The Wests Tigers made the startling decision to name Luke Brooks their player of the year over Adam Doueihi, and it reportedly has not gone down well with other players at the club.
Brooks split the award with fullback Daine Laurie, despite the fact neither of those players took out the Players' Player of the year award, a medal which went the way of Doueihi.
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The panel selecting the club's player of the year was Michael Maguire, Adam Hartigan and board member Danny Stapleton.
Doueihi was seen as the best player at the Tigers by a considerable distance, never faultering despite splitting his time between the halves and centres.
The decision to move him out of the halves was one which drew the ire of Tigers' fans, with Luke Brooks and Moses Mbye both up and down at best in their form.
While Laurie missed the back half of the season and had an exceptional first season with the club, it's still left a sour taste in the mouth of players, according to The Daily Telegrahph's Phil Rothfield, who told The Big Sports Breakfast on Sky Sports Radio that the club hadn't attempted to deny the feelings of their playing group.
โHe was so superior to any other player at that club. Maybe Daine Laurie was a reasonably close second," Rothfield said.
โDoueihi got 20 points in the Dally M votes. He finished eighth in the entire NRL while playing in a fairly ordinary football side.
โAnd there are players there asking questions. How did Luke Brooks win? And thatโs not good for team harmony when players are asking questions like that.
โIt is just another really weird decision the Wests Tigers have made.
โI spoke to a player manager over the weekend, who has a couple of players at the Wests Tigers and he said most of the group are absolutely baffled about the fact that Adam Doueihi didnโt get the award and Luke Brooks did.
โThatโs where I got my information and I checked it out with the Wests Tigers yesterday and there was certainly no denials there.โ
