World wide fame comes with many different perks, and one of those perks is that you wake up some days and you are featured in the English press.
Nigel Wiskar is a writer for the Mirror.co.uk and he did a write up on the reaction to Rugby League World making the laughable announcement that Kevin Sinfield is supposedly the best player in the world. in his article he featured your Glorious League Freak. Take a look:
Kevin Sinfield wins the Rugby League World Golden Boot award – and Australia doesn’t like it
Now Nigel says some nice things about me and quotes me accurately (Thanks Nigel!). He is obviously a regular reader of the site and he agree’s with me, the best player in the world is Greg Inglis as I announced last year in my King Of Rugby League Awards.
The problem I have with what Nigel has written is that the criteria that Rugby League World supposedly uses for this award changes based on what the magazine is trying to achieve. This year it was obviously trying to trash its own credibility.
Job done!
If you say the award is about what a player achieves over the course of 12 months, that it takes into account every aspect of a players contribution to the game on and off the field….Sinfield doesn’t win it!
In 2012 Melbourne Storm hooker Cameron Smith captained his club to the National Rugby League Premiership, captained his state to State Of Origin glory, and captained his country to two wins over the World Champion New Zealand Kiwi’s.
Case closed.
The fact of the matter is that Kevin Sinfield was not named the Super League Man Of Steel. He was not named in the Super League Dream Team. He was not named as the RLIF player of the year. He was not named the Leeds Rhinos player of the year. He wasn’t even named in Rugby League Worlds team of the year!
Rugby League World can move the goal posts all it likes, there is simply no way in the world they can justify such a ridiculous decision.
I remember a few seasons ago when they made a similarly perplexing announcement and they claimed the “golden boot” award was based only on international games. They change their mind…and that is why they have zero credibility.
With my King Of Rugby League Awards, judging starts on January 1st of that year and only ends when all trials, club games, representative games and test matches have finished. Only then do I sit down and make a decision. If you look at my list of past winners, it stacks up to any awards you want to put them up against. I believe it is a far greater measure of the best player in the world at the time.
When the majority of people that follow Rugby League across the world say you are wrong, you are wrong. The best player in the world does not come from a competition that is dying. He does not play in a competition where success is bought and only two or three teams ever have a chance of winning in any given year. He does not come from a country know for its “everyone gets a trophy” attitude and a place where everyone gets a winners medal at some point of their careers.
If Kevin Sinfield was by any measure the best or most successful player in the world in 2012….everyone wouldn’t have laughed their arse off when it was announced. It is that simple.
In this part of the world where the best clubs, coaches and players of the world ply their trade, success is something you strive an entire career for. Winning just one Grand Final is an achievement.
The great Nathan Hinsmarsh played over 300 games for the Parramatta Eels and retired at the end of last year having not won an NRL premiership. Does that lack of Grand Final success make him any less of a player? Of course not.
The next time Rugby League World decides it wants to move the goal posts and tick some boxes on criteria….maybe it should take a look at, you know, how good of a player you are!
Kevin Sinfield isn’t the best player in the world. That is not whinging, that is common sense.
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