Super League / Ralph Ellis / 06 October 2009 / Leave a comment

Brett Hodgson was quite rightly named Rugby League's Man of Steel yesterday - but maybe they should create another award called Man of Granite and give it to Keiron Cunningham, writes Ralph Ellis.

"Cunningham played despite a broken hand during Saturday’s 14-10 win over Wigan to book his team’s place in Saturday’s Grand Final against Leeds Rhinos."

The real hard men of sport are not the ones who talk about it, but the ones who just get on and do it. And if you want an example of quiet courage in a top performer, then 32-year-old St Helens captain Keiron Cunningham provides it. I met him to do Betfair's Big Interview earlier this year, and have not come across a more modest super hero!

We were talking about the battering that his body gets week in and week out, and he dismissed it with no more than a bit of a shrug. "That's the game," he said. And a month or so later he was signing a contract to carry on taking those hits for another 12 months!

Just to prove the point he played despite a broken hand during Saturday's 14-10 win over Wigan to book his team's place in Saturday's Grand Final against Leeds Rhinos. And he'll be back on duty again at Old Trafford even though a series of scans could well tell him he'd be risking further injury to play.

"Keiron is having a scan but he'll play regardless of the results," says Saints coach Mick Potter today. "He'll be offered medical advice and whether he takes it up or not, that's Keiron. He's a pretty determined character."

Now I've talked before about my temptation to let an admiration for a sportsman I've met colour my views when deciding on a bet. But the last time I did it was when I backed Lee Westwood to finish in the top five at the US Open and that paid out very handsomely, thank you very much!

So this time I'm going to go with Keiron to reckon that Leeds' bid for a historic hat-trick of titles can be derailed. The Rhinos are [1.65] to win in normal time, and while they should be favourites that's far too short a price when two sides are as evenly matched.

Leeds, of course, have been in devastating form in the last couple of months to storm past their biggest rivals and finish top of the regular season table. But in their own quiet way, St Helens have been slowly putting their best form back together, and when you get to a Grand Final it starts coming down to tiny differences. In three meetings this season Saints have won twice - and will argue they only lost the most recent meeting in September because of a try that was awarded despite an outrageous forward pass.

In the early market the best value I can see is [4.0] for St Helens to win by less than 12.5 points. That makes sense because it will be tight, but I think Cunningham well find his broken hand is still strong enough to lift the trophy come Saturday night!

Five things you might not know about Keiron Cunningham

1. He's the youngest of 10 children - and was born five months after brother Eddie had won a Challenge Cup winners medal for St Helens

2. He was given a suspended ban and fined heavily for failing a drugs test in 2003. An unqualified dietician employed by the Great Britain team had given him the wrong supplement

3. He put his wife in charge of his own diet after that, and has been teetotal for the last six years

4. He qualifies to play for Wales through his grandfather, and has turned down offers to play rugby union for both Wales and England

5. Original plans to put up a statue of him in St Helens were thrown out after ex servicemen complained it would be too close to the town's war memorial. They've now chosen another site

Tags: Keiron Cunningham, Leeds Rhinos, Ralph Ellis, Rugby league betting odds, Rugby League Betting Tips, St Helens Rugby League, Super League Grand Final, Wigan Warriors