League: Tuivasa-Sheck, Thurston up for Golden Boot award

Johnathan Thurston is up for another award. Photo / Getty

Johnathan Thurston has the chance to again create history after being nominated for the Golden Boot award.

Never in the history of rugby league has a player won an NRL premiership and claimed the Dally M Medal, Clive Churchill Medal and Golden Boot for the world's best player in the same season.

Thurston could do just that after helping Queensland reclaim the State of Origin Shield and kicking the golden-point field goal that sealed North Queensland's first premiership, as well as being a runaway Dally M winner.

If he is to win the award he'll also become the first player to ever claim the boot more than twice following his previous wins in 2011 and 2013.

There's plenty of competition in his way though.

Roosters star Roger Tuivasa-Sheck is also up for the award after becoming the first player in recorded history to average more than 200 metres a game through an entire regular season.

"Roger's become a student of the game, which is why he's as good as he is," his Kiwi assistant coach Kelvin Wright said recently.

"He studies his game hard and then trains like a Ferrari all the time.

"There's no half-paced stuff with Roger, he's just full-tilt all the time."

Tuivasa-Sheck's opposite number in the current England-New Zealand Test series, Zak Hardaker, is the other contender.

Hardaker's 10 tries and 22 linebreaks helped carry the Leeds Rhinos to the English Super League premiership this year, while he also averaged 150 metres per game.

The 24-year-old was also constantly one of the hardest men to stop in the northern hemisphere, breaking through 109 tackles and setting up six tries during 2015.

- AAP