One down, one to go.
Sacrifices
Arsene Wenger is reported to have said that there are two types of footballers: the ones who want to win and the ones who hate to lose. Well I also think that there are two types of rugby league players. There are those who burst onto the scene at an early age. They become established members of the first team after just a few appearances. It's not long before they gain selection to the England Knights or even full squad and become an international for the next decade.
The other type takes a slower route to the top. Their journey is much less glamorous, has more lows than highs for the first five years and yet is built on much stronger foundations because of the sacrifices and pain that they've had to go through.
One such example was the Lance Todd Trophy winner Matthew Smith. He's 26 years of age and has worked very hard to receive the recognition that he deserves for his performance at Wembley. I admire people like him because of their perseverance.
His Super League career began at St Helens in a winning debut over the Giants back in 2006, when Sean Long was the custodian of the number seven shirt and he was asked to fill in. He was later released by St Helens, an experience that most young players read as a sign of failure. He then went to play at Widnes before he did it really tough at the Celtic Crusaders.
Imagine playing scrum half, with all the pressure that comes in that position, for a team at the bottom of the league! It can't get a lot tougher from a rugby point of view. Was that time in Wales the making of Smith as a rugby player?
Maturity
His pathway then brought him back north to Salford, and his improvement over the next 70 games earned him a contract at a team in the top half of the table. I'm led to believe that he had several options from clubs who recognised his maturity and stability, both on and off the field, in the key play-making role.
He already has Grand Final experience from a strange return to St Helens at the end of the 2010 season, when he played against the man he would later replace, Thomas Leuluai.
A friend of mine often tells me that 'slow and steady wins the race!' Well in this case I think he might be right. His journey to collect the Lance Todd Trophy was slower than most of his predecessors, but is a brilliant example to so many young players in the game.
