Melbourne Storm have winning feeling after scooping the pool at Dally M awards
MELBOURNE Storm will be hoping Wednesday night’s winning run extends into the weekend after scooping the pool at the Dally M awards.
NRL
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MELBOURNE Storm will be hoping Wednesday night’s winning run extends into the weekend after scooping the pool at the Dally M awards.
On top of star Cooper Cronk winning his second player of the year award and halfback of the year, Storm picked up a swag of other awards in Sydney.
Skipper Cameron Smith, who has enjoyed another stellar season, took home both the representative player of the year award and the hooker of the year.
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Kiwi star Jesse Bromwich further cemented his status as the game’s best front-rower, winning his first Dally M prop of the year award.
Storm Fijian winger Suliasi Vunivalu continued his remarkable rookie season by picking up the award for the NRL’s leading tryscorer this year.
Vunivalu is one of the NRL stories of the year, scoring 23 tries after making his first-grade debut in Round 7 on the back of an early season Storm injury crisis.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy said he was in awe of the 20-year-old who will play in his first NRL grand final on Sunday night.
“Hopefully he handles it (his first grand final) well but we can’t guarantee anything,” he said.
“He’s done everything that we’ve expected of him, and he’s gone well above expectations to be honest.
“He probably only got a start because of the amount of injuries we’ve had, but he’s been tremendous.
“We knew he had a lot of talent, but I think he has only played about 40 games of rugby league, so that’s a big learning curve and especially at this level.
“He’s done a tremendous job and we can all see what a great athlete he is, but he is also a terrific kid too and really respectful of what we’re about here at the Storm, of other people and the game itself.”
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