Dial M for Matulino mystery at Dally Ms

Something strange happened at the Dally M Awards last night … Ben Matulino failed to rate a mention among the leading props despite being one of the top-polling front rowers throughout the 2012 NRL season.

He figured briefly in the telecast of the awards last night, featuring in the video footage of some of the year’s biggest hits. In all honesty it would have been impossible to overlook him on that score.

But where was his name when it came to the contenders for the Dally M Prop of the Year? For some strange reason it was nowhere to be seen or heard.

To provide a little context here, the voting for the Dally M Awards went behind closed doors after 16 rounds (the round in which the Vodafone Warriors had their second bye).

To that point the 23-year-old Matulino had been in exceptional form, playing in each of the club’s 14 matches. He’d been noticed, too, picking up 12 points from the Dally M judges. Indeed, he had but 11 players ahead of him to that point; only two of them were forwards and just one of them was a prop, Wests Tigers front rower Aaron Woods on 13. Canterbury-Bankstown’s Sam Kasiano was the next best prop on 10 points.

Voting for the last 10 rounds was done in secret, a period which began with two victories for the Vodafone Warriors but was followed by a club record eight losses. While it didn’t help Matulino’s cause he continued to excel individually, collecting the player of the day vote from his team-mates against both Newcastle and Cronulla after earlier being named the players’ player of the day in the matches against Parramatta in March and Melbourne in June.

He ought to have been included on a shortlist for the Dally M Prop of the Year but, when it came to announcing the award early in last night’s telecast, Matulino’s name wasn’t mentioned among those in contention. The accolade was handed out to New Zealander Sam Kasiano from the minor premiership-winning Canterbury-Bankstown side.

Confusion arose when final votes were revealed for the Dally M Medal later in the evening (Ben Barba was a runaway winner).

The leaderboard showed South Sydney’s Sam Burgess was the top-ranking big forward with 18 points, having split his 19 appearances between the front row and the second row (he started 12 times as a prop). He didn’t make the Dally M Team of the Year in either position.

The out-and-out props with the most votes were Woods and St George Illawarra’s Trent Merrin, both on 16, followed by Matulino and Kasiano on 15 with Kasiano supposedly singled out for the Prop of the Year title on the basis of his influence in a side that excelled. The main issue here was that Matulino wasn’t even nominated or named on a list of main contenders.

In contrast it might be pointed out that Barba, Cooper Cronk, Johnathan Thurston and Cameron Smith were, for instance, all the top-ranked players in their specialist positions and all made the team of the year.

Out of interest here’s a look at the statistics for the four top-polling front rowers:

Aaron Woods (Wests Tigers):
Games: 24 games
Tries: 1
Total minutes: 1447
Average minutes/game: 60.3
Off loads: 25
Tackle breaks: 25
Total runs: 381
Average runs/game: 15.9
Total metres: 3318
Average metres/game: 138.2
Average metres/run: 8.71
Total tackles: 842
Average tackles/game: 35.1
Total missed tackles: 46
Average missed tackles/game: 1.9
Total ineffective tackles: 32
Average ineffective tackles/game: 1.3
Total errors: 5
Total penalties: 13

Trent Merrin (St George Illawarra):
Games: 23 games
Tries: 2
Total minutes: 1238
Average minutes/game: 53.8
Off loads: 45
Tackle breaks: 40
Total runs: 348
Average runs/game: 15.1
Total metres: 3024
Average metres/game: 131.5
Average metres/run: 8.67
Total tackles: 728
Average tackles/game: 31.7
Total missed tackles: 46
Average missed tackles/game: 2.0
Total ineffective tackles: 25
Average ineffective tackles/game: 1.1
Total errors: 15
Total penalties: 5

Ben Matulino (Vodafone Warriors):
Games: 22 games
Tries: 3
Total minutes: 1056
Average minutes/game: 48.0
Off loads: 17
Tackle breaks: 38
Total runs: 303
Average runs/game: 13.8
Total metres: 2748
Average metres/game: 126.5
Average metres/run: 9.06
Total tackles: 403
Average tackles/game: 18.3
Total missed tackles: 26
Average missed tackles/game: 1.2
Total ineffective tackles: 24
Average ineffective tackles/game: 1.1
Total errors: 4
Total penalties: 6

Sam Kasiano (Canterbury-Bankstown):
Games: 21 games
Tries: 1
Total minutes: 883
Average minutes/game: 42
Off loads: 35
Tackle breaks: 41
Total runs: 239
Average runs/game: 11.4
Total metres: 2047
Average metres/game: 97.5
Average metres/run: 8.56
Total tackles: 396
Average tackles/game: 18.9
Total missed tackles: 50
Average missed tackles/game: 2.4
Total ineffective tackles: 15
Average ineffective tackles/game: 0.7
Total errors: 16
Total penalties: 10