I will, no doubt, be accused of bias when I say that Jamie Peacock is and has been the best front-rower in this year's Super League season.
Out of the three contenders for the man of steel awards in midweek – Peacock, Leon Pryce and James Graham – he would have been my choice.
But, having said that, I believe that Graham's season's work has been worthy of the coveted Man of Steel tit
le.
I was once told that a scientific study showed that people with ginger hair were, for some reason, less able to tolerate pain than those with other coloured hair.
Along with a large number of Scots, I'm sure Graham would disagree and, having played with and against him, so would I. he is definitely one of the toughest and one of the best in Super League at doing his job.
Graham also won an award for most metres made in a season earlier in the night, confirming his relentless strength and work rate.
At 23, Graham – who's known in the rugby league world as Jammer – is still relatively young for a leading position like prop-forward, a position which usually begins to mature when car insurance starts to go down after 25 years of age.
Earlier in the season, when the Saints were struggling with a string of injuries to their forward pack, I thought Graham carried them for the duration of their troubles while competing for around 80 minutes a week, which is immense for a front rower.
Saints won the majority of gongs on offer at the man of steel awards leaving the Super League trophy the only award left to win.
Of course, that made last night's Grand final at Old Trafford even more eagerly anticipated but given that at the time of writing it hadn't been played I'm hoping they didn't make it a clean sweep.
The full article contains 320 words and appears in Yorkshire Sport newspaper.
