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 Position Club
1984  Australia Wally Lewis Five-eighth Wynnum Manly Seagulls
1985  Australia Brett Kenny Five-eighth Parramatta Eels
1986  Australia Garry Jack Fullback Balmain Tigers
1987  New Zealand Hugh McGahan second-row Eastern Suburbs Roosters
 Australia Peter Sterling Halfback Parramatta Eels
1988  England Ellery Hanley Five-eighth Wigan
1989  Australia Mal Meninga centre Canberra Raiders
19902  England Garry Schofield Five-eighth Leeds
1991-98 No award given
1999  Australia Andrew Johns halfback Newcastle Knights
2000  Australia Brad Fittler Five-eighth Sydney Roosters
2001  Australia Andrew Johns halfback Newcastle Knights
2002  New Zealand Stacey Jones halfback New Zealand Warriors
2003  Australia Darren Lockyer fullback Brisbane Broncos
2004  England Andrew Farrell loose forward Wigan Warriors
2005  Australia Anthony Minichiello fullback Sydney Roosters
2006  Australia Darren Lockyer five-eighth Brisbane Broncos
2007  Australia Cameron Smith hooker Melbourne Storm
2008  Australia Billy Slater fullback Melbourne Storm
2009  Australia Greg Inglis centre Melbourne Storm
2010  New Zealand Benji Marshall five-eighth Wests Tigers
2011  Australia Johnathan Thurston halfback North Queensland Cowboys
2012  England Kevin Sinfield five-eighth Leeds
2013  Australia Johnathan Thurston five-eighth North Queensland Cowboys
2014  New Zealand Shaun Johnson halfback New Zealand Warriors
2015  Australia Johnathan Thurston 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 Sunday, February 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.