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Good enough for the Dally M, but not the players: Bellamy usurped as Broncos pull off poll shock – Fox Sports
The players have spoken and the results from part one of the annual player’s poll are in.
Trent Robinson has overtaken the mastermind that is Craig Bellamy and Supercoach Wayne Bennett as the NRLs best coach after a quarter of the votes went in his favour, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
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After finishing second in last years poll he steamrolled his peers with 24 per cent of the votes, while Bellamy, who has won the honour since the poll started in 2018, received 17 per cent and Bennett got 10 per cent. Penriths Ivan Cleary and rookie Newcastle coach Adam OBrien rounded out the top five.
Round 9
While Robinsons win rate (64.9 per cent) is lower than Bellamy (67.4 per cent) and Bennett (67.6 per cent), he has achieved more in his first seven seasons.
Hes taken the Chooks to three premierships, four minor premierships and three World Club Challenge wins since taking over the reins in 2013.
McGregor’s classy response
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Comparatively, Bellamy led the Storm to two premierships (with two stripped for salary cap breaches), three minor premierships and one World Club Challenge victory in his first seven seasons as a coach, while Bennett achieved two premierships and one minor premiership in his.
Adding to Robinsons rap sheet, the Roosters got the most votes (23 per cent) for the second year in a row as the club that players would like to join if they had to leave their current team.
Interestingly, despite all of the chaos at Red Hill, the Broncos came in second with 17 per cent of votes, followed by the Storm (14 per cent), the Knights (12 per cent) and the Sea Eagles (6 per cent).
150 players from all 16 clubs took part in the poll in the last fortnight with the results to be realised over Monday and Tuesday.
The results dropped at midday today will also include the best player overall, the best in each position, the best buy and who will win the premiership.
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Storm skipper Cameron Smith has taken out the games best player honour the past two years but there could be different results this year.
Smith will be battling Jason Taumalolo, James Tedesco, Tom Trbojevic and Mitchell Moses, who all received the most votes to make the top five.
The best buy received an overwhelming 43 per cent of the votes. The winner will be out of Parramattas Ryan Matterson, Penriths Api Koroisau, the Roosters Josh Morris and Tigers Harry Grant.
On Sunday, fans were treated to a sneak peek and learnt who the players deemed the games best second-rower, best halfback and also whether they would like to see a stand-alone State of Origin series.
Penrith giant Viliame Kikau was voted as the best second-rower, beating out Roosters captain Boyd Cordner who came second, Broncos gun David Fifita who placed third, Cronulla skipper Wade Graham who came fourth and departing Dragon Tyson Frizell who rounded out the top five.
Viliame Kikau was voted by his peers as the games best second-rower. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images).Source: Getty Images
‘That’s the way Latrell is’
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Reigning Dally M second-rower of the year John Bateman only received one vote.
Veteran No.7 Mitchell Pearce was voted as the best halfback by his peers.
Mitchell Pearce was voted in as best halfback. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
The Knights playmaker edged out second-placed Nathan Cleary. Manly captain Daly Cherry-Evans came in third, while reigning Dally M halfback of the year Mitchell Moses placed fourth.
Interestingly, St George Illawarras Ben Hunt was voted fifth, despite his bumpy season so far and his move to hooker.
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Players were also asked if they believe the NRL should introduce a stand-alone State of Origin period in the middle of the season.
It was a close result but interestingly 59 per cent of players voted yes.
But New South Wales coach Brad Fittler disagrees.
I sort of like the way it works at the moment, he told the Sunday Footy Show.
The intrigue around players, their availability, theres so much in the news because theres games that weekend.
Canberra’s injury woes
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I dont know why we keep wanting to change Origin when its been the most successful part of our game.
People have always got answers for it and I dont know if theres a question to ask.
They tinkered with it when they brought the middle game to a Sunday, which reduced it by a couple of weeks. I think that nearly teeters on taking away that being able to prepare players for what theyre up to, having a week and not necessarily 10 days.
You start doing week on week and thats a really big ask for the level of intensity its played at.
