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 Nat Player Club Position
1984 Australia Wally Lewis Wakefield Trinity Five-eighth
1985 Australia Brett Kenny Wigan Five-eighth
1986 Australia Garry Jack Balmain Tigers Fullback
19871 New Zealand Hugh McGahan Eastern Suburbs Second-row
Australia Peter Sterling Parramatta Eels Halfback
1988 England Ellery Hanley Balmain Tigers Five-eighth
1989 Australia Mal Meninga Canberra Raiders Centre
19902 England Garry Schofield Leeds Five-eighth
1991-98 No award given
1999 Australia Andrew Johns Newcastle Knights Halfback
2000 Australia Brad Fittler Sydney Roosters Five-eighth
2001 Australia Andrew Johns (2) Newcastle Knights Halfback
2002 New Zealand Stacey Jones New Zealand Warriors Halfback
2003 Australia Darren Lockyer Brisbane Broncos Fullback
2004 England Andrew Farrell Wigan Loose forward
2005 Australia Anthony Minichiello Sydney Roosters Fullback
2006 Australia Darren Lockyer (2) Brisbane Broncos Five-eighth
2007 Australia Cameron Smith Melbourne Storm Hooker
2008 Australia Billy Slater Melbourne Storm Fullback
2009 Australia Greg Inglis Melbourne Storm Centre
2010 New Zealand Benji Marshall Wests Tigers Five-eighth
2011 Australia Johnathan Thurston North Queensland Cowboys Halfback
2012 England Kevin Sinfield Leeds Five-eighth
2013 Australia Johnathan Thurston (2) North Queensland Cowboys Five-eighth
2014 New Zealand Shaun Johnson New Zealand Warriors Halfback
2015 Australia Johnathan Thurston (3) North Queensland Cowboys Halfback

By nationality

By position

By club

Multiple winners

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

See also

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/19/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.