Jordan McLean has made a habit of leading from the front during his first season as North Queensland Toyota Cowboys vice-captain and the 27-year-old again produced a stellar performance when his side desperately needed it last weekend.

McLean ran for 150 metres from 15 carries in 61 minutes in the Cowboys’ 24-10 victory over Penrith at 1300SMILES Stadium.

The performance earned McLean man of the match honours at post-match presentations at Cowboys Leagues Club.

“It was good to have discussions about who we were going to give this award to and there were a lot of names thrown up,” Cowboys head coach Paul Green said.

“Jordan Kahu was really good, Kyle Feldt had a great game, but the guy we gave the award to was pretty firm with some of the things he said during the week and he backed it up and that was Jordan McLean.”

McLean praised the side’s defensive effort upon accepting the award.

“I thought that was our best performance for a number of weeks and it’s no secret it came on the back of our effort in defence,” he said.

“We set the platform early and carried it through the entire 80 minutes.”