The curse of the underrated player: Becoming overrated

The terms ‘overrated’ and ‘underrated’ are thrown around far too much these days, especially in rugby league circles.

This annoys me, since the popularity of these phrases when describing certain players makes the player the complete opposite of it.

As an example, people last year were crying about how underrated Gavin Cooper was. But if every second fan thinks he is underrated, then he isn’t underrated is he? If anything, people cried about how underrated he was so much that he became overrated – it got to the point where people were claiming he was the best second rower in the game, which isn’t true at all.

This principle haunts many a player, with current examples being Mitch Aubusson and Shaun Fensom, who have both been given the ‘underrated’ label by so many people that they have since become overrated.

Mitch and Shaun are fine players, but they aren’t the wonderful, State of Origin-level players that the underrated circle jerk makes them out to be.

This principle works both ways mind you. If a player is popularly labelled ‘overrated’, then they become underrated. Take Daly Cherry-Evans, for example, he is a player who most call overrated, which have made people think that mediocre players like Aidan Sezer are better than him, which is just ridiculous. DCE has actually become underrated.

This was also a problem for Braith Anasta, a good player who is remembered in a sour light because everyone claimed that everyone else thought he was better than he was. Jarryd Hayne is another prime example of this trend.

This lack of self-awareness really does make these labels, which are good labels, completely meaningless. For a player to truly be called underrated and overrated, about 40 to 60 per cent of people need to disagree with you, because that percentage is what makes these players rated improperly.

A good example of this is Darius Boyd, with opinion on how good he is essentially split down the middle. Of course, the amount of people that disagree with you can’t be too large, otherwise you are just wrong.

And people also need to realise, saying someone is overrated isn’t necessarily saying that they are bad, just like saying someone is underrated doesn’t always mean that they are good.

I have said that Reagan Campbell-Gillard is overrated, because people compare him to Jake Trbojevic and David Klemmer. That doesn’t mean I think that he is a bad player, but he just isn’t anywhere near those two. Same principle applies to calling someone underrated, it doesn’t mean they are good players.

The almost ridiculously common usage of these labels continue will frustrate me for the rest of time. I can’t wait for the next time I read that Wade Graham is an underrated gem for the 50th time in a month.