The latest edition of Rugby League World magazine has named the six players who have been shortlisted for this year’s Golden Boot award.
The winner will be announced in the issue of the magazine that is due for publication on 17 January, so there is plenty of time for us to mull over who the winner should be.
Johnathan Thurston won the Golden Boot in 2011, and he is clearly a very strong candidate to win it again, given his influence on the Australian game, particularly in the World Cup Final.
The problem in picking a winner, however, is that you often find yourself comparing different and distinct qualities in the players under consideration.
Thurston is a very different player to Sam Burgess, for example, with quite different skills. Those two players therefore make quite different contributions to the teams they play in.
But are Sam’s bullocking runs and offloading skills, as well as his huge defensive efforts, better than Johnathan’s superb kicking game and brilliant organisational play?
Those are the decisions that those of us on the voting panel have to make.
It’s a great privilege, but also a great responsibility.
