NSW Waratahs and Wallabies flanker Michael Hooper has denied his champion Brumbies rival George Smith a record fifth Australian Super Rugby player of the year award.
Hooper was honoured with the major gong on Thursday, while NSW fullback Israel Folau provided further consolation for the Waratahs - who missed the finals after finishing behind the Brumbies and Queensland Reds - when he crowned a spectacular debut season in the code with the rookie of the year award.
Brumbies coach Jake White was named coach of the year after taking his team to the Super Rugby final.
Then-Wallabies coach Robbie Deans in May hailed 33-year-old Smith and 21-year-old Hooper as two once-in-a-generation openside flankers and, fittingly, the master and apprentice fought a season-long battle for Australia's Super Rugby player of the year award.
Hooper eventually finished four votes clear of Smith and joint runner-up Will Genia, Queensland's halfback general who won the award in 2011 and 2012.
Wallabies utility back James O'Connor finished fourth before being cut by the Melbourne Rebels, with Folau fifth in the overall count.
Hooper is the first Waratah to claim the coveted award since former NSW captain and fellow openside flanker Phil Waugh in 2001.
"Personally, I'm stoked," Hooper said.
"We obviously came up short for the Waratahs but put in some good performances.
"We did toil away at the start of the season and then start to get some dividends around the middle of the season but we've got to move on with the job next year."
Hooper, who joined the Waratahs from the Brumbies at the start of 2013, polled votes in nine rounds of the competition, including four man-of-the-match performances.
Trailing Smith into the final rounds, he picked up maximum votes against the Brumbies in round 14 to pull one point behind before overtaking his back-row rival with another man-of-the-match display against the Crusaders in round 16.
Hooper secured the title his with a two-point effort in the final round of the season against the Reds.
The comeback fairytale of the season, Smith was joint runner-up after delivering five man-of-the-match performances for the Brumbies before, ironically, consigning Hooper to the bench for the Wallabies' series-deciding loss to the British and Irish Lions in Sydney.
Smith was Australia's Super Rugby player of the year for four consecutive seasons from 2006 to 2009, when he left the Brumbies to presumably finish his grand career in Japan.
He answered an SOS call from coach White in March when the Brumbies lost David Pocock to a season-ending knee injury and duly helped the franchise to the finals for the first time in nine years.
Queensland's former Test fullback Chris Latham (2000, 2003, 2004 and 2005) is the only other player to have won Australia's Super Rugby player of the year award four times.
Folau was a revelation in his first season of Super Rugby, after switching codes for a second time after two years in the AFL and a hugely successful rugby league career.
The 24-year-old, who polled votes in six matches, including three man-of-the-match performances, was also NSW's leading tryscorer and became a dual international with Wallabies selection for the series against the British and Irish Lions.
White is a worthy coach of the year after transforming the Brumbies from competition also-rans to title contenders in the space of two seasons.
