I saw that this morning as well Earl. Seems all a bit out of control:
Players' award still a web of intrigue
Brad Walter SMH
September 20, 2006
RUGBY League Professionals Association boss Matthew Rodwell last night insisted voting figures for the Players' Player award temporarily displayed on its website were incorrect and did not reveal the winner ahead of next week's function in Sydney.
According to the figures shown, retired Manly captain Ben Kennedy edged out Cronulla lock Paul Gallen and Parramatta second-rower Nathan Hindmarsh for the sought-after award, but Rodwell said they were not the real results.
With all NRL players having finalised their votes for the season, the awards section of the RLPA's website, myfooty.com.au, was undergoing maintenance in preparation for next Friday night's announcement.
Former greats Peter Sterling and Paul Vautin were among the names that appeared in the list of voting figures but neither has pulled on a boot in more than a decade. \"There's been a glitch in our website and for some reason a list of final voting was shown but I can assure you that those figures are not correct,\" Rodwell told the Herald.
When voting went behind closed doors after round 20, Kennedy was a runaway leader with 35 votes - seven ahead of Warriors prop Ruben Wiki and 11 in front of Newcastle hooker Danny Buderus.
Gallen was fifth with 21 votes, one behind St George Illawarra centre Mark Gasnier, while Hindmarsh didn't even register in the top 10 players. Since then, Kennedy missed the Sea Eagles' final two games of the regular season due to a hip injury.
Earlier this month, Bulldogs second-rower Willie Mason said in his column in The Australian that the RLPA honour meant more to the players than any other award in the game.
\"If you ask the players, they would rather win the [RLPA] award, which is voted on by the players,\" Mason wrote. \"It has a lot more credibility than the Dally Ms. There's no higher honour than to be rated the best of the best by your peers.\"
