The Cronulla Sharks might have broken their 50-year premiership drought, but does that secure them the top spot in The Roar‘s NRL finals MVP? Find out who the best three players were from the big dance, and who takes out the inaugural gong as most valuable player from the NRL finals below.
All the wash-up from the NRL grand final:
» LORD: Gallen leads Sharks into history books
» PRICHARD: 13 extra seconds, but the Sharks did it
» Five talking points
» Ten best tweets from the match
» Sharks player ratings
» Storm player ratings
» Match report: Sharks’ wait over
» Re-live the match with our live blog
Melbourne Storm 12 defeated by Cronulla Sharks 14
Blogged by: Scott Pryde
3: Andrew Fifita – He was the game changer for Cronulla, making over 200 metres and being a constant threat running into space and finding gaps for teammates.
2: Ben Barba – Scored a try, was safe in defence and ran the ball well from the back while chipping in during the rest of the Sharks offence.
1: Luke Lewis – The Clive Churchill medalist just scrapes into our voting, but wow does he deserve it. Fantastic match for the veteran both with and without the ball.
| Votes | Players |
| 6 | Cameron Smith (Melbourne Storm) |
| 3 | Anthony Milford (Brisbane Broncos), Matt Prior (Cronulla Sharks), Matt Moylan (Penrith Panthers), Jason Taumalolo (North Queensland Cowboys), James Maloney (Cronulla Sharks), Andrew Fifita (Cronulla Sharks) |
| 2 | Darius Boyd (Brisbane Broncos), Jarryd Hayne (Gold Coast Titans), Michael Ennis (Cronulla Sharks), Josh Mansour (Penrith Panthers), Johnathan Thurston (North Queensland Cowboys), Joseph Leilua (Canberra Raiders), Chad Townsend (Cronulla Sharks), Cooper Cronk (Melbourne Storm), Ben Barba (Cronulla Sharks) |
| 1 | Josh Hodgson (Canberra Raiders), Michael Morgan (North Queensland Cowboys), Peter Wallace (Penrith Panthers), Junior Paulo (Canberra Raiders), Wade Graham (Cronulla Sharks), Aiden Sezer (Canberra Raiders), Luke Lewis (Cronulla Sharks) |
In the end, no one could catch Smith. Coming into the grand final, the only player who was within three votes and still alive was James Maloney, but he didn’t poll a single vote in the grand final (although he was close).
That leaves us with a stack of players on one through three, but Smith on six after two man of the match performances in the Storm’s qualifying final win over the North Queensland Cowboys and preliminary final win over the Canberra Raiders.
Roarers, hopefully you have enjoyed our inaugural NRL Finals MVP here on The Roar. We are always looking for ways to improve our content, so if you have an idea for this series next year, why not drop a comment and let us know?
And as always, let rip and tell me why you don’t agree with my selections for the grand final!
Happy off-season I guess!
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde
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