Golden Boot change no longer the best player

The gloss has been taken off this award by the Golden Boot being awarded to the player who had the best international season.

Roosters' star James Tedesco. Picture. Phil Hillyard

THE Golden Boot in rugby league has always been awarded over the years to the best player in the world.

The outcome has been decided from all forms of football played from the current year.

Players the calibre of Wally Lewis, Brett Kenny, Peter Sterling, Andrew Johns, Stacey Jones, Darren Lockyer, Billy Slater, Johnathon Thurston and Cameron Smith have been awarded this huge honour.

No-one would disagree that these players had super seasons when they won this award.

However, the gloss has been taken off this award by the Boot being awarded to the player who had the best international season.

Most countries barely play a handful of international games so the prestige of this award has lost nearly all its gloss.

Hopefully when awarded, they mention that the winner is the “best international player in the world’’ for 2019 not the “best player in the world’’.

Whoever decided to change the award meaning doesn’t have a great handle on what the award was set out to achieve.

The award should be going to Roosters fullback James Tedesco who was the best player over the 2019 season. Unfortunately, he won’t be winning it.

The 10 nominees are John Bateman (Great Britain), Damien Cook (Australia), Payne Haas (Australia), Viliame Kikau (Fiji), Tui Lolohea (Tonga), Kevin Naiqama (Fiji), Sio Siua Taukeiaho (Tonga), Roger Tuivasa-Sheck (New Zealand), Jared Waerea-Hargreaves (New Zealand) and Brandon Wakeham (Fiji).

Big hype

THE -Barry Hall fight is on tonight with the winner having bragging rights going forward.

The two men are taking it serious with the amount of training that we have witnessed. However, it can hardly be billed as a fair dinkum fight while only boxing for two minute rounds.

In saying this, the two fighters will put their all into beating each other and it promises to be short and furious.

These fights always need a trash talker to build them up and Gallen has stepped up to the plate to deliver this in spades.

The hype heading into this fight is big which will ensure that the turn out and the pay per view audience make it a big payday for both fighters.

Quick thoughts

SAINTS: 1. The NRL for retaining the “Magic Weekend’’ in Brisbane. It was a huge success this year and will again return in early May with every NRL team playing at Suncorp. It gives Queensland fans who support other clubs the chance to see their team live.

2. Ellyse Perry has always been as one of the best batters in women’s cricket in the past few years and her figures from the WBBL only strength those claims. Currently she has scored 351 runs at an average of 117.

3. The Aussie baseball team, who for the first time, have defeated the mighty USA. The 2-1 victory has given them some hope of a direct qualification into next year’s Olympics.

Sinners: 1. Broncos forward David Fifita has found himself in the news for all the wrong reasons with his antics in Bali. Severe punishments might be the only way young players learn that they must conduct themselves in a better light while in public.

2. The several batsmen who needed runs in Shield cricket to push their Test claims but have come up short. The contenders must rely on some goodwill from the national selectors.

Did you know? 1. Only two players have scored Premier League penalties with both feet. They are Bobby Zamora and Obafemi Martins.

2. Wayne Rooney, Gareth Bale and Kevin Davies are the only players to score, assist and score an own goal in a single Premier League game.

Bomber’s best: I tipped Leicester City to continue their great form and that’s exactly

what happened with a 2-0 victory over Arsenal.

This week, I head to the NBL where Brisbane will be accounting for Cairns and the Kings will be toppling the Hawks.

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