There are few more official ways to declare someone 'the next big thing' than for the league to rate them the best junior player of the year - and between 2008 and 2017, that's what the NRL did annually.
The Dally M Under-20s Player of the Year award is not to be confused with the Rookie of the Year gong. While the rookie of the year goes to the youngster who has best adapted to the demands of the NRL, the under-20s award went to the most talented (but untested) youngsters still in the development pool.
It's a great way to hype someone up, but it also heaps expectation upon a young man's shoulders - and each winner has dealt with it in different ways. Though most are still playing and some are gone from the game not one of the most talented juniors in the land has become a premiership winner - though some have come closer than others.
You would expect the most experienced winner of the award to have played the most NRL games, and you’d be correct – but the inaugural winner was also the youngest, with Hunt just 18 years and five months old when he claimed the top gong.
Hunt has played 286 career games and represented both his state and his country. Just this year he scored the series-sealing try in Origin and has been a lead contender for the Dally M – but it’s been 14 years since he won the NYC award. He’s one of just two award winners to appear in a grand final – but it didn't end well. We all remember just what happened in the final stages of 2015’s most important game.
It could be argued that this year has seen Hunt finally shake off the shackles of expectation – but he’s nearly made 300 NRL appearances.
Of all the winners, Hunt has clearly had the most successful career. You might think time has something to do with how successful these youngsters can ultimately become, but that’s not always the case.
Henry comes in at the opposite end of the spectrum to Hunt – in fact, if you put their total appearances together you’d only just have entered the 300 club. But was his career silently affected by Wayne Bennett?
After an incredible NYC career that saw him score over 400 points, Henry struggled to break into Bennett’s first team at the Dragons, eventually signing with Newcastle and being handed his NRL debut in 2011, making six appearances in his first season.
But then Bennett came to Newcastle and Henry was once again unwanted, eventually signing for the Gold Coast. His time on the Coast was troubled, making just eight NRL appearances in three years. He eventually returned to the Dragons and made the Auckland Nines squad, but was released just months into his contract to go and play Ron Massey Cup for Wentworthville. He played just 14 NRL games.
If you’re thinking that expecting the game’s most promising young talent to turn a team around on their own is too harsh, what about a number of them? There are two teams in the NRL who currently have three former NYC Players of the Year on their books, and the Dragons are one of them.
Sims won the honour at the Broncos, where he started as a winger before being asked to bulk up (reportedly by a coach at Brisbane named… Anthony Griffin) and develop into the tackle-breaking ball-runner we see today. Sims has had a very fruitful career by a lot of metrics – he’s represented New South Wales, he’s represented Fiji and he’s played well over 200 NRL games – but just like everyone else on the list, he’s never won a premiership.
Sims made his NRL debut in North Queensland and played over 70 games across four seasons, but left the club at the end of 2014 – one year before their maiden title. He may become this list’s best hope of a premiership next year when he joins evergreen contenders Melbourne next year.
Not only have St George Illawarra had three of the best under-20s players of the last ten years on their books, they’re three of the four most experienced. De Belin’s rise was rapid, winning the award in his first year in the NYC, making his NRL debut in the same year and locking down a first-team spot for the 2012 season.
He’s played for his state and has made 185 NRL appearances, but as we all know he spent two years out of the game as a result of the NRL’s no-fault stand-down policy.
It’s hard to know what would have eventuated had he taken the field in that time, but it’s also hard to see him leaving the club that stood by him throughout his prolonged trial, despite being off-contract at the end of next year (with an option in his favour).
Klemmer spent two years in the under-20s system at Canterbury, having already represented the Australian Schoolboys and NSW under-18s. The Bulldogs claimed the NYC minor premiership in 2012 on points differential from the Warriors, but they were unceremoniously dumped from the finals in straight sets by Wests Tigers and St George Illawarra Dragons.
Klemmer rose to the NRL months later but played just four matches in his debut season. A year later he was already participating in an NRL Grand Final – easily the most rapid rise for any of the candidates on this list.
Unfortunately for Klemmer, the Bulldogs lost to South Sydney, and the next time the teams met on Good Friday, his reputation took a hit after a fiery ending. But since then, Newcastle’s man-mountain has done well to overcome the early images of an angry young man, doing his state and country proud at the highest levels of the game and has made 191 NRL apperances.
He’s been back in the news again recently after spraying a trainer during another meek Newcastle effort. The only difference was, this time most people were on his side.
Cartwright had a sensational year in 2013, taking the Panthers to the NYC Premiership and finishing as the competition’s leading pointscorer to go with his Player of the Year title after taking on goal-kicking duties. The Panthers took the premiership after finishing second in the regular season.
He was handed his NRL debut by Penrith the very next season, becoming a dangerous back-rower and also spending a fair amount of time in the halves.
After a bright start things got challenging for Cartwright, with form and personal issues leading to an early release away from the foot of the mountains to join his old NYC coach Garth Brennan at the Titans.
But things didn’t go to plan there either, with Cartwright ultimately dropped by his mentor after a form slump. He came back next year during the Titans’ wooden-spoon run, only for Brennan to be fired halfway through the campaign as the club won just four games.
He and his ex-wife then drew criticism for their vaccination stance, before he returned to Parramatta, where he’s rediscovered some form as a damaging bench utility for Brad Arthur – though his appearances this year have been affected by injury.
While most of the recipients of this award have been key to their team’s success, Kane Elgey’s win was unique in that he won the top gong despite the fact his Gold Coast Titans under-20s team finished second-last on the table after winning just six games all year. It seems strange, but when you consider he scored 16 tries in just 21 appearances as a half and kicked goals you start to understand how tangible his impact still was.
The former Australian Schoolboy made his NRL debut one year later and was offered a two-year contract after his first game. He finished the year with an impressive six tries in 16 games – and even made the PM’s XIII to face PNG. Sadly, in January 2016 he suffered an ACL injury in the club’s first training session – but was still able to extend his contract.
Things became harder for Elgey as he fought his way back, though he looked to have earned a rebirth of sorts when he signed with Manly for 2019 – but after just one season in which he played 12 games, Elgey announced his retirement after just 57 NRL appearances, claiming on Instagram that he just didn’t love the game like he used to.
Few players came into the NRL more highly rated than Ash Taylor, the gun young Broncos half who had drawn early comparisons to Langer and Lockyer. He was rewarded for his incredible form with a Round 25 debut for the Broncos against Melbourne – coincidentally filling in for 2007 winner Ben Hunt – but his debut was cut short when he fractured his finger.
He then signed a big-money contract at the Titans, personifying the club’s desire to build a team around a bright young talent – and for the first year, it worked. Taylor combined with Tyrone Roberts to take the Titans to the finals for the first time since 2010 and the future looked bright – he even won that Dally M Rookie of the Year award, the only award-winner to claim the award after the NYC gong.
But the downhill spiral coincided with the divisive Jarryd Hayne-Neil Henry era of the club, and within two years Taylor had been given personal leave and then demoted to reserve grade, with big questions over his future. He even offered to take a pay cut.
Eventually he landed at the Warriors and that sense of optimism came over everyone again, but it wasn’t to be, with Taylor playing just one more game before being forced into retirement with a hip injury
Another highly-rated youngster, Brailey was a driving force behind the Sharks side that almost matched Penrith for NYC dominance in the competition’s later stages. He emerged at a great time too, directly after the Sharks had won their maiden premiership and veteran hooker Michael Ennis was set to retire, making his NRL debut in Round 1 of 2017.
Despite suffering a broken jaw in his rookie season, it was a great first three years for Brailey as the Sharks maintained their standards and continued to play finals football, but he was ultimately forced to look elsewhere by the emergence of his brother Blayke (also a hooker), and took a deal to join Newcastle.
Unfortunately for Brailey, after playing nearly every game across three seasons in the Shire, in his second game for the Knights he ruptured his ACL and was ruled out for the rest of the season. Though he returned and played through most of 2021, helping the Knights to reach the finals, that bad luck returned in 2022 with an Achilles tear restricting him to just five appearances as the Knights have struggled.
You might be realising there are actually two NRL clubs with three under-20s Player of the Year winners – the Dragons and the Newcastle Knights. With that much top-end future talent you’d expect either team to be in the hunt for finals football, but alas.
Though Clifford and the Cowboys only finished fifth in the 2017 competition and he was only named on the bench in the Team of the Year, he still claimed the top gong on the back of a brilliant individual season. Coming through the Cowboys junior ranks alongside fellow Knight Kalyn Ponga, expectations were high that a swathe of junior talent would deliver results in Townsville.
He didn’t get his NRL debut until late 2018, but had continued to impress in Queensland Cup and captained the Junior Kangaroos. But 2019 didn’t go to plan, with Clifford stuck in a battle with Te Maire Martin for the vacant Cowboys No.7 and form issues keeping him in and out of the first grade side – and it’s been a consistent theme to Clifford’s career so far, never playing more than 15 games in a season for one club. Though he’s received more game-time in Newcastle, injuries and form have seen his opportunities grow increasingly inconsistent under coach Adam O’Brien.