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Confessions of a dreamer: I voted for Tommy Makinson

15th November, 2018
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15th November, 2018
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About five weeks ago, I asked to be taken off the Golden Boot judging panel.

I’d hardly watched any NRL this year and a lot less Super League than previous seasons too.

It’s then I was told that I hadn’t read the criteria properly: it was only for international games.

‘Whew, that’s a relief’ I thought. I stayed on the panel and voted for Tommy Makinson.

This subject is about a week old now and I spent half a day trying to think of a column about something else. No luck. So here goes.

It’s as if the Golden Boot should be grateful it was one of the few awards Aussies took seriously.

More fool the Aussies for taking it seriously. I’ve been on the judging panel on and off for decades and it’s been so haphazard they didn’t even award it between 1990 and ’98, adding the gongs retrospectively when the concept was reanimated.

As judge I’ve been told it’s for the best player in the world, it’s for the best player in the world with a greater weight being given to internationals, back to the first one a couple of times and finally it’s for the best international player of the previous 12 months.

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The Rugby League International Federation purchased the IP the same way the NRL bought the IP for the Immortals.

The Immortals was for the best Australian post-World War II players. Now it includes blokes back to 1908 and there’s a Kiwi in the Hall Of Fame which means overseas players are eligible too.

Foreigners who played in the Australian premiership and Aussies like Brian Bevan who mostly played overseas – talk about criteria shock.

The Immortals was conceived to boost circulation and flog port; the Golden Boot was conceived to boost circulation and bring in sponsorship from adidas.

It’s your choice if you take awards seriously. By the same process that you gave credence to the golden boot, you can now remove that credence.

I’m not sure anyone cares; whether you respect it or not it’s like any other award in sport – a commercial property to be bought and sold.

But actually, the more I thought about the choice, I went from being neutral to actually being a champion of the changes.

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Tommy Makinson against New Zealand

England’s Tommy Makinson (16) runs for a try against New Zealand (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

To understand the rationale, you have to understand “the dream”. This isn’t reality reflected fairly by an award, it’s an award intended to help change reality.

In rugby union, no-one would argue that the world’s best player could be crowned as such due to his feats in club football.

Few would argue provincial competition alone can make you the world’s best rugby union player.

It has to be internationals.

I don’t think a lot of people who follow the NRL understand The Dream, that some of us who interact with the game daily feel in our bones every one of those days.

That dream is that we’re rugby union.

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It’s every country playing multiple Tests every year in front of packed houses, any one of five teams capable of winning the World Cup, club football never placed above this.

I’ve taken this dream to such an extreme that I can take or leave February to September but obsess about October and November.

I’m in Jacksonville now. When it rained during the Americas Qualifiers double header last night, the entire crowd fitted under the ground announcer’s marquee.

But we keep dreaming.

The Golden Boot is an award for rugby league’s aspirational, imagined, perhaps fantasy future, not for the game as it is today.

Putting the cockerel back on top of the World Cup is the answer to a question nobody has yet asked.

Most rugby league fans don’t even know the World Cup went missing for years and was found on a tip. If they close their eyes, they can’t picture the trophy let alone conspire to remove its new GPS device and whisk it away.

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Rugby League World Cup host country captains

Just in case you were wondering, the trophy is the one in the middle. (photo: 2017 Rugby League World Cup, Scott Davis)

Sooner or later, you have to answer a demand that doesn’t yet exist, get ahead of the curve. Rugby league’s never done that.

Tommy Makinson winning the Golden Boot is like your uncle buying you a plot of land on the moon for Christmas.

You’ll never get to see the day when it makes sense. But it will make sense one day. At least I believe it will.

I’d like to dedicate this column to another dreamer, and a long-serving Golden Boot judge, Malcolm Andrews who we lost recently. Malcolm was my hero.

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