NRL great Cameron Smith has blasted the accidental snubbing of Justin Olam from the Dally M Awards, as well as the absence of any Melbourne players in the running for the game’s top prize.
Fans were left stunned after the star centre was snubbed for a Dally M Centre of the Year nomination, and an administrative error saw him not invited to the award ceremony.
Smith, who won a premiership with Olam last year, was flabbergasted.
“I believe he’s been the best centre in the competition this year, and I’ve heard a lot of people say that,” Smith said on SEN radio.
“You know what I’d be doing if I was Justin Olam? I’d be telling the football manager, Frank Ponissi, to put a phone call through to the NRL and I’d be saying ‘am I winning? Am I going to be receiving anything? I want a heads up now please because I’m hopefully going to be preparing for a grand final’, and if the answer’s no you’re not winning, I’d just politely refuse to go.
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“It’s just crazy – how do you expect to get snubbed that way and they just expect you to turn up?”
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It wasn’t the only Storm-related issue Smith had with the award ceremony, also expressing his confusion at how no Melbourne player was placed in the top five vote-getters for the season.
“It’s hard to believe, because the Melbourne Storm have only lost three matches all year. When you’re winning matches, that means you should have one, two players at the very least taking points,” he said.
“There’s a whole heap of matches there where players like I’m thinking off the top of my head like Jahrome Hughes, Brandon Smith and even Nicho Hynes – when they’re winning matches, shouldn’t they be picking up threes and twos?”
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The top five were confirmed earlier in the week as Manly’s Tom Trbojevic and Daly Cherry-Evans, South Sydney five-eighth Cody Walker, Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary, and Roosters fullback James Tedesco.
Smith said it was especially egregious for the minor premiers to not have any representation on the shortlist given the team’s results throughout the year.
“Particularly on that streak. They won 19 games in a row, surely you’ve got to figure in the top five?
“We’re not saying that a Melbourne Storm player should be winning the Dally M this year, but I’d like to think that at least one of those players we mentioned should be in the top five.”
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