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After four days of articles and debates, we reach the final piece of the puzzle in The Roar‘s NRL top 50 player countdown series. Who then are the top 10 players in the NRL from the 2015 season?
While there are no real questions on who is the number one, and conversely who will win the Dally M medal next Monday, the rest of the top 10 can be debated.
Two players from minor premiers the Sydney Roosters make their presence felt in the top five while there is one player whose team did not make finals footy in 2015.
It’s also interesting to note how many fullbacks make their appearance in the top 10.
Part 1 (50-41)
Part 2 (40-31)
Part 3 (30-21)
Part 4 (20-11)
10: Greg Inglis (South Sydney Rabbitohs)
Inglis, while still having an excellent season, has been a little bit quiet by his own lofty standards. It must also be taken into account that he has been at times held back by a troublesome knee injury, however his form for most of the season was right up there with the best in the competition.
Averaging 126 metres per game is no easy feat, however it’s down on previous years for Inglis. His line-break and line-break assist counts are high with 15 and 16 respectively, however only six offloads for the season won’t leave him feeling impressed. He has made 77 tackle busts however, which is positive considering he missed some games through injury.
9: Cameron Smith (Melbourne Storm)
There is no doubting that Smith is still one of the best players going around in the game today. He still has the ability to captain the Australian national side, the Queensland Maroons in the State of Origin and his club side the Melbourne Storm.
There is also no doubting he still has the will to do what he does best on the defensive side making an incredible 1034 tackles with a 95 per cent efficiency rating across his 21 matches for the Storm. With Billy Slater gone he has also had to up his game in attack and it has started to click for him in the back half of the year, dragging the Storm into the top four. This is evidenced by his 10 try assists and nine line-break assists.
8: Josh Dugan (St George Illawarra Dragons)
Dugan seems to have really moved his game up a level this season. He is attacking with vigour, seems to be making the correct calls with the ball in possession and has continued to improve his good play as a defensive fullback.
His passing game has also come along in leaps and bounds and his Origin performances made him close to, if not the best, New South Wales player in this year’s Origin series.
Scoring seven tries throughout the season, he has run for an average of 166 metres per game, made 107 tackle busts, 12 line-breaks and 22 offloads in what has been statistically a very good season. He hasn’t really put a foot wrong and Dragons fans will be hoping for something similar next season.
7: Jason Taumalolo (North Queensland Cowboys)
Taumalolo has been epic for the Cowboys this season, generally making Johnathan Thurston, Michael Morgan, Lachlan Coote and Jake Granville’s job a lot easier than it could have been. He looks dangerous every time he touches the ball and in defence he barely puts a foot out of place.
He has led the Cowboys for metres this season with 143 per game at well over 10 metres per run. He has looked dangerous on a majority of runs and added to that with 67 tackle busts and 10 offloads. While his defensive stats have been down he doesn’t miss many tackles.
6: Ben Hunt (Brisbane Broncos)
Hunt has continued his improvement in a big way this season, getting into talks about State of Origin contention and leading a very well oiled Broncos unit to a second placed finish after the regular season. He has been creative with the ball in-hand and doesn’t pick the wrong option often. He also has been the key organiser of the team, allowing Anthony Milford to play spontaneously.
He has also been creative for himself scoring 11 tries, while he has played key roles in a majority of the Broncos’ point scoring this season. He has also made 25 line-break assists, 20 offloads and 10 line-breaks of his own showing just how hard he has been to contain for opposition defences.
5: Jared Waerea Hargreaves (Sydney Roosters)
Waerea Hargreaves has turned that many games on their head this year it almost isn’t funny. He was one of the key reasons why the Roosters managed to go a monster winning streak in the three months leading up to the finals and he could always be counted on to make a big run or spark the Roosters in some way.
Making almost 110 metres per game, it is offloads and his general ability to set a defensive line on the back foot that has been his most valuable input. Because of the number of tacklers he generally draws in it puts a defensive line under pressure straight away and if you add that to a total of 31 offloads, you can see why he assists the Roosters’ attack in the massive way that he does.
4: Cooper Cronk (Melbourne Storm)
Cronk is still one of the biggest attacking geniuses in the game and when he had to sit out of the second State of Origin this year it showed as the New South Wales Blues danced away with victory. He brings a certain level of control to every match he plays in, and has one of the best kicking games in the competition always putting other teams under the pump and getting his team out of trouble after a poor attacking set.
Cronk also has a habit of playing very direct to the defensive line and because of this has managed to hand off 16 try assists in 21 games for his Storm teammates, while also scoring four of his own. Cronk has also come in with 15 line-break assists for the season.
3: Shaun Johnson (New Zealand Warriors)
Johnson, by his standards, had a slow start to the season and an even slower finish to it sitting on the sidelines. However, in between he almost singlehandedly took the Warriors on a monster winning streak and into the top four of the NRL for a period of time. Since he was injured though, the Warriors didn’t win a game, nor did they look like contesting with most sides.
From finals contention they very quickly bounced down and out of the top eight, showing just what an influence Johnson can have on a team or any game of league. Johnson scored eight tries and assisted a further 15 throughout the season, making almost one a game. He also made 15 line-breaks and 16-line break assists.
2: Roger Tuivsasa Sheck (Sydney Roosters)
Tuivasa Sheck would have been the number one player in the game this year if it wasn’t for some freak who is probably going to be a future immortal. He has broken all sorts of records for total metres run in a season and is a danger every time he touches the ball. His defence has also been good throughout the season and he has hardly done anything wrong.
He has scored 12 tries at an average of one every two games, ran for 214 metres per game at over 10 metres per run, however it is not just this that has made Tuivsasa Sheck’s season.
He has also made 30 offloads, 142 tackle busts, 20 line-breaks and 16 line-break assists, which can also be added to 14 try assists. When you see just how phenomenal he has been across all areas of attack, it is easy to see why he has to be so far up this list.
1: Johnathan Thurston (North Queensland Cowboys)
Is there really any doubting that Thurston has been the best player in the NRL this season? Every time he gets the ball he has looked dangerous and you can’t have any illusions as to just how important his defence is for the Cowboys.
His leadership has also been tremendous, as was his performance in the Origin arena where he took the Maroons to the series win.
He leads the league in both try assists (30) and line-break assists (31), while he has also managed to get rid of 21 offloads.
So then, Roarers, there it is. A complete list of the top 50 players in the NRL. If you need a recap on the earlier list then be sure to check out the earlier articles, which are linked at the top of this piece.
Is the list close to correct? Let us know in the comments below!
Thanks for tuning in throughout the series and get ready for the final three games of the NRL season! They are going to be huge and each one will be live here on The Roar.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde