Talking Footy

IT’S never really been in argument but Israel Folau officially joined the modern greats of Australian rugby by winning the John Eales Medal on Thursday night in Sydney.

An imperiously consistent Test season from Folau saw him claim the Wallabies’ highest honour ahead of skipper Michael Hooper, prop James Slipper and fast-finishing centre Tevita Kuridrani.

Folau played every minute of the 15 Tests from the start of the 2013 Spring Tour to last weekend’s Bledisloe Cup and though he only won players’ player in two Tests, the star fullback still harvested votes in every single game with his attacking dominance.


Folau said he was “honoured and privileged” to win the award, and perhaps noteworthy after a tumultuous fortnight of coaching movement in Australian rugby, singled out Waratahs and new Wallabies coach Michael Cheika for thanks.

“Without an overall performance from the team I wouldn’t be here. I just like the variety about what rugby brings, you’re always thinking throughout the 80 minutes,” Folau said.


“I’m hungry to learn and have had a great coach in Cheik. I’m honoured to have him on board at the Wallabies.

“On a personal note I want to be a consistent player and that’s what I strive to be every time I step on the field.”



Just as Folau (314 votes) was streets ahead of Hooper (232), Slipper (208) and Kuridrani (202), no-one in the Wallabies came close to Folau’s eye-popping stats. In those 15 Tests, the 25-year-old scored the most tries (8), and had the most tackles busts (76), linebreaks (22), and offloads (38), and second-most linebreak assists (7).

A player logging up over 100 metres in run metres in Test rugby is an impressive — and not common — feat and yet Folau did it a staggering 11 times from 15 Tests to notch up almost 2 kilometres of run metres in 15 Tests.

Folau became only the fourth back in 13 years to win the John Eales medal, following Chris Latham, Matt Giteau and Kurtley Beale.

Interestingly, the award comes after Folau finished a bizarrely low 12th in player voting for the Matt Burke medal for the Waratahs’ top prize.

But that was remedied somewhat with Folau sharing the Australian Super Rugby player of the year award with Hooper.

Brumbies lock Sam Carter was named Wallabies Rookie of the Year, while Melbourne backrower Sean McMahon backed up a Wallaby tour squad call-up with three awards: Under 20s player of the year, NRC player of the year and Super Rugby rookie of the year.

New Wallabies coach Michael Cheika was named coach of the year for leading the Waratahs to a maiden Super Rugby title. The Tahs won team of the year.

Emilee Cherry and Cameron Clark won the women’s and men’s sevens player of the year respectively.

FINAL TALLY

1. Israel Folau (314)

2. Michael Hooper (232)

3. James Slipper (208)

4. Tevita Kuridrani (202)

5. Stephen Moore (98)

well done Israel the AFL failure!
you left the game of NRL at the peak of the game, went to AFL and proven to be an unskilled unco, went back to the form of rugby union and represented Australia and even won the John eales medal!


so well done, in those efforts in proving that AFL is a superior game than the game of rugby
rugby, union/league/.... AFL

^ jealous and frustrated that izzy, after being paid a few mil of course, turned his back on a game he didn't enjoy

He was worth the money ,the plan worked .
Every Poly kid in WS is now fumbling a Sharon .LOL.

That's what AFL house wanted.
It could be a problem though.
Does Aflol nsw have a one whitey parent rule.?.
What does McChins think of all these Dark skinned people fumbling a sacred. Sharon.

It wouldn't happen in the Deep South of 1950s Victaaardia.

King-Eliagh wrote:

^ jealous and frustrated that izzy, after being paid a few mil of course, turned his back on a game he didn't enjoy

no its satisfying & amusing!
he failed pathetically in AFL, now winning the highest individual award back in rugby

AFLcrap1 wrote:

He was worth the money ,the plan worked .
Every Poly kid in WS is now fumbling a Sharon .LOL.

That's what AFL house wanted.
It could be a problem though.
Does Aflol nsw have a one whitey parent rule.?.
What does McChins think of all these Dark skinned people fumbling a sacred. Sharon.

It wouldn't happen in the Deep South of 1950s Victaaardia.

yes of course spazza
have you any evidence to support this claim?

The first bit was a joke..

The 2nd bit about the one whitey parent rule is fact.
Been posted here many times.

No it's not, it is your warped interpretation and by the way has nothing to do with this post deflection king.

Fred wrote:

No it's not, it is your warped interpretation and by the way has nothing to do with this post deflection king.

Contract ebola you welching dog...
Puss from an infected donkeys cock has more cred in here then you

Raiderdave wrote:

Fred wrote:

No it's not, it is your warped interpretation and by the way has nothing to do with this post deflection king.

Contract ebola you welching dog...
Puss from an infected donkeys cock has more cred in here then you

Yep.

Deflection again lol

AFL get so defensive when they steal players and the player thinks their game is shit and leaves for less money. Exactly what happened with Folou.

He realised how much of a fairy soft shit game AFL is and said stuff this. AFL still sux and even if they pay me millions. And I am still saying fark off AFL your game is shit and not worth playing.

are you actually trying to say israel folau, who is dominating union, did shit in a sport he's never played and that simply requires you to run long distances and kick far means AFL has better athletes than BOTH rugby codes? mind you, the two only cover about 10x the population AFL does.

pHyR3 wrote:

are you actually trying to say israel folau, who is dominating union, did shit in a sport he's never played and that simply requires you to run long distances and kick far means AFL has better athletes than BOTH rugby codes? mind you, the two only cover about 10x the population AFL does.

Yeah AFL has great Athletes that fall over each other all the time, can't catch and weedy as fark lol.. Were you trying to be funny when you said AFL has better Athletes?

AFL Commentators, coaches, players and ex players all lauded izzy for his physical supremacy before he said "I don't like this code, thanks for the millions but no thanks"

AFLcrap1 wrote:

Raiderdave wrote:

Fred wrote:

No it's not, it is your warped interpretation and by the way has nothing to do with this post deflection king.

Contract ebola you welching dog...
Puss from an infected donkeys cock has more cred in here then you

Yep.

Yes. Sorry to say it freddy me boy but you not only lost the username phelpsy, but also all ur cred when you took me on and lost

Funny thing is I'd completely forgotten about that bet until you had ur premie ejaculation on the suns mid season and bumped the old thread up talking tough and all...a spectacular loser! :_<>