Last week the RFL revealed its Dream Team for the 2014 season.
The Dream Team is selected by ballot among members of the Rugby League media, and the team that was unveiled last week contained eight players – Zak Hardaker, Michael Shenton, Kallum Watkins, Tommy Makinson, Kevin Brown, Daryl Clark, Elliott Whitehead and Carl Ablett – who were making their first appearance in the Dream Team, which, for the second year in succession, was made up entirely of domestic players, with no overseas stars.
But how does the Dream Team compare with other potential teams that could be selected by different means.
Click here to download the digital version of League Express newspaper to the device of your choice
As you may have seen on TotalRL.com today, we decided to check out who would have been in the Dream Team if it had been selected using the points allocated in this year’s Albert Goldthorpe Medal table, with the players with the highest points in each position being allocated a place in the team.
We found that only Kallum Watkins, Michael Shenton, Kevin Brown and Daryl Clark featured in both teams.
Again we found some commonality, but only one player – Kallum Watkins – was a member of the Dream Team and the two ‘Dream Teams’ created by the Albert Goldthorpe Medal table and the Opta Index table.
Does that mean that Watkins is the Super League Player of the Year?
It doesn’t, and we are happy for our readers to make their own minds up about that.
For the latest updates and breaking news, follow us on the social media platform of your choice
But we thought you might like to see the make up of all three teams.
If nothing else, they should give rise to plenty of debate about the relative merits of the players they contain.
It’s worth remembering that each team is based upon performances during the regular season.
The biggest surprise for me is the absence of Warrington winger Joel Monaghan from any of the three teams.
And I’m sure there are plenty of other notable absentees.
