I cant believe people have given this much thought to it, its the most pointless award going! Its decided by a few ex pro's (probably gary schofield and bobbie goulding) and the happy clappers at Rugby League World magazine. The magazine probably has a readership of 1000 people, and has no influence on the game what so ever

I think that Malcolm Andrews article in League Express gets it right.

The decision by League Publications to reduce the number of overseas judges who vote on the Golden Boot was wrong (no matter what the outcome would have been).

The decision to reduce the number of overseas judges was made because there were no key international games during 2012....expect that there was in the Southern hemisphere - a huge mistake when you consider how uncompetitive the England games where during 2012.

Traditionally and in keeping with the principles of the original award consultation and research should be carried out with many different international sources before making a final decision on the winner of the award.

An interesting one. Farrell was undoubtedly magnificent in his efforts as player & leader, as you suggest he held that team together as his personal playing ability deteriorated & Wigan's standing faded. Sinfield is never going to lead by sheer physical effort & screaming at his players from behind the sticks or at a stoppage, he is physically not up to it, nor mentally does he approach captaincy that way. Sinfield needs great players around him to lead around the park, he would be absolutely devastating if he was captain of the Aussies, which is the reason I think he has struggled to shine against the Aussies (along with 99% of British players). If Sinfield plays against the Aussies he has to be the captain & direct everything, he is the best I have ever seen at that, but he is not the best player in any individual position.

Agreed.

I think Sinfield winning the Golden Boot was based purely upon his exploits as captain at Leeds and with England during 2012. I was surprised he won it, as I thought there were more deserving players, but I am however happy he won it.

TBF, I think anybody who understands RL would be a good captain of Australia and even some who don't. When you have players like Slater, Inglis, Smith, Thurston, Cronk, Gallen and even Boyd you don't really need to do too much skippering as they can win a game all on their own. Yes every now and again you'll fail but 9/10 you'll come through easy enough. I mean, they've only lost 3 competitions since 1972. How much leading do they need?!

Fair point. I suppose a better test would be to stick Sinfield in a top NRL team, where there is plenty of equal opposition, & see how he fared.

Agreed most of the time it would be, just sit back and enjoy the ride!

What I've found most interesting in this whole episode is Sadler has reminded me why I stopped buying his publications long ago, by refusing to post any details of the voting panel, nevermind who voted for whom - [urlhttp://www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php/topic/235905-and-the-winner-of-the-golden-boot-is/page__st__300#entry2614975[/url

My personal favourite as to the reason for this was......



You'd imagine if any sport would be able to "man-up" in terms of defending their opinion it would be those involved in RL.

It's a good job that unknown sport, football, doesn't have a high profile, especially on social media as it decided to publish how every national manager, national captain and journalist voted to determine their world player of the year - [urlhttp://www.fifa.com/mm/document/ballond'or/playeroftheyear(men)/01/98/07/84/fboawardmenplayer2012-bycountry.pdf[/url