Last year Israel Folau and Michael Hooper shared the Super Rugby Player of the Year award, and raced away from the field for the big one before Folau claimed the John Eales Medal.
But it will be a very different Medal this year where every member of the Wallaby squad on duty will have voted on a 3-2-1 basis per game.
Normally there are 14 Tests in the voting period that includes the Spring Tour, the June Test window, the Rugby Championship, and the Bledisloe.
But being a Rugby World Cup year there were no incoming Tests in June, and the Rugby Championship was cut in half, so 14 internationals have been reduced to just eight.
That dramatically reduces the number of available votes by 828.
So who will figure this year?
The usual suspects Folau and Hooper will top the list, but don’t discount Scott Fardy, Tevita Kuridrani, and Adam Ashley-Cooper.
And don’t discount David Pocock and Stephen Moore either, even though both missed the Spring Tour recovering from knee surgery, but were outstanding in the four Tests since.
Recapping, the Wallabies beat Wales but lost to France, Ireland, and England on the 2014 Spring Tour lst November and beat the Boks, Pumas, and All Blacks to win the 2015 Rugby Championship in July-August, but lost the Bledisloe decider to the All Blacks.
The first four were Michael Cheika’s first international coaching sortie having just taken over from Ewen McKenzie – Cheika was raw and very much the new boy on the big block.
The second four saw Cheika far more at home, and far more successful, with the exception of the Bledisloe blow-out.
Obviously Folau and Hooper will be firm favourites to win a second John Eales Medal with Folau defending and Hooper the recipient in 2013.
Both rarely put in a sub-par game, but the same can be said of Scott Fardy, Tevita Kuridrani, and the fans’ favourite Adam Ashley-Cooper, but expect Pocock and Moore to score heavily in the last four internationals.
Whether they can make up the leeway of missing the first four remains to be seen. It’s a tough call, but on sheer ability alone, it’s not out of the question.
The constant support for Ashley-Cooper fascinates me. As the senior Wallaby with 108 caps you would expect him to read the game better than anyone else, and be ever alert to who is around him in support.
No doubts about him reading the game, but once he gets that ball tucked under his arm, his tunnel vision is straight ahead and it wouldn’t matter who looms up inside him, and invariably it’s Israel Folau, AAC rarely lets the ball go.
But don’t be surprised if Adam Ashley-Cooper wins the Australia’s Choice Player of the Year award tonight, voted on by the Wallaby fans.
For mine, David Pocock and Israel Folau are the two best Wallabies on the park every time they play.
But Folau has the drop this time having played all eight Tests to Pocock’s four.
So Israel Folau to win back-to-back John Eales Medals.
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