NRL’s generation next to take over Dally Ms as legends bow out
RUGBY league is days away from the moment every sport must endure. That exciting, yet anxious moment, when the past is farewelled and the future welcomed. On Wednesday the NRL’s highest honour looks set to be won by a young gun, not a legend.
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WHEN Michael Jordan retired from the NBA, ratings-obsessed TV executives instantly felt sick.
“Now we have to reintroduce this next generation of stars,’’ NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said following Jordan’s second retirement in 1999.
“But will we get Babe Ruth tomorrow? No.”
Four years later, basketball’s panacea emerged when LeBron James stepped onto an NBA court for the first time with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
After tennis lost Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras, along came a southpaw with a forehand-whip called Rafael Nadal and an offensive genius by the name of Roger Federer.
Like Carl Lewis before Usain Bolt and Jack Nicklaus before Tiger Woods, rugby league is just days away from the moment every sport must endure.
That exciting, yet anxious moment, when the past is farewelled and the future welcomed. At a gala dinner at Circular Quay on Wednesday night, the 2018 Dally M Award winner will be announced.
Between them, Cameron Smith, Billy Slater, Cooper Cronk, Johnathan Thurston and Jarryd Hayne have collected 11 Dally M medals since 2006.
But, barring a miracle, none of them will have the most prized individual award in the game slipped around their necks.
The gong will belong to one of the NRL’s new breed: a gifted collection of rising stars who in replacing their idols will be charged with taking the game forward.
New Zealand’s flying fullback Roger Tuivasa-Sheck ($2 TAB favourite), Cronulla try-machine Valentine Holmes ($5), South Sydney schemer Damien Cook ($5), Newcastle young gun Kalyn Ponga ($6.50) and Wests Tigers halfback Luke Brooks ($17) are set to fight out the prize.
When Dally M voting went behind closed doors after round 12, Sharks forward Andrew Fifita was the only forward among the top five players on the standings.
Few big men have collected a Dally M medal and it might just be Fifita’s Cronulla teammate, Holmes, who ultimately costs the rampaging prop his glory.
After 12 rounds, Fifita was tied on 16 points with Ponga and Brooks, one behind Panthers five-eighth James Maloney.
Dragons captain Gareth Widdop rounded out the top five on 14 points, two clear of a three-way tie between Tuivasa-Sheck, Titans forward Jai Arrow and Cook.
Holmes had a slow start to the season and was $251 with the TAB after round four. But following a season of rapid success at fullback Holmes is now the second favourite.
Yet to celebrate his 21st birthday, Ponga, who was recently voted the RLPA Players Champion, could become the youngest Dally M winner in the game’s history.
Ponga’s incredible first season with Newcastle was undeniable. However, an ankle injury robbed him of accumulating any points in the final two rounds of the season.
Few are willing to say Cook can’t win it too, given he’ll be named Australia’s Test hooker next month.
And according to Dally M judges Danny Buderus and Billy Moore, there are two key ingredients to winning a Dally M Medal.
“Consistency through 25 rounds is the obvious one,’’ Moore said. “But also, the player that wins has played in a side who doesn’t have the same teammate also collecting points each week.
“That’s why I think it’s Roger Tuivasa-Sheck’s year.
“Even when the Warriors were beaten, he would’ve polled a point.
“He was just so consistent. In his position of fullback, he’s always touching the ball, so his numbers are always strong. He doesn’t rely on someone else to give him the ball. He has a lot of control on his own outcome and destiny.
“He’s got that temperament where he wants to always touch the ball.
“I’ve started to look at other players with a view of ‘he’s got a bit of Tuivasa-Sheck about him’ — that’s how good I think he is.
“He gets my vote.’’
Buderus became the first hooker to win the Dally M with the Newcastle Knights in 2004. While he believes it will be a close run race, Buderus said he was leaning towards Tuivasa-Sheck, who captained the Warriors to their first finals series in seven years. But he suggested Holmes, Cook and Ponga would all make the finish an absorbing one.
“In regards to Kalyn, when your team hasn’t gone well, those personal accolades can make a season a positive one,’’ Buderus said.
“And should he win as the youngest player ever, I think it will be just one of many things he’ll do that are ‘the first’.
“Valentine has come home like a train. He would have to finish hard like Jarryd Hayne did in 2009.
“But what Sheck can do is, when you’re playing in a team that is not as consistent, he can grab a lot of points.
“I think Sheck will win, but I think there’ll be a really late surge from Holmes — leaving us with two fullbacks, first and second.’’
For Moore, Wednesday night represents the NRL’s Jordan-moment.
“Right now, we’re saying goodbye to a special group and again next year, who have been nine out of 10 players for the past 10 years,’’ Moore said.
“I call it the Michael Jordan vacuum. You need this next wave to sell the game and by looking at their talent, I’m sure they can step up to fill that void.’’