The next Immortal- You Nomination and Why

I would like to see Joey Johns get it as he was a phenomenal player to watch.
I think Meninga would get it, with "Sticks" Proven 2nd.
I just wanted to add to Mal's acheivements. Does anyone remember his failed attempt at politics??? What was he thinking, especially if he's such a prickly character as most ppl have seen

1. Mal Meninga, no one beats big Mal, grew up watching him.
2. Darren Lockyer, Best player I have seen <---- Bozo was named an Immortal 2 years after retiring, I guess Locky might have a chance.
3. Norm Provan, 11 GF appearances and his image is on the trophy.

mischap123 said:

I would like to see Joey Johns get it as he was a phenomenal player to watch.
I think Meninga would get it, with "Sticks" Proven 2nd.
I just wanted to add to Mal's acheivements. Does anyone remember his failed attempt at politics??? What was he thinking, especially if he's such a prickly character as most ppl have seen

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I remember Mals political career...28 seconds it lasted best side step of his life.

Thinking of Mal, some of my greatest memories watching foot come from the Kangaroos Tour in 1990 I was lucky enough to be in the UK at the time, went to the first test at Wembley(amazing atmospher still gives me goose bumps) which we lost and boy did I cop heaps from the locals. The 2nd test...... the try Mal scored at the death where he supported Ricky Stuart bumping poms out of the way to get there in support to score the winning try was unbelievable, I remember the Aussies in the crowd stayed on singing Waltzing Matilda for 40 minutes after the game brilliant!

The 3rd test we got the King Wally back from injury and won convincingly. A picture from the paper ofMal lifting the trophy made it onto my desk wall at work which shut up the my pommy work mates for good.

I reckon they should induct him, Joey and Sticks why not they all deserve it.............Provan because how good must he have, not because he played in 10 winning grand finals from 1956-65, the last four as captain-coach but he managed to coach Cronulla to two grand finals and is the only coach at Cronulla to add silver ware to the trophyt cabinet guiding them to the AMCO cup victory

Andrew Johns was and is still over rated. Like to know how he supposedly single handedly changed the way the game is played ??? Norm Provan should be the next immortal for sure.

Mal Meninga without doubt.The dust needs to settle on Andrew Johns career a little longer before he is inducted although he is worthy. As for the older players I cannot comment as never watched their careers unfold like I did with Mal , Johns , Rogers & Fittler. Fittler is just one rung below Johns & Meninga whilst Rogers is probably about the same. As for the older players they should if worthy have been made immortal a long time ago.

Peter

In my mind there will only be one immortal. The late yet great Dallas Donnelly
Darren

Had the time to look at stats etc yesterday and found two more dark horses. If the Game is about briiliance and toughness: Ken Irvine was a Try Machine - brilliance and toughness- Johnny Sattler, missed continuing to Captain Australia's 1970 tour due to that broken jaw in the 1970 grand final. Graham Langlands went on to be Captain that year. Ken Irvine played 291 games for 275 tries. In that stat are 31 games for Australia for 33 tries, 16 seasons at club level(12 for bears+4 manly scored212 tries in 236 games and for NSW 28 tries in 23 games. Phenomenal in any era.

it's hard to say whether meninga got loose with his behaviour off the field, but this isnt part of the criteria so using this as a separation point between meninga and johns is just pissing in the wind. media scrutiny when meninga played had a lot different focus than it does today. and meninga being a policeman, i'm sure he would have learnt a few cover-up tactics from his old mate wb . just because nothing was reported, doesnt mean nothing happened

........ And unless you have some facts we could assume those others covered by your"blanket charactor assasination" just may have conducted their professional "onfield" careers within the boundaries of their respective eras.

didnt mean it to sound like a blanket character asassination, just saying who knows what happened back in the day. like i said, the media scrutiny is far greater during the johns era then through the meninga era

i can only comment on players past 1988/89. But if i was a judge Darren Lockyer, Mal Meninga and Andrew Johns would be immortalised. Darrens now retired and f$%k the 5 year rule or whatever it is put him in now. Andrew Johns, so he took drugs, dont care, he was awesome player, and as the madhatter wrote, big Mals records on paper says enough.
i would also have a hall of fame for players like alfie, fittler ,ET , cliffy Lyons, Gordon Tallis, Laurie Daly, Bradley Clyde, Steve Renouf, Lazarus, etc etc not immortals but need some sort of recognition.

Jack Rayner deserves a mention here:

194 Games for South Sydney (1946-57 [was capt/coach 1949-57])
16 Games for NSw
5 Games for Australia
Coached AND Captained FIVE Grand Final successes [two runners up] (the coaching record only beaten by Wayne Bennett). Would have been six in a row 1950-1955 except for, in his words, dodgy reffing in 1952 under controversial circumstances.

And this man was a NSW Cop when being a cop meant being true as the day is long.
He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word.
Jack Rayner was a man and player CLIVE CHURCHILL was in awe of.

Aside from the rules stipulating that the IMMORTAL status could only be ruled on on-field deeds and of players the judge had seen - hence no Dally Messenger, George Treweek, Dave Brown, Harold Horder... I still think some men carry themselves far and away higher ON and OFF the field than some proposed selections.

Ken Irvine, Ron Coote, Mick Cronin, Norm Provan, Mal Meninga, Peter Sterling are up there with the GREATS. Perhaps that is why I'd prefer the HALL OF FAME thing more than a select group. And anyway, who says Wally was better than Lockyer, etc. I'd prefer to honour ALL of them in some way. I don't even like team of the decade type things, because it's purely subjective.

It's funny, someone once said that when John Raper retired, there'd never be a better lock. But then we got Ron Coote. After he retired, the same was said again, and we got Ray Price. When Ray retired, there was the same chatter and we had Wayne Pearce, then Bradley Clyde... All marvellous, popular and GREAT lock forwards who dominated their era.

That's the beauty of footy cards. I have years and years of memories attached to each player. To have seen Blocker Roach, Benny Elias and Wayne Pearce for Balmain, and JT, Flo, Billy Moore, Larson and Fairleigh for the Bears or Clyde, Daley, Stuart, Meninga, Ferguson and Belcher
for the GREEN MACHINE, Brandy and Freddie and MG and Royce Simmons for PENRITH, or ET and Miller and Sparkles down in the Shire, or Langer, Walters, Renoulf, Carne, Lazarus and co in the buckin' Broncos, or Mini, Fitzy, Morley, Fittler for the chooks circa 2000-2004 or the Dogs of War, or Sterlo, Cronin, Price, Kenny, Ella and Grothe at Para or Smith, Cronk, Slater, Inglis at Melbourne...there are delicious memories of superstar teams and brilliant, breathtaking players. There's heaps to love, remember and cherish about RL.

Naming an Immortal...sure, it's fun and sells RLWs...but the enduring qualities, deeds and battles of RL is what should live on and on and on in my mind.


If they really, really want another Immortal...I would go Coote, Provan and Meninga.

Andrew Johns was brilliant, but like a lot of heroes, he let me down. And let's face it, for the first half of his career, he could never get the starter's 7 jersey in SoO NSW and Australia. If he was that dominant, you'd think it was his, and his alone. Yes...he was a brilliant player. AND I WILL NEVER FORGET THE LAST 10 SECONDS ON THE 1997 Grand Final without getting hairs rising on the back of my neck. But...I don't think he's the ants pants.

All of you Johns haters are nuts. Onfield he had no weaknesses, made everyone around him better and turned nobodys into origin players.
Easily the best player i have ever seen.

I never said I hated him, if the comment was directed at me in any way.

I just think there are better candidates in front of him.

I don't hate Johns either, in fact far from it, he was a good footballer. He was the NRL's golden haired boy and everyone ran with it. Just like they are now with Benji Marshall who in my opinion is very much overrated. I just think Norm Provan deserves to be named an immortal at this time. But can someone tell me why the judging panel consists of people like Ray Hadley & David Middleton and not all ex players ???

Hadley has been calling league for over 20 years. He knows his stuff (even if plenty dont like him) and Middleton knows everything there is to know about league.

In the US the hall of fame is voted in by writers/commentators etc. I think thats what they are trying to do with this.

If you want to see Johns impact on the game you only have to look at how they kick it off these days. He perfected the spiraling kick.

I personally would liek to see Provan or Coote as the next Immortal. but realistically it would be either Mal or Joey. the voting panel is also made up off Ray Warren and Wayne Bennett

I would like to see the panel consist of all ex players as i think it gives it more credence. Middleton should just be there to provide stats and not vote. Hadley...well what has he ever done on a football field and as much as everyone likes Rabs he should be left out as well. Here's an idea...why don't they just let the surviving immortals make up the selection panel. I think they should have the say of who joins them at that status.

I remember late in Johns' career they started recording try assists and he was about double anyone else in the comp.

The argument that he didn't play halfback in rep sides early in his career is such rubbish. He played halfback in 1996 in Origin in attack, and hooker in defence, but was named at hooker. This was because Toovey couldn't handle defending at hooker (understandable, he was a small guy).

2000 he came back from injury midway through the series and the selectors didn't take the halfback spot off Kimmorley, as NSW won match one. But look at Johns' performance off the bench in games two - he was totally dominant and broke the game open. One of the greatest unsung Origin performances of all time.

It's Johns all the way for me. Even with his off-field stuff, if that did count for anything, he has done his best to make amends for all that he's done wrong, and you have to give him credit for that.

Toovey couldn't handle defending at hooker....hahaha. I remember Toovey once picking up Meninga and dumping him on his back. One of the best defenders for a small man i've seen. As for the Johns try assist count, he could have passed the ball from a scrum and then gone through 6 sets of hands and they would still call it a try assist.