I really enjoyed the Dally M Awards this year. I really, really did. As always, there will be plenty of debate about the winners.
Some parts of the night were particularly interesting:
I thought it was a little strange for Manly co-captains Jamie Lyon and Jason King to win the Captain of the Year award, but I could live with it. Manly has had pretty good season, after all.
Poor Jamie Lyon really isn’t much of a talker, but he is a good leader in other ways.
No one could argue that Ben Barba did not deserve to be named Player of the Year. His season has been one to remember, to say the very least.
As much as it hurts for a Manly fan such as myself to admit it, Des Hasler was probably the right choice for Coach of the Year.
But then we get to Sam Kasiano, who was named Prop of the Year, and it all goes pear-shaped. There have been hours of debate on the Roar as to whether Kasiano was even the Bulldogs’ best this season.
And how about Akuila Uate being named Winger of the Year? More like turnstile of the year.
That wasn’t even the worst part. Manu Vatuvei – yes, you read that right, Manu Vatuvei – got a nomination for Winger of the Year. At that point, every other winger in the league needed to stand up and say “really”?
Of course, these are just my opinions. What do you think? Over to the crowd.
Gareth
Roar Pro
Aku Uate in particular. "Errrrrrrrr, I dunno." I can understand that he might not have expected the award, but surely the fat controller up at the Knights can torch another sports car and use the insurance to plump for some media training for a well liked and exciting (on-field) player.
planko
Guest
Haz the scary thing what is the NO for I was not disagreeing with him ?
oikee
Guest
He deserved the win. The warriors juniors this year are not as good as the last 2 years teams. They have some handy players. The Bulldogs have been good all year. Monster go forward, Canberra also has a few good-uns.
Haz
Guest
No, I think Oikee is right on this one. Someone needs to do to Manu what Des Hasler did to Tony Williams... turn him from a hot/cold winger at Parra into a hard-running second-rower. You just can't afford to make the mistakes Manu makes on the wing.
JayBob
Guest
I thought the U20's player of the year was done using a weekly points system like the main one(correct me if I'm wrong). It's not based on opinion at the end of the year like the positional awards. Pretty hard for that to be biased with different people voting each week. Bulldogs were Minor Premieres in the Toyota Cup, and although I didnt get to see a lot of the games(same for the next 5 years, yay) in the ones I did see with Klemmer he was outstanding. I don't think Kasiano deserved Prop. Burgess, Tamou & Graham were all better IMO. And I would have went Lyon over Morris, but not by much. But it's a bit rough to suggest Klemmer didn't deserve it when you couldn't possibly have seen even half of the Toyota Cup games this year. It has absolutely nothing to do with it being Sydney centric: Cam Smith-Hooker, Cronk-Half, Thurston-5/8, Myles-2nd row and you can throw in Uate if you want to get technical. You would have expected more awards to Sydney teams, 3 of the top 4 are from Sydney, after all.
planko
Guest
Agreed the interviews were bad but none of them had speech prepared so what choice did FOXTEL have.
TheGenuineTailender
Roar Guru
Watching some of those players being interviewed was thoroughly cringe worthy.
planko
Roar Guru
Jason yeah why not but will probably be resisted for the sole reason that it would be copying the AFL but I reckon the players should be able to let their hair down at this everyone apart from Nate Myles looked sober as... Kind of disturbing. At least having it then would allow all but 2 teams a chance to relax.
planko
Roar Guru
Well he is just one who I thought was better than Kasiano...
Jason Cave
Guest
If there's one thing I'd like to see, is that the Dally M awards should be held in the week leading up to the NRL Grand Final. The AFL has the Brownlow Medal event on the Monday prior to the AFL Grand Final-why can't the NRL do the same thing?
george
Guest
easy tamou
Bulldog
Guest
The other joke for 2 years running has been the Under 20's player of the year. How Jason Taumalomo did not win it last year is beyond me. This year it went to a Bulldog's player which seemed to be the theme of the night. How a Warrior's Under 20's player did not get it is also a joke - although I do concede that Clement is a good player it seems that the Bulldogs were going to win everything on offer. Very Sydney centric of the NRL again... AFL in GWS has got the spooked.
Bulldog
Guest
Easy reply. James Tamou was prop of year. He had best metres gained stats etc and played for state and country. Ash Graham was winger of year as he was equal best try scorer of the year.
planko
Roar Guru
This is the awards night that has the tradition I think this night needs tweaking but you cant buy this kind tradition.
Gareth
Roar Pro
So what's new? We're talking about an institution that favoured Jamal Idris over Josh Dugan for rookie of the year. It's pretty clear that they favour larger than life characters over anything else. Here's hoping that the ARLC brings back it's own awards night rather than endorsing the Daily Telegraph's.
steve b
Roar Guru
Yes mate Manu was a strange one ,,Kasiano i thought wasn't to out of the ball park ..
eagleJack
Guest
Yeah my feelings were that the NRL clubs are not spending enough on media training. I was embarrassed by how few players could string a sentence together. Barba was the exception. He did very well. On the awards I found it strange that Ben Matulino wasn't nominated for Prop of the year. Not sure what the criteria is but when one finishes on equal Dally M points as the winner Kasiano (15) yet doesn't even get a nomination then questions need to be asked.
planko
Roar Guru
I agree with you Southsforever that is why FOX had that guy there interviewing them out the front. Surely most of the players knew who was going to win. Surely their managers could earn there dollars by hiring or being a speech writer. One hour with a decent speech writer and one these players especially the older ones could go from looking stupid to a post football career in the media. Good luck against melbourne mate. I think Bellamy is going to have a plan for GI but good luck anyway.
planko
Roar Guru
Oikee no other side has paid so much for losing small periods of games as the warriors. I really believe they don't need to tweak much. There is usually 3 games between have a cracking season/pass mark to the coach getting the sack.
planko
Roar Guru
Ok come on Steve seriously Manu was not in the top 4 please ... That was the main point. After all most nominations and winners can be debated. I thought it was too 21st century to have co captains going up but call me olde school. Kasiano please there was plently of good front rowers this year for obvious reasons I think Kite was up there but for me Tamou or James Graham. I did not have a problem with Morris he had a stella year as well as Lyon.