Uate wins Dally M winger of the year

Best day of my life.

People who have been here long enough will understand, its been a long a treacherous journey... But he got there :D

:lol::lol::lol:

If only we kept tabs on all the posts I'd bring the whole 1200 of them up.

Scary thing is you didn't wait long - really only took him a full year of NRL.
 
:lol::lol::lol:

If only we kept tabs on all the posts I'd bring the whole 1200 of them up.

Scary thing is you didn't wait long - really only took him a full year of NRL.

I knew it as soon as i saw the name, then when i saw him play i was like... He's going to be better than any winger we've ever seen at Newcastle.
 
Congrats to Akulia!! the roof at my house lifted off when he won u would have thought we were watching a game lol!!
What a great year for him, hes soo softly spoken aswell
 
I read an article that there is two spots still left in the NRL 100m sprint challenge and aku is being considered.
I thought he was already in there??
 
Well done Aku, extremely well deserved, no other winger came close! I can't wait to see him back in action, hopefully its only a short wait from now to the four nations :)

I read an article that there is two spots still left in the NRL 100m sprint challenge and aku is being considered.
I thought he was already in there??

He said he used to run under the 10 seconds back in Fiji so I don't know if he can repeat that time these days or if he's slowed down as he's got bigger but you'd think he is a certainty after seeing him zoom past some of the game's fastest already.

Also if Kev can out run Kevin Gordon (a favourite for the race) then he should also be strongly considered.
 
An absolutely deserved accolade - our season could have hit some much lower depths without Aku on the wing. I had to laugh about Brandy's "great service from the Mad Dog comment" ...was he joking?!

The rep decision is a tough one. As a passionate Blues supporter I would love to see him in Origin, but at the same time I want the Polynesian players to start playing for their homeland right throughout their career, and strengthen international league.
 
He said he used to run under the 10 seconds back in Fiji so I don't know if he can repeat that time these days or if he's slowed down as he's got bigger but you'd think he is a certainty after seeing him zoom past some of the game's fastest already.

Also if Kev can out run Kevin Gordon (a favourite for the race) then he should also be strongly considered.

No way he ran under 10 seconds as a 13-14 yr old :lol: Olympic sprinters struggle to be consistenly under that.

I think we he come to Australia he was 2nd or 3rd fastest in Australia in his age group (17s or 18s), through like NSWCCC, but the national level.

He'd most likely run high 10's, low 11's back then at best, maybe pushing low 10's @ 18/19. hard to tell what he could run now he has been molded into a footballer build.
 
Why dosen't Sau get all the recognition Vatuvei gets then? Same with Tony Williams.

They do it nowhere near as often.

Honestly, looking at the strikerates and stats, Vatuvei had the better season, but I'm happy Uncle got the award!

Best day of my life.

Geez louise, you can't have had much of a life!!!

WELL DONE UNCLE UATE!!! :dancing::dancing::dancing:

---------- Post added at 04:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:54 PM ----------

An absolutely deserved accolade - our season could have hit some much lower depths without Aku on the wing. I had to laugh about Brandy's "great service from the Mad Dog comment" ...was he joking?!

Nah, he just knows what he's talking about.

If you check out Doog's stats, he has one of the highest try-assist averages per game in the NRL, for centres.

The rep decision is a tough one. As a passionate Blues supporter I would love to see him in Origin, but at the same time I want the Polynesian players to start playing for their homeland right throughout their career, and strengthen international league.

I just about give up on international league if Uate gets a run for Australia. There's no way he should be there, and we might as well not have eligibility rules for rugby league if he is allowed.

No way he ran under 10 seconds as a 13-14 yr old :lol: Olympic sprinters struggle to be consistenly under that.

I think we he come to Australia he was 2nd or 3rd fastest in Australia in his age group (17s or 18s), through like NSWCCC, but the national level.

He'd most likely run high 10's, low 11's back then at best, maybe pushing low 10's @ 18/19. hard to tell what he could run now he has been molded into a footballer build.

He's been run down quite a few times this year ... of course that is with the ball. I've also seen him burned off in one game when trying to run someone down ... so I wouldn't have him as favourite for the sprint, but it'll be interesting to see.

Still have to rate Albert as our fastest ever player, never saw him caught or fail to run someone down while he was with us.
 
We know Uate's our biggest attacking threat, but I don't agree with people blaming Maddog for not giving it to Aku enough. Just because he doesn't pass it to him every single play, doesn't make him a hog. Most of the time when Maddog decides to hold it, it is usually because he's either in a bad position to pass it, or Uate's to close to the sideline with defenders all around him.

Not to mention, Maddog tends to pick up 20m or so when he comes back in field.
 
Last edited:
They do it nowhere near as often.

Honestly, looking at the strikerates and stats, Vatuvei had the better season, but I'm happy Uncle got the award!



Geez louise, you can't have had much of a life!!!

WELL DONE UNCLE UATE!!! :dancing::dancing::dancing:

---------- Post added at 04:59 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:54 PM ----------



Nah, he just knows what he's talking about.

If you check out Doog's stats, he has one of the highest try-assist averages per game in the NRL, for centres.



I just about give up on international league if Uate gets a run for Australia. There's no way he should be there, and we might as well not have eligibility rules for rugby league if he is allowed.



He's been run down quite a few times this year ... of course that is with the ball. I've also seen him burned off in one game when trying to run someone down ... so I wouldn't have him as favourite for the sprint, but it'll be interesting to see.

Still have to rate Albert as our fastest ever player, never saw him caught or fail to run someone down while he was with us.

You dont like uncle much do you and u love maddog. Nothin wrong with it but everyone has there own opinion.
How has vatuvei had the better season with stats though, im sure Aku had the most linebreaks by about 6 or 7. Most tries, 3rd most tackle bust, 3rd most metres and 2nd most runs from dummy half or somethin like that. And Aku was ran down only once and he was half injured then plus didnt know vatuvei was there.
Im not saying he can do know wrong but he is pretty damn fast and was unbiasedly the best winger this year.

---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:16 PM ----------

We know Uate's our biggest attacking threat, but I don't agree with people blaming Maddog for not giving it to Aku enough. Just because he doesn't pass it to him every single play, doesn't make him a hog. Most of the time when Maddog decides to hold it, it is usually because he's either in a bad position to pass it, or Uate's to close to the sideline with defenders all around him.

Not to mention, Maddog tends to pick up 20m or so when he comes back in field.
Tru, this isnt always the case but the majority of the time id have to agree
 
You dont like uncle much do you and u love maddog. Nothin wrong with it but everyone has there own opinion.
How has vatuvei had the better season with stats though, im sure Aku had the most linebreaks by about 6 or 7. Most tries, 3rd most tackle bust, 3rd most metres and 2nd most runs from dummy half or somethin like that. And Aku was ran down only once and he was half injured then plus didnt know vatuvei was there.
Im not saying he can do know wrong but he is pretty damn fast and was unbiasedly the best winger this year.

What!?!? I love Uncle!!!

It just gets on my nerves when people don't look at things objectively and let their bias get in the way, and there's so much of that on this board, particularly around Uate!!!

This post sums up why I thought Vatuvei should have won it:

I really think Vatuvei is going to get it. He's scored 19 tries from 17 games, made 96 hit ups, 15 line breaks, 34 offloads, 29 errors, and 223 runs for 2148 metres or 9.63 metres per run.

Compared to Uates 21 tries from 23 games, 53 hit ups, 29 line breaks, 11 offloads, 39 errors, and 323 runs for 3347 or 10.36 metres per run.

Uate runs abit more per run, and has way more line breaks, but Vatuvei makes more hit ups and offloads, plus a better scoring strike rate.

Only thing that will let Vatuvei down will be his 6 games out injured, but will be boosted by the fact he's in better form at the end of the season.

Although Uate has been good lately, he hasn't been showed off as much as early on in the season, having only scored 1 try in his last 5 games.

The Warriors never do well at these awards though, which I guess is why Cleary didn't get coach of the year. Australian's don't like any awards going across the ditch! (Such as man of the match at the World Cup final! :lol:)

Sorry, I'm just telling it how it is with Uate's speed, he got run down last week when he made a bust up the middle of the field, he got caught a few weeks earlier and coughed up the ball (against the Warriors I think) and it happened on at least one other moment during the year that I can remember. I don't know if he was injured these times or not, maybe he was.

His defence still needs a lot of work too. It's great he got the award, I just thought someone else was more deserving. If you interpret that to mean I don't like Uate much ... well, you don't have much upstairs to be honest haha.
 
I can only remember him getting ran down twice. Once when he injured himself and the other week when he had to basically stop to step around a few players and Vatuvei blind sighted him. And btw, my mistake he used to run 10.8 over the 100 which is still some serious speed. He may be behind off the mark but I'll be having a huge go on him to cross the line first. He definitely has to be in the race.
 
Last edited:
Admit it James, if Maddog retired last year, Uate woulda won the major Dally M in a Landslide.

With all jokes aside, what particular stat of Vatuvai's there makes him more deserving of the Dally M?

Is it the better strikerate (Notice Uates tries went down with the return of Vuna? Manu is the best weapon NZ have)
Is it more Hit-ups? (Uate averages a runs more times and more metres per game, plus gets out of Dummy half more, which is pretty much a hit-up coming out of ur own area)
Is it the More offloads? (Could be a coached into aku, plus, only coming infield recently, didnt have much oppurtunity to offload on the wing, unless it was too the touchie)


On the late season form, Uate doesnt need to be scoring tries to be in good form, IMO he was still causing headaches for oposing defences, except he did a lot of his good work in our own half.

Last 4 games:
5 LineBreaks
1 Try
AVG 141m/game on 14.3 runs
AVG 6.5 tackle breaks
11 tackles total, only 3 missed
8 Errors (but a few where like the no-try against the storm, not exactly a bad error)

And last of all, I dont see where the Dally Ms are an award for the last month of the regular season.
 
Admit it James, if Maddog retired last year, Uate woulda won the major Dally M in a Landslide.

With all jokes aside, what particular stat of Vatuvai's there makes him more deserving of the Dally M?

Is it the better strikerate (Notice Uates tries went down with the return of Vuna? Manu is the best weapon NZ have)
Is it more Hit-ups? (Uate averages a runs more times and more metres per game, plus gets out of Dummy half more, which is pretty much a hit-up coming out of ur own area)
Is it the More offloads? (Could be a coached into aku, plus, only coming infield recently, didnt have much oppurtunity to offload on the wing, unless it was too the touchie)


On the late season form, Uate doesnt need to be scoring tries to be in good form, IMO he was still causing headaches for oposing defences, except he did a lot of his good work in our own half.

Last 4 games:
5 LineBreaks
1 Try
AVG 141m/game on 14.3 runs
AVG 6.5 tackle breaks
11 tackles total, only 3 missed
8 Errors (but a few where like the no-try against the storm, not exactly a bad error)

And last of all, I dont see where the Dally Ms are an award for the last month of the regular season.

Yeah, basically what you list, better try strike-rate, more hit-ups (Vatuvei does a mountain of work getting the ball out from his own end - so much so that he is almost the Warriors most important player) and more offloads. Plus better defence. For all the talk about his apparent many errors, I see he trumps Uate in that department.

Vatuvei's the better player for me at the moment, but that may well change in the future. Uate still has tonnes of improvement ... give it a couple of years and I think he'll be popping up more often all over the field and cutting teams to shreads.

I don't think anyone ever said they were an award for the last month of the season, just that this often seems to have a big bearing on the awards (witness Canberra in 2008).
 
Back
Top