BY STAFF WRITERS

 Tonight we will announce the winner of the 2018 Arthur Beetson Medal along with several other awards.

Our annual end-of-year award also has a funny knack of predicting the Dally M winner which is announced a few weeks later. Since our award began in 2012, only once has our winner not also gone on to win the Dally M.

2017: Cameron Smith

2016: Johnathan Thurston, Jason Taumalolo, Cooper Cronk

2015: Johnathan Thurston

2014: Johnathan Thurston, Jarryd Hayne

2013: Greg Inglis

2012: Ben Barba

Here are some more quick facts:

• Johnathan Thurston won three consecutive Arthur Beetson Medals.
• The Arthur Beetson Medal has been previously known as the Ultimate Sports Memorabilia Medal, Handyman Magazine Medal and the Steele Sports Medal.
• Before being replaced by Cooper Cronk at the Roosters – half Mitchell Pearce won both Halfback of the Year and our Roosters Player of the Year in 2017.
• The first ‘Utility MVP’ award was given out in 2017 to Parramatta’s Clint Gutherson.
• Shaun Johnson led the 2016 count with two rounds to play but was overrun by Jason Taumalolo, Johnathan Thurston and Cooper Cronk.
• Cameron Smith’s 2017 win was the largest margin since the award began in 2012. Smith won by 7 votes from Mitchell Pearce.
• Jason Taumalolo has won 7 individual awards including an Arthur Beetson Medal, positional awards in the Team of the Year and the Cowboys Player of the Year.