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Sam Burgess is an enormous human and an incredible talent – scary large, scary good. He is also, unfortunately, leaving the NRL at the end of the year to transition to rugby union.
A ridiculous decision, of course, but one he has made nonetheless.
But in full credit to the big man, he hasn’t let his upcoming sea change affect his play. In fact, he seems to have reached a new level this season, impressing every time he runs out in the cardinal and myrtle.
If Sonny Bill Williams was considered the dominant forward last season, we need to invent whole new word for what Burgess has been in 2014.
And so we come to the Dally M Medal, rugby league’s night of nights, where the player of year will be crowned. Of course, each year ‘player of the year’ is generally interpreted as ‘in-form back of the year’. But not this year.
At the end of Round 16, voting on the Dally M went behind closed doors. At that stage, Brisbane halfback Ben Hunt was leading the count on 19 votes. Two former winners, Jarryd Hayne and Johnathan Thurston, were following on 18 votes, tied with buy of the year Gareth Widdop, and Burgess. Daly Cherry-Evans was on 16 votes, and Josh Reynolds had 15.
Now Thurston, Hayne and Widdop have all been in excellent form. In fact, all three were man of the match in their respective teams’ wins this past weekend. They are also unlikely to have other players in their team poach votes from them.
But Burgess’ form in his three games since Round 16 has been seriously impressive. He leads a monstrous Rabbitohs pack, and is as important to the Bunnies’ premiership charge as Thurston and Hayne are to the Cowboys and Eels.
In Round 17 against the Titans, he was unbelievable in a losing side, running for 177 metres and making 49 tackles. In Round 19, he ran for 204 metres and made 32 tackles against an understrength Eels side. Last round, he was slightly less effective, but still made 109 metres and 21 tackles.
If Burgess does manage to stand atop the podium come Dally M night, he will be the first forward to win the medal since Cameron Smith in 2006, and the first non-hooking forward to win since Cronulla’s Gavin Miller way back in 1989. He will also be the first non-Aussie winner since Gary Freeman in 1992.
There are six rounds to go in the competition, and in that time the Rabbitohs come up against Manly, the Cowboys, the Bulldogs and the Roosters. Big Sam always relishes the opportunity to take on the bigger and harder packs, and those four are arguably the best packs in the whole NRL. I can’t wait.
So Roarers, what do you think? Will Sam beat out Thurston, Hayne and Widdop? Will someone else be player of the year for 2014?
As a Dragons fan, I hope Widdop wins it and leads the Saints into the finals, where we will crash and burn as St George Illawarra has proud history of doing.
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