By DANNY LOCKWOOD
AWARDS season is well and truly upon us, continuing on from the Championship awards in Leeds a fortnight ago with the Dream Team this week and the Man of Steel next Monday in Manchester.
The one thing you can stone-cold guarantee is that there will be dissenting voices aplenty – when was it ever thus?
We can at least take comfort in the knowledge that it isn’t just us – neither as
rugby league, nor sport itself. From the Oscars to the New Year’s Honours list, while ever there‘s a subjective vote to cast, there will be a dispute about the worthiness of the winners.
I can understand the reservations of people raising an eyebrow at the lack of a Warrington player in the Man of Steel shortlist.
Chris Hill has done all year what we’ve not used to witnessing every year from the big prop. By the very same token however, Danny Houghton has arrived on the shortlist by virtue of the exact same recipe – Mr Dynamo, tackling everything above the grass, and putting in longer shifts than a junior doctor. Maybe that’s Hill’s way to the top prize to get the nod through not just excellence over one season, but many.
I couldn’t help wonder how much ‘that’ tackle in the dying moments of the Challenge Cup Final earned Houghton this nod – which is not for a moment to say it isn’t deserved.
I’ll repeat what file said here before, that the Lance Todd Trophy voting is not fit for purpose, and this year was worse than ever, although not for any imagined injustice with Marc Sneyd getting it ahead of Houghton.
Those votes are cast by members of the Rugby League Writers Association and collected between about the 74th and 76th minutes, then hurriedly counted up by RFL staff and announced before the final hooter.
l have a couple of points, the first being – why the rush? Why can’t the winner be announced, and properly lauded, out in the middle of the field after the name has ended and before the players go up for their medals?
(I thought Danny McGuire was similarly robbed of the award a couple of years back by the way, when the votes were in before he landed a drop-goal that cemented a win he had largely orchestrated.)
But despite speaking as a member of the RLWA, can I say that I don’t think we should have the job.
Anyone who pays a tenner and had a match report or two printed in their local paper is eligible to vote – a vote which counts as much as a time-served journalist who might have seen every final for 40 or 50 years.
The only ‘qualification’ for helping decide such a momentous decision, is that tenner paid to the RLWA.
But this season highlighted another problem. Not that the Wembley press box is ever anything like remotely full for our final, but some RLWA members were either denied accreditation or shunted off to secondary seating areas, based upon some new criteria applied by the RFL.
Whatever their level of rugby knowledge, those journalists were disenfranchised in respect of choosing the Lance Todd.
And that brings us to the next point. Rugby nous, I can guarantee you that the very many people furious at Houghton being denied the Lance Todd – the timing element apart – are vastly more educated in the sport than many of the people voting.
The problems in the process don’t stop there, either. If you are accredited by the RFL it’s because you’re working, covering the game. In my role I watch. take a few notes, and think about the game. l have something of a luxury on focusing on who’s doing what.
Most match reporters however are writing, noting, detailing, keeping stats …, they are ‘working’ flat out … who passed that ball? Who made that tackle? Gave that penalty? Was that a Gidley kick? A Sandow kick? It’s like asking a prop forward if the loose-forward’s packed down right in the scrum. He has other things on his mind.
And then suddenly you’re scribbling down a name often based on a hurried vague impression.
I don’t think that’s a worthy enough way to decide one of the premier honours in our sport – and the Harry Sunderland Trophy that will be awarded next week at Old Trafford in similar fashion
Get five recognised RFL experts, maybe even chaired by an RLWBA representative, tasked with selecting the Lance Todd winner by acclamation. Those men can be discussing and monitoring the match with eyes dedicated to their task. Then they can announce it a minute after the hooter.
Do you know what? There would still be cat-fighting and arguing that they got it wrong, but at least it would be more legitimate than what we’ve got.
Back to this season’s front runners, and whoever the worthy winner is – there will be no complaint from me – can I say how chuffed I was that Castleford winger Denny Solomona was nominated.
We’ve had some decent worthies amongst our wide men over the years although it’s only ever been won twice by wingers, Martin Offiah in 1988 and Pat Richards in 2010.
It isn’t just the phenomenal try-scoring exploits of a player who is still a relative newcomer at the top table of Super League, but the joie de vivre. Solomona plays with a smile on his face, and as we saw when a depleted Cas side took a beating at Saints a fortnight ago, the lad went out and basically played on one leg. He was up for it, when it would have been easy to take a pill.
Of all the many qualities in a Man of Steel contender, that’s one that will count large amongst his peers – especially for a winner.
HE’S HAD an acclaimed season in the NRL and can look forward to further international honours this autumn, but Josh Hodgson learned a brutal lesson about the difference between champions and runners-up on Saturday.
Hodgson was named on the bench in the NRL team of the year – a great honour in his debut season. The legend that is Cameron Smith predictably occupied the no.9 berth after another stellar campaign leading the Melbourne Storm to the minor premiership and now a grand final against
Cronulla.
Sport’s honours are hard-earned. Its annals of infamy are more easily won and hero Hodgson was a villain of the highest order in their 14-12 loss to the Storm.
The Raiders bombed a couple of gift chances, but that’s rugby. What Hodgson did to literally gifting Smith the chance to make the score 14-6 (Elliott Whitehead crossed to keep them alive) was criminal.
I don’t know if he’s been watching too much Super League but Hodgson had
already given up a couple of dumb penalties in the tackle before his career-defining one, when he tackled, wrestled, grappled, then physically threw the man trying to play the ball backwards, long after the tackle call had been made.
It was petulant, it was unprofessional, it was something a consummate pro like Cameron Smith would never do – and it undid the Canberra Raiders’ entire season. I suspect that one will take some living down, as well it should.
