Hunt comes up short in halfback of year vote

BEN Hunt appears to have paid the price for Brisbane's TV ratings popularity following claims he should have been named Dally M Halfback of the Year ahead of Manly No.7 Daly Cherry-Evans.

Hunt polled 28 votes to finish fifth to Johnathan Thurston and Jarryd Hayne in the first tie in Dally M Player of the Year voting, several more than Cherry-Evans during the season..

Yet when individual positions were announced, Hunt, who had a breakout season finishing ahead of Cherry-Evans in many key statistical categories, was overlooked - much to the amazement of Brisbane fans who bombarded the club's Red Hill switchboard with protest calls and demanding an explanation.

Because of its enormous ratings appeal for Channel 9 Brisbane played the majority of its games on Friday which were delayed into Sydney, clearly a disadvantage to Hunt as the panel of journalists which voted on the positional winners are Sydney-based.

Hunt and Cherry-Evans were part of Queensland's Origin series this year with Cherry-Evans filling in for Cooper Cronk in the second game against NSW.

Fox Sport conducted a poll today asking "who should have won halfback the year" with 80% of the 5000 votes for Hunt.

Thurston, meanwhile, confirmed his rating as one of the greatest players in history by joining immortal Andrew Johns as only the second three-time winner of the Dally M medal when he finished on 32 points alongside Hayne who took his medal tally to two, with many good years ahead to emulate Thurston and Johns.