Rugby League World Golden Boot Award

The Rugby League World Golden Boot Award is a rugby league award handed out annually for achievements in rugby league by Rugby League World magazine. The Golden Boot is given, usually in December after the conclusion of all the year's matches, to the player adjudged to be the best in the world, as determined by a ballot of international media representatives.[1]

The oldest winner of the award is Kevin Sinfield, who won in 2012 at the age of 32. The current holder is halfback Johnathan Thurston, who won the award for a record third time.

History

The award was founded in early 1985 by the British magazine Open Rugby and was awarded to Wally Lewis for his performances throughout 1984. Lewis and the other pre-1990 winners were initially recognised for the years that they collected the award, not for the year of their performances, but this was changed by Rugby League World magazine in 2010.

No award was made between 1990 and 1998 due to organisational difficulties, the award was resurrected in its original format in 1999 when Open Rugby changed ownership to become Rugby League World Magazine, which retained ownership of the Golden Boot.

Andrew Johns collected the award in 1999 and again in 2001, becoming the first player to win it twice. Darren Lockyer repeated that feat, winning in 2003 and 2006 becoming the first player to win twice while playing in different positions.

It was presented during the RLIF Awards in 2004, 2005 and 2006. In 2007, the RLIF did not organise any awards. To fill the gap, Rugby League World magazine asked its Golden Boot panel to come up with winners in the existing categories used by the RLIF.

In 2011, Rugby League World magazine began to award retrospective Golden Boots to fill in "the missing years" starting with Garry Schofield who was adjudged to have won the 1990 Golden Boot. Schofield was due to receive the award at the time, until the sponsors, Adidas, withdrew their backing.

Winners

Year Nationality Player Age Position Club
1984  Australia Wally Lewis 25 Five-eighth Wynnum Manly Seagulls, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats
1985  Australia Brett Kenny 24 Five-eighth Parramatta Eels, Wigan
1986  Australia Garry Jack 25 Fullback Balmain Tigers
1987  New Zealand Hugh McGahan 26 Second-row Eastern Suburbs Roosters
 Australia Peter Sterling 27 Halfback Parramatta Eels
1988  England Ellery Hanley 27 Five-eighth Wigan, Balmain Tigers
1989  Australia Mal Meninga 29 Centre Canberra Raiders
19902  England Garry Schofield 25 Five-eighth Leeds
1991-98 No award given
1999  Australia Andrew Johns 25 Halfback Newcastle Knights
2000  Australia Brad Fittler 28 Five-eighth Sydney Roosters
2001  Australia Andrew Johns 27 Halfback Newcastle Knights
2002  New Zealand Stacey Jones 26 Halfback New Zealand Warriors
2003  Australia Darren Lockyer 26 Fullback Brisbane Broncos
2004  England Andrew Farrell 29 Loose forward Wigan Warriors
2005  Australia Anthony Minichiello 25 Fullback Sydney Roosters
2006  Australia Darren Lockyer 29 Five-eighth Brisbane Broncos
2007  Australia Cameron Smith 24 Hooker Melbourne Storm
2008  Australia Billy Slater 25 Fullback Melbourne Storm
2009  Australia Greg Inglis 22 Centre Melbourne Storm
2010  New Zealand Benji Marshall 25 Five-eighth Wests Tigers
2011  Australia Johnathan Thurston 28 Halfback North Queensland Cowboys
2012  England Kevin Sinfield 32 Five-eighth Leeds
2013  Australia Johnathan Thurston 30 Five-eighth North Queensland Cowboys
2014  New Zealand Shaun Johnson 24 Halfback New Zealand Warriors
2015  Australia Johnathan Thurston 32 Halfback North Queensland Cowboys

By nationality

By position

By club

Multiple winners

The following players have won the Golden Boot on more than one occasion:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Kangaroos trio shortlisted for Golden Boot, AAP, dated 6 December 2013.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 09, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.