His team may have finished with the wooden spoon but Sydney Roosters skipper Craig Fitzgibbon bowed out of the NRL a winner when he claimed a record fourth club player of the year award on Wednesday night.
Fitzgibbon, who departs Bondi Junction bound for English Super League club Hull, became the first player to claim four Jack Gibson Medals, after also winning in 2001, 2002 and 2006.
The 32-year-old edged out Sam Perrett and Mitchell Pearce to take this year's award in an emotional night for the club legend, who also won the clubman of the year award.
John Gibson, son of Jack, was on hand to present the award and spoke of his respect for Fitzgibbon, who has been with the Roosters for 10 seasons.
Fitzgibbon joins Shane Shackleton, Mark O'Meley and Sia Soliola in leaving the Roosters this season.
In other awards, Jacob Miller won the junior representative player of the year award and Isaac Maliota won the National Youth Competition player of the year award.
Meanwhile, Canberra Raiders duo Josh Miller and Josh Dugan were named joint winners of the 2009 Meninga Medal.
Dugan becomes the third player to win the Raiders' player of the year in his debut NRL season alongside Rick Stuart (1988) and Mark McLinden (1998), while Miller takes home his second player of the year award and his second joint award after sharing it with Troy Thompson in 2005.
Both players had fantastic seasons for the Green Machine in 2009, with Miller leading the Raiders forward pack with his trademark hard running and fearless defence, while Dugan has injected his class into the Raiders backline from fullback.
In one of the closest contests to date the Meninga Medal was decided in the very last round, with both Dugan and Miller polling points against the Broncos at Suncorp Stadium.
Miller went into the last round with a two-point lead on 17 votes, two clear of Dugan, but a man-of-the-match performance from the rookie gave him three votes in the last round with Miller getting one vote to force a tie.
It capped of a memorable night for Dugan as he also collected the rookie of the year award, just clear of Jarrod Croker.
Bronson Harrison collected the NRL coach's award for his debut season in the Raiders back row.