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This year I again stayed up late watching the Dally M awards night, something every year I promise myself I will avoid the next year.
I could write an article complaining about the embarrassing choice of performers, that Timomatic is starting to really annoy me and he, rather depressingly, was the best performance of the night.
But instead I want to end a personal issue I have with the Dally M medal award.
The scoring system. The 3-2-1 system is completely flawed and gives a ridiculous misrepresentation of the actual player of the year.
This year when I think of the players that most positively impacted their teams success I don’t think Cronk.
In fact I believe that the Melbourne Storm would still be a top four side without Cronk in their line-up.
That is not to say that Cronk is not a great player, he truly is one of the greats of the modern era.
But I find it hard to believe that a player who isn’t even the most important player on his own team (this most important player is clearly Cameron Smith) somehow was awarded with the player of the year award.
In my frustration with the results I decided to do my own variation of the main award of the night.
Even then Smith was not the player I would have given the award. For mine this years award is a battle between three players – Daly Cherry-Evans, Greg Inglis and Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (though as a front-rower I see why he is overlooked but just bear with me).
My issues with the awards have forced me to do my own award, for the most valuable NRL player.
Daly Cherry-Evans turned in the best year of his young career just as I was starting to lose faith in the kid’s abilities.
I cannot stand him or any Manly player but his form this year has been undeniable. He is in my opinion the best halfback in the NRL right now.
There isn’t enough accolades too put on this kid which is why he gets the third place on my MVP list.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is in my opinion the best forward in the NRL right now. I think the fact he didn’t get front rower of the year is a travesty.
Though I am not surprised Andrew Fifita got the award. Fifita has some skills no big fella outside of Dave Taylor can match but when it comes to making the hard yards and just being a no nonsense front row forward no one does it better than Waerea-Hargreaves.
My selection of him at second requires a little more explanation then my other two so please just bear with me here.
In a five-match streak without Waerea-Hargreaves the Roosters beat the then struggling Cowboys by only four (it came down to the last play as well and I felt the cowboys played better on the night), beat the Eels in a game where there usually sturdy defence looked leaky as all hell, beat the Bulldogs by only two points, lost to the Warriors by 11 points and got belted by the Storm.
They played three of these teams with Waerea-Hargreaves at other points in the season. The results:
– Roosters 38-0 Bulldogs
– Roosters 50-0 Eels
– Roosters 16-14 Warriors
The difference between these results is enormous. And if you discount their Round 2 game against the Warriors before the Roosters hit their straps the difference is even more noticeable.
Among common opponents with and without Waerea-Hargreaves Roosters conceded an average of only 4.6 points with him and 21.6 without him. They scored 34.6 points per game with him and only 22 points per game without him.
Their metres gained and conceded also were more impressive with the big man in the side.
Waerea-Hargreaves’ improved play was the single greatest individual contribution to the Roosters success this year in my opinion.
Finally my MVP Greg Inglis, for some reason the media allotted to vote for the Dally M decided that Sutton was the South Sydney Rabbitohs’ best player this year.
They are kidding themselves. It is no surprise that Souths’ late-season struggles coincided with the absence and then poor health of their custodian.
Greg Inglis is by far the best player in the NRL.
This season he really proved it by being one of the most consistently brilliant players I have seen throughout the entire time I have religiously followed the competition (though this was only the late 90s, I am a relatively young fella, so I never saw prime Wally Lewis or Clive Churchill etc, so don’t blame me for excluding these guys).
Inglis is the best player getting around right now. Enjoy his greatness while you can.
A side note:
I hope I am not the only one who was disgusted that Josh Dugan was the fourth nominee for fullback of the year.
They have to deadset be joking. He was nowhere near as good as Darius Boyd or Anthony Minichiello this season, plus he missed a fair bit of football.
Guess it doesn’t hurt when you are on a rubbish team and can stand out a lot – sorry Dragons fans but the truth hurts – this is another pet peeve of mine with the NRL awards.
Go the Roosters this weekend and remember the golden rule, anyone but Manly!
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