Uate wins Dally M winger of the year

Woo hoo! Congratulations on a stellar season Aku!

2010 top try scorer and line breaker. He has also dominated every other winger in the rest of the stats. Can't wait for Tuesday to see him be awarded with his medals and stand alongside the rest of the players of the year. Well done mate!
 
Aidos said:
Vatuvei played last night?
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He means Dally M winger of the year.

IMO

1. Aku, 2. Vatuvai, 3. Daylight

They have been a class above the rest. Aku gets the nod in my eyes because he has improved so much (he was just raw talent 12 months ago), has done it on a team who has struggled at times (with IMO more attacking weapons to contend with, Vuna, Gidley, Mullen, Maddog are better then the warriors backs), beats Manu in all the major stats like metres/tries/linebreaks, has played every minute of the season.
 
It's definitely not always the leading tryscorer who gets winger of the year, look at Brian Carney in 2006.

But good luck to the Uncle, though.
 
jamesgould said:
It's definitely not always the leading tryscorer who gets winger of the year, look at Brian Carney in 2006.

But good luck to the Uncle, though.
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But Brian Carney did lead all NRL wingers in Linebreaks, Tackles breaks and metres per game.

Funnily enough, Aku is leading all those categories amoungst wingers this year too.
 
Well, last season Brett Morris was top, Tuiaki got the award. 2008 Denan Kemp was the top winger tryscorer, Colin Best got the award. 2007 Matt King was the top winger tryscorer, Jarrod Hayne got the award. 2006 Nathan Merritt was the top tryscorer, Brian Carney got the award. 2005 Shaun Berrigan was the top tryscorer, Eric Grothe got the award. 2004 was the last time the top tryscorer was also winger of the year and that was Amos Roberts.

So just saying, don't get your hopes up too much! It's not an automatic thing that Uncle will get it, just coz he was the top tryscorer.
 
Wouldn't complain if Vatuvai got it ahead of Aku but they should be the only 2 with a chance now that Gordon is playing Fullback
 
mozza said:
Wouldn't complain if Vatuvai got it ahead of Aku but they should be the only 2 with a chance now that Gordon is playing Fullback
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Colin Best did play most of 2008 at centre, so it wouldn't be the first time the Dally M judges have come up with a baffling decision like that.
 
jamesgould said:
Colin Best did play most of 2008 at centre, so it wouldn't be the first time the Dally M judges have come up with a baffling decision like that.
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Yeah the Dally M really is no indication of who the best player is, there is so much ridiculous bias and baffling selections are commonplace.
 
jamesgould said:
Well, last season Brett Morris was top, Tuiaki got the award. 2008 Denan Kemp was the top winger tryscorer, Colin Best got the award. 2007 Matt King was the top winger tryscorer, Jarrod Hayne got the award. 2006 Nathan Merritt was the top tryscorer, Brian Carney got the award. 2005 Shaun Berrigan was the top tryscorer, Eric Grothe got the award. 2004 was the last time the top tryscorer was also winger of the year and that was Amos Roberts.

So just saying, don't get your hopes up too much! It's not an automatic thing that Uncle will get it, just coz he was the top tryscorer.
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Um I'm not saying he should get purely because he is attop the tryscorers lists.

If Morris/Vatuvai played the whole season like Uate, they'd most likely have equal, or more tries then him. One thing you can compare though, is Uate smashes all competition in a lot of the attacking stats

Dally Ms are for most valuable players, and IMO Uate and Vatuvai were the most valuable wingers for their respective clubs. By a long, long way.

And Last year, Tuaki was better then Morris in Linebreaks, Tacklebreaks and metres per game. Morris only had 1 more regular season try to his name.
 
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I think Uncle has done enough to wrap up the award now. The only other contenders would be Vatuvei and Gordon. But Uncle is leading pretty much all the wingers in the stats department, you would think he's a shoe in.
 
jamesgould said:
Colin Best did play most of 2008 at centre, so it wouldn't be the first time the Dally M judges have come up with a baffling decision like that.
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Colin Best played the majority of 2008 on the wing, 15 games to 9. Well according to teamsheets, however, some games seem questionable as to where he played according to the stats. So most likely the judges not knowing football again.
 
Leading try scorer is just the icing on the cake. Uate has outplayed every other winger in the competition, the stats prove this. He may miss 1 more tackle per game than the rest but he's thrashed everyone else in every other shape and form. Noone else has been such an important piece to a team's outfit and noone has amazed so many people like Akuila has this season. If he doesn't get winger of the year, the entire event needs to be shut down forever.
 
-AK- said:
Vatuvei or Gordon would also be worthy recipients. Morris has just been on the end of an amazing backline.
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If Gordon gets it, it will only be on the back of his performances in the last month, where he has played FB. Looking at his season overall, he hasnt changed games so frequently like Uate or Vatuvai.

Like even today, against a great defensive side like Melbourne, Uate was making things from nothing on the majorty of his touches. Line breaks, half breaks, turning the winger, fast play the balls, plus he made some pretty big plays in defence.
 
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Jonno_Knights said:
Colin Best played the majority of 2008 on the wing, 15 games to 9. Well according to teamsheets, however, some games seem questionable as to where he played according to the stats. So most likely the judges not knowing football again.
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He got the award on his form at the back of the year when Canberra went on fire ... I'm not 100% sure, but I think that was when he was playing centre.

But I suppose it's a tricky one when a player plays a couple of positions like that. He couldn't have been centre of the year when he only played nine games there.

Knights_10 said:
Leading try scorer is just the icing on the cake. Uate has outplayed every other winger in the competition, the stats prove this. He may miss 1 more tackle per game than the rest but he's thrashed everyone else in every other shape and form. Noone else has been such an important piece to a team's outfit and noone has amazed so many people like Akuila has this season. If he doesn't get winger of the year, the entire event needs to be shut down forever.
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Uncle was outplayed by his main competitor Vatuvei. To the tune of three tries to nil.
 
Also another thing that helps Uate, is that not only Newcastle fans love him, the rest of the comp's fans love watching him (except against their sides). I think he'd have one of the biggest cult followings this year, NRL wide.

The media loves him, the commentators can't stop talking about him (and not in a jarryd Hayne ****fest kinda way) and after all these awards are determined by folks in the media more than anything.

I know personalities dont win you footballing awards, but Uate is just a guy who loves his footy, and it shows in actions and by the way he plays.

---------- Post added at 10:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:53 PM ----------
jamesgould said:
He got the award on his form at the back of the year when Canberra went on fire ... I'm not 100% sure, but I think that was when he was playing centre.

But I suppose it's a tricky one when a player plays a couple of positions like that. He couldn't have been centre of the year when he only played nine games there.



Uncle was outplayed by his main competitor Vatuvei. To the tune of three tries to nil.
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Yeh, Jarryd hayne in 07 is in a similar boat. He played the second half of the season at FB after burt got injured against us, and steared Parra to a prelim. final iirc.

And Vatuvai might have schooled Uate that game (more like 3 tries to minus one, because he saved a Uate runaway try), but the fact the beast missed 6 or 7 games wont help his cause. Would be a coin toss if he played the entire season like Uate. But I think Vatuvai has established himself as an elite player already, not many expected this kinda improvement by Uate in such a short time, which also helps Uate.
 
I think he deserves Dally M winger just off the back of how he has improved his all round game, not just his try scoring.

When you have a look at players like Morris the vast majority of his tries have had little to no skill involved in them, most have just been catching the ball and putting it down. Similar story with Vatuvei aswell.

But when you have a look at Aku's trys, a lot of them have been magnificent solo efforts, where he has raced the field after beating 5 or 6 defenders, some of them may be where he has carried 5 defenders over the line when he has gone from dummy half sheer strength.

Just how much improvent he has shown is enough for me, even his defence has improved out of sight. No other winger or even player to certain extent has the athletic/freakish abilities that Aku posseses maybe the only other player that seems to have that ability is Hayne.
 
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