G&GR Reds Player of the Year

At the end of each game throughout the 2010 Super 14 season over at the forum, readers have submitted their 3-2-1’s for each Australian team. All of these votes will accumulated and an overall 3-2-1 assigned for each match to the three leading point getters for each Aussie team. This is a throw back to the old fashioned best and fairest type voting that various media organisations, and indeed players, would do at the end of the match.

We think so much of the posters on this site that last year we introduced the G&GR Wallaby Player of the Year award, decided by way of the same method (votes made after each test match). King George won the title last year and was so overcome with emotion he soon realised that there was no longer anything he needed to accomplish in World Rugby, and retired.

Let’s hope that same doesn’t occur with this years inaugural (and once off it would seem) Super 14 winners.  First up, let’s go to the Reds and look back through the season and how it all unfolded.

Round 1 v Waratahs

3 Will Genia
2 Peter Hynes
1 James Horwill

Waratahs 30 (Wycliff Palu, Rorey Sidey tries; Daniel Halangagu conv, pg; Berrick Barnes 4 pg, dg) defeated Reds 28 (Daniel Braid, James Horwill tries; Penalty Try; Quade Cooper 2 conv, 2 pg, dg)

***

Round 2 v Crusaders

3 Quade Cooper
2 Will Genia
1 Anthony Faingaa

Reds 41 (Digby Ioane, Rodney Davies tries; Quade Cooper 2 tries, 3 conv, 5 pg) defeated Crusaders 20 (Andy Ellis, Brad Thorn tries; Dan Carter 2 conv, 2 pg)

***

Round 3 v Blues

3 Will Genia
2 Saia Faingaa
1 Daniel Braid

Blues 27 (Rene Ranger, Anthony Boric, Alby Mathewson, Rudi Wulf tries; Stephen Brett conv, Pg; Lachie Munro Conv) defeated Reds 18 (Will Genia, Laurie Weeks tries; Quade Cooper conv, 2 pg)

***

Round 4 v Chiefs

3 Daniel Braid
2 Will Genia
1 Van Humphries

Reds 23 (Will Chambers, Luke Morahan tries; Quade Cooper 2 conv, 3 pg) defeated Chiefs 18 (Sitiveni Sivivatu, Lelia Masaga, Sona Taumalolo tries; Stephen Donald pg)

***

Round 5 v Force

3 Anthony Faingaa
2 Quade Cooper
1 Will Genia

Reds 50 (Anthony Faingaa 2, Digby Ioane 2, Scott Higginbottham 2, Luke Morahan tries; Quade Cooper 5 conv, pg; Ben Lucas conv) defeated Force 10 (Nick Cummins try; James O’connor conv, pg)

***

Round 6 (BYE)

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Round 7 v Cheetahs

3 Will Genia
2 Van Humphries
1 Peter Hynes

Reds 31 (Peter Hynes, Digby Ioane tries; Will Genia try, pg; Quade Cooper 2 conv, 3 pg) defeated Cheetahs 10 (Ashley Johnson try; Naas Olivier conv; Meyer Bosman pg)

***

Round 8 v Sharks

3 Quade Cooper
2 Digby Ioane
1 Anthony Faingaa

Sharks 30 (Jacques Botes, Odwa Ndungane, JP Pietersen tries; Ruan Pienaar 3 conv, 3 pg) defeated Reds 28 (Will Chambers 2, Greg Holmes tries; Quade Cooper try, 4 conv)

***

Round 9 v Lions

3 Quade Cooper
2 Peter Hynes
1 Anthony Faingaa

Reds 41 (Rodney Davies 2, Saia Faingaa, Peter Hynes, Ezra Taylor tries; Quade Cooper try, 4 conv, pg) defeated Lions 26 (Michael Killian 2, Franco Van Der Merwe tries; Herkie Kruger try, 3 conv)

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Round 10 v Bulls

3 Will Genia
2 Saia Faingaa
1 Scott Higginbotham

Reds 19 (Scott Higginbotham, Rodney Davies tries; Quade Cooper 3 pgs) defeated Bulls 12 (Derrick Kuun, Pedrie Wannenburg tries; Morne Steyn conv)

***

Round 11 v Stormers

3 Will Genia
2 Ben Daley
1 Anthony Faingaa

Reds 16 (Will Chambers try; Quade Cooper conv, 3 pg) defeated Stormers 13 (Andries Bekker try; Peter Grant 2 pg)

***

Round 12 v Brumbies

3 Anthony Faingaa
2 Daniel Braid
1 Will Genia

Brumbies 32 (Ben Alexander 2, Mark Chisholm, Josh Valentine tries; Matt Giteau 3 conv, 2 pg) defeated Reds 12 (Quade Cooper 4 pg)

***

Round 13 v Hurricanes

3 Will Genia
2 Digby Ioane
1 Radike Samo

Hurricanes 44 (Hosea Gear 3, Cory Jane, David Smith, Tamati Ellison tries; Piri Weepu 4 conv, 2 pg) defeated Reds 21 (Scott Higginbotham, Rodney Davies, Will Chambers tries; Quade Cooper 3 conv)

***

Round 14 v Highlanders

3 Quade Cooper
2 Will Genia
1 Sean Hardman

Reds 38 (Poutasi Luafutu 2, Radike Samo, Digby Ioane, Peter Hynes tries; Quade Cooper try, 4 conv) defeated Highlanders 36 (Fetu’u Vainikolo 2, Chris King, Jason Rutledge tries; Israel Dagg try, 4 conv, pen)

***

Well, there’s no real need to build the drama here. The above post looks like the Genia family scrap book there’s so many photos of Will. So, yes, Will Genia is the inaugural G&GR Reds Super 14 Player of the Year. With the final leader board being:

Position	Player	Points
1st	Will Genia	26
2nd	Quade Cooper	14
3rd	Anthony Faingaa	10
4th	Daniel Braid	6
5th	Peter Hynes	5
6th	Saia Faingaa	4
6th	Digby Ioane	4
8th	Van Humphries	3
9th	Ben Daley	2
10th	James Horwill	1
10th	Scott Higginbotham	1
10th	Radike Samo	1
10th	Sean Hardman	1

So what do you think? Was it as clear as the points would indicate? Any surprising omissions? Laurie Weeks seemed to suffer the Tight Head’s curse of being invisible to most. No Will Chambers or Rodney Davies? One thing for sure, when QLD played well Quade and Sanchez usually played well making it damn hard for almost anyone else to get points.