Another year over, another gong for arguably the best player in the world (very arguably - if you’re lining Cronk up against maestros the calibre of Johnathan Thurston and Cameron Smith, but we’ll park that debate for another day).

There can be no disputing of this calendar year’s top player world-wide when matching Cronk’s achievements against the award’s criteria. As the website Total Rugby League explains, the Golden Boot “recognises performances throughout the year at club and representative level, with particular emphasis being placed on internationals, where Cronk was one of Australia’s standout stars in their Four Nations triumph in November”.

At club level, Cronk orchestrated his team’s attack expertly enough to get the Storm to no less than the 2016 NRL Grand Final. He finished the season second in try assists behind only the aforementioned Thurston, and had more kicks in play than any other player; he also finished the season with the second Dally M Medal of his illustrious career.

At representative level, he enjoyed another blinding year in the halves with JT for the victorious Maroons, and was a standout organiser for the standout team across the recent Four Nations tournament.

A bit of background … the Golden Boot, just like the Dally Ms and the Immortals concept, is a rugby league award governed by a media outlet – Britain’s Rugby League World magazine. (The Golden Boot is not to be confused with the Rugby League International Federation’s International Player of the Year, which is judged by an international panel and which returned as a regular thing back in 2008.

With Australia back to dominating the code’s international scene, these days the only real mystery left as far as foreign bragging rights are concerned is this award, which, since 1984, has always caused a stir Down Under whenever one of our blokes doesn’t win it, and vice-versa in the United Kingdom.

You might remember the decision to award Leeds’ legendary loose forward Kevin Sinfield the gong over the Storm’s grand-final-winning Billy Slater in 2012, who played out of his skin all year and could’ve beaten a team of Englishmen on his own.

No one’s ever really satisfied unless a “neutral” Kiwi claims it, like Hugh McGahan did in 1987 (with Peter Sterling), Stacey Jones in 2002, Benji Marshall in 2010 and Shaun Johnson in 2014. Actually, that’s debateable - upon the announcement of the Johnson decision, plenty blew up deluxe about the Warriors half claiming it over top-form players such as Thurston, Jarryd Hayne, Sam Burgess and James Graham.