Todd Carney wins Rugby League Dally M medal

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ON THIS night last year, Todd Carney was watching the Dally M awards in the bar in Atherton as a rugby league outcast playing bush footy in North Queensland.

Last night, he completed rugby league’s greatest story of redemption when he was named the Dally M Medallist.

The one-time bad boy of the NRL was congratulated by his emotional mum Leanne, who accompanied Carney to the lavish black-tie function at the State Theatre in Sydney.

“This is a thank you from me,” Carney said of his mother. “A son that’s put their mum through the stuff that I have, that I have in the past, this is my thank you to her.”It was reminiscent of last year’s awards when Eels fullback Jarryd Hayne won the Dally M and acknowledged his date, mum Jodie, for helping him turn his life around.

Carney, 24, was forced to squirm in his seat and wait until the votes from the final round were revealed as Wests Tigers captain Robbie Farah came within one point of joining him on stage. He was also named five-eighth of the year and winner of the Provan-Summons Medal, as voted by fans.

The Roosters’ fairytale was completed when Brian Smith was named coach of the year and Braith Anasta the captain.

“I was sitting in the pub watching it this time last year,” a stunned Carney said. “I didn’t watch a lot of football last year. I was a little bit bitter. It was something I didn’t like to do too much of.”

Asked if he had any ambition to be wearing the medal a year later, he said: “Not at all. To be crowned this, I’m still shocked.”

Farah needed to earn three points in the final match against the Titans last Friday night to finish on 27 points and share the award with Carney. He was given only two points by Brad Fittler. Dragons fullback Darius Boyd finished third on 25 points.

For Carney, the award capped a stunning turnaround. He was forced to play bush footy for the Atherton Roosters and pull beers in North Queensland last year after he was banished from the NRL after Canberra tore up his contract following a string of alcohol-fuelled indiscretions.

Fittingly, Carney’s mother Leanne was joined in the star-studded crowd by Mick Nasser, the Atherton rugby league club president and local publican who gave Carney a second chance when no one else would.