TONIGHT is one of the most important in the year for Glasgow Warriors – that's because it's our annual Player of the Season awards dinner, at the Hilton.

Award dinners can often be much maligned, but I think they have a key part to play in the make-up of any rugby club, and tonight it will be great to see players, their wives and girlfriends alike, all mixing with our supporters.

Now that we have cemented our place in the play-offs with our five-try victory over the Ospreys, everyone at Warriors is on a high and looking forward to what should be a fantastic evening.

But this is also where we recognise the achievements of our exceptional performers over the season so far and I am delighted to say there have been a good few.

The winner will be chosen from a shortlist of five after the supporters cast their votes via Twitter.

The five players who remain in the running are Ryan Grant, Niko Matawalu, Josh Strauss, DTH van der Merwe and Ryan Wilson. So let's take a closer look at our nominees.

Ryan Grant's level of consistency for both Glasgow and Scotland has been immense this season.

Against the Ospreys Ryan produced a display against Adam Jones, the No.1-rated tighthead in world rugby, that was of the highest quality in the scrum – and on the back of that he also scored two tries. I firmly believe there may be a place on the British Lions plane heading to Australia for him and that says it all.

It is difficult to believe that any player arriving in his first season as a professional could have made a bigger impression than Niko Matawalu.

I noted that Gavin Hastings said in the Evening Times, earlier this week, that Niko was the signing of the season in Northern Hemisphere club rugby and who can argue with that.

His play at times has been breathtaking, while the quality of almost all of his seven tries has been of the highest calibre. The great news is that at 24 Niko will only get better.

When he first arrived at Glasgow last summer Josh Strauss had played a lot of rugby, both in SuperRugby and in the Currie Cup, but he knuckled down and has fitted in so well at Warriors.

His prowess as a ball carrier is immense, but I have lost count of the times at the end of a match that analysis has revealed Josh was top of our tackle count. He has become a key player for us every time he takes the field.

DTH van der Merwe is our lethal weapon. His try against Ospreys was his ninth of the season and it equalled Thom Evans' club record of 27 touch-downs for Glasgow.

But, looking back over the campaign, he has given up try-scoring opportunities to set up Peter Horne, Graeme Morrison and others – that underlines to me what a great team player DTH is.

Last, but by no means least, is Ryan Wilson, who has now established himself as our first-choice No.8 and has done so on the back of a tremendous consistency and growing maturity.

His importance to us was reflected when I made him skipper earlier this season when Al Kellock was injured.

Our fastest forward, and an increasingly dynamic presence from the base of the pack, Ryan is a huge player for us.

So good luck to each one of the boys and I'm sure this will be another great evening.