Clive churchill medal (man of the match)?

Hornby deserved it - Boyd seems to be the teachers pet which is irritating (and whats with his eyebrows I dunno) but nonetheless had a great game.

I dont see wingers as necessarily special other than being fast and strong and finishing plays. A successful winger is one who can put the ball down - but players like Hornby got the ball to him in the first place and made sure he had 1 or no defenders to stop him.

Mate - how did Carney get 5/8th of the year when he played about 16 rounds as FB and about 4 as 7??? Dally M is a rort - its a popularity contest.

Congrats Draggies

Darius Boyd had a great game and is a worthy winner of the Clive Churchill.

Personally, I'd have picked Dean Young

I would've liked Jason Nightingale to win the Churchill Medal, but I'm not disappointed that Boyd was awarded the honour.

I wouldn't mind betting it was because Carney beat him for the Dally M, and while I won't argue that he had a great game, I would have been happy for it to have gone to Nightingale (or Ben Hornby, who drove them all the way!!).

Nightingale was good but he just finished off plays. Rooney did the same thing in 2003 and Michael Robertson in 2008.

I agree that Nightingale is vastly underrated though.

Personally I thought Dean Young deserved it. He scored a try, made 40 tackles, broke three, made a linebreak and ran 13 times for 84 metres.

Boyd made 107 metres from 13 runs, no linebreaks, one linebreak assist, a try assist but no tries and just one tackle break. Pretty average I reckon.

Hey Mitch, good to see ya on Yahoo Answers.

Nightingale was fantastic. His tries weren't easy either, had to do alot of work to get over the line. I agree with the "fame" thing, sorta annoying when hard working players (like Ben Farrar and Mitch Brown) are overshadowed by guys like Tuqiri and Lyon. I thought Darius played very well like he has all season. I also thought Cronk deserved it last year, so it's not the first time I haven't agreed with the medal.

Here is a bolter for ya: Nathan Fien. Thought he played excellent besides one error I think.

In the end, a deserved win by the Dragons. Too bad you will have to lose to the Tigers next year :P

I always get this wrong because

1) I'm not at the game,

2) I never know who is judging it and

3) There are so many stats now that I forget what they're playing.

A winger is only gunna get it if he scores at least one of the tries himself directly after making a strong tackle. This seems to make the judges smile.

I agree with every single world Hot Pies has said. Darius, yeah he was good but nothing great. Fair enough Nightangale scored two tries but hardly a man of the match performance either. For me it was Dean Young who won it for yous (congratulations btw). Young was in everything, saving tries, working hard and making sure his team stayed strong. He had the best game for as long as I remember so I was surprised when Boyd got it but like you said, high profile players always go ahead of underrated players.

Yeah, Nightingale should've won it, he had the game of his life, he was absolutely outstanding. Boyd played alright but he didn't stand out like Nightingale. He has a huge future ahead of him though, he has just gotten better and better as the year has gone on.

Darius was good when he got it but had little contribution due to roosters kicking out, avoiding his kick return.

im not gonna dispute it because he had an outstanding season...as did nightingale...who was definitely our best player out there today....

i think fien's very underrated as well...the entire momentum of the game changes when he's on...his kicks arent always the best...but his dummy half runs are NOT BORING, they excellent...he has premiership winning qualities..

ive also been extremely impressed with matt prior this year, particularly through the finals...during the year he was a little bit of a worry...but in the tigers game and today he made a lot of ground...hes awesome...rate him welll....saffy tooo...shame to see him going

I had 4 in mind, and i didn't mind who'd they gave it to just as long it was one of the 4. And they were:

- Darius Boyd

- Jason Nightingale

- Dean Young

- Nathan Fien