Final.

Matty Ashurst rounds off the trio of Wakefield players named in this season's Super League Dream Team.

Only hookers Danny Houghton and Paul McShane have made more tackles in Super League this season.

There's some debate about John Bateman's best position. He's been utilised as a centre by England coach Wayne Bennett, but it's in the second row where Bateman has produced the goods for Wigan this season.

He'll leave the Warriors for Canberra Raiders at the end of the season, and he'll hope to reproduce the form that has earned him a nomination for the Steve Prescott Man of Steel award.

Some things are just meant to go together; milk and cookies, Morecambe and Wise, Remi Casty and Catalans Dragons.

Casty will go down in history as the first Dragons captain to lift a major trophy, leading the French side to Challenge Cup success at Wembley in August.

This is Dream Team appearance number six for St Helens hooker James Roby, who could pick up the Man of Steel award 11 years after first winning Super League's biggest individual prize.

The England international was named Saints captain at the start of the 2018 season and has led his side to one trophy already. There's every chance he could be lifting a second at Old Trafford in 12 days' time.

St Helens' free-flowing attack has grabbed the headlines for much of this season, but their tireless forward pack deserve huge credit for their success too - laying the foundations for the flair players to excel.

At the forefront has been Luke Thompson, who makes his debut in the Super League Dream Team.

At this time last season, not many people would have expected to see Danny Richardson's name in the Super League Dream Team.

But the 22-year-old has been outstanding in his breakthrough year, appearing in all 30 of St Helens' league games and leading the goal-kicking stats with 132 successful attempts.

It could be considered a surprise that the talents of the versatile Jonny Lomax had previously failed to see him selected for Super League's Dream Team.

However, the England man makes his debut in the line-up this season at stand-off.

He's scored 17 Super League tries and set up a further 16 in an impressive year.

No Super League player has made more metres that Wakefield centre Bill Tupou's total of 4,114 this season.

He has contributed 14 tries in all, and his run in from long range against Leeds is one that will live long in the memory.