Sign up now!!!<\/a><\/p>\nWhyte was the best prop forward in the world this year. Picture: Matt King\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
He set career highs in all the major categories and was rewarded in the Dally M Team of the Year.<\/p>\n
But the personal highlight was winning the prestigious Jack Gibson Medal as the best player at the Roosters in 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means everything to me,\u201d he said, with skipper James Tedesco winning it seven times in the past eight years, while Lindsay Collins got it in 2023. <\/p>\n
\u201cThroughout the five years I\u2019ve been there, I\u2019ve just been seeing Teddy and Lindsay go up there. <\/p>\n
\u201cI always kept it at the back of my mind that I wish I won this one day. To hear my name get called out on Wednesday night was special for me and it\u2019s definitely a moment I won\u2019t forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whyte and Tedesco were the two best players in the grand final, but the superstar forward says club relationships will mean nothing in Thursday night\u2019s World Cup opener.<\/p>\n
Tedesco and halfback Sam Walker deserve to be picked in the Australian squad where they\u2019ll go up against their Roosters teammate, with Whyte set to run out alongside Kalyn Ponga and Dane Gagai who were Newcastle rivals in the grand final. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are my brothers now. We\u2019re all done now, the NRL stage at club land is finished, and I come in with a new crop of brothers,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n
Inside the Roosters sheds after GF win! | 12:03<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter who you are \u2013 Teddy, Sammy \u2013 if you\u2019re running at me or I\u2019m running at you, I don\u2019t see you as my mate. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just the mentality that we carry as NRL players, and we know how to flick that switch when it comes to being brothers and then being rivals. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy because we were in the same team together \u2013 me, Teddy, and Sammy \u2013 just a couple of days ago, and now I\u2019m on the same team with Kalyn and Dane. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s just how footy is sometimes. That\u2019s life, and it\u2019s war when we cross those white lines. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not the type to feel sorry for you on that field. I know I played alongside you the whole year, but especially when it comes to representing your country, it\u2019s different. I know they\u2019ll be thinking the exact same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spencer Leniu revealed his future plans with a cryptic comment last month to Roosters teammate Naufahu Whyte when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":627970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-627969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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