Rugby League’s top 5 biggest wastes of talent

TOGETHER they have won three NRL premierships and a Challenge Cup final, played 20 Tests and 29 Origin matches and been responsible for some superb moments of rugby league. Yet for all that they will be remembered more for wasted opportunity.

BEN Barba has joined two exclusive clubs in the matter of a few weeks.

Following a sensational season in which he appeared to have exorcised his off-field demons, he joined the honour roll of first grade rugby league premiership winners.

Now, after testing positive to cocaine for a second time in 12 months, just days after the Cronulla Sharks’ maiden grand final win, he finds himself on another, less illustrious list: Rugby league’s top 5 biggest wastes of talent.

It is a list that is in no particular order. There is no winner here, they are all losers in some way: born with enormous talent and limitless potential, for one reason or another, they have squandered it all.

Together they have won three NRL premierships and a Challenge Cup final, played 20 Tests and 29 Origin matches and been responsible for some superb moments of rugby league. Yet for all that they will be remembered more for wasted opportunity and hopeless decision-making.

They could have all been so much more and really, that’s just a crying shame.

So, for better and much worse, here they are:

1. Ben Barba A sensation for the Bulldogs in Jersey Flegg and Toyota Cup, Barba was brought into first grade for the final three matches of the 2008 season. The next year he started the season in the top grade, but lasted only three games before being dropped to NSW Cup for the next 15 weeks after being involved in a drunken brawl with two teammates.

By 2012 he had established himself as one of the most exciting players in the game. The top tryscorer in the NRL with 22 tries in 27 games, he won the competition’s highest honour, the Dally M Medal.

Ben Barba celebrates scoring a try during the 2016 NRL final. Picture: Gregg Porteous

The next year it all imploded, with Barba stood down by the Bulldogs indefinitely for “behavioural issues and breaches of the club’s code of conduct” amid allegations of domestic violence for which he was never charged and gambling issues.

After a poor 2014 at the Brisbane Broncos he was let go by incoming coach Wayne Bennett and joined the Sharks, where it appeared he had his career and life back on track before his latest fall from grace.

2. Todd Carney He had the potential to be one of the Canberra Raiders’ homegrown greats alongside the likes of Ricky Stuart, Laurie Daley and Glenn Lazarus. Instead he has become a cautionary tale. Where to start? Carney made his first grade debut in 2004 at the age of 17. In 2006 he was chosen as captain of the Junior Kangaroos, but later that year he was found guilty of drink-driving and driving recklessly, for which his licence was suspended for five years. It was the first of a litany of driving and other offences which have included allegations of urinating on a man in a nightclub, setting another man’s trousers on fire, and urinating into his own mouth.

Todd Carney played last season with the Catalans Dragons.

Interspersed with on-field brilliance that saw him play for NSW and Australian and win the 2010 Dally M, he has been sacked by four clubs and even banned from entering his home town of Goulburn.

After being shown the door by the Raiders, Roosters and Sharks and deregistered by the NRL, he moved to France to resurrect his career with the Catalans Dragons, but was released from his contract at the end of last season and is currently without a team.

3. Julian O’Neill Losing both his parents at an early age, O’Neill turned down a $40,000 offer from the Bulldogs to sign a contract with the Brisbane Broncos. A champion schoolboy athlete at both rugby league and cricket, he played fullback in both of Brisbane’s first two premiership wins in 1992-93. He also played in a winning Challenge Cup final for Wigan and represented

Julian O'Neill playing for the Cowboys in 2000. Picture: Andrew Campbell

Queensland and Australia but his on-field achievements were overshadowed by a succession of off-field incidents that saw him sacked by clubs in Australian and England.

Most notable were numerous drink driving charges, an allegation of urinating under a table at the Gold Coast’s Jupiter’s Casino, trying to set fire to dolphin suit being worn by a 13-year-old boy during a river cruise (and diving overboard in his underpants to avoid apprehension) and, infamously, defecating in the shoe of a South Sydney teammate during a pre-season tour.

4. David Taylor The ‘Coaltrain’ first came to public attention when newspaper stories revealed there was a member of the Australian Schoolboys rugby league team who was bigger than most first grade front rowers and had the ball skills of a five-eighth. He signed with the Broncos in 2006 despite having been sponsored by the Cowboys throughout his junior career in North Queensland.

Dave Taylor training with the Titans. Picture: Jerad Williams

Under the coaching of Wayne Bennett and nurtured by the Broncos organisation the young giant was tipped to become one of the biggest names in the game. It was not to be. Taylor played just 45 times for Brisbane before leaving to join first South Sydney and then the Gold Coast. While he played eight times for the Maroons and once for Australia, Taylor remained an enigma; a player with the size and skill to be anything, but who more often than not gave the appearance of disinterest. In 2016 he joined French Super League club Catalans Dragons but lasted only a season before being released from his contract for undisclosed reasons. He has been offered a trial with the Canberra Raiders but whether it is sanctioned by the NRL may depend on the outcome of an upcoming court appearance regarding allegations of cocaine use during his time with the Titans.

5. Les Boyd A quietly-spoken, polite young man off the field, Les Boyd turned into a wrecking-ball once he stepped over the white line. Almost unstoppable on his day — his Manly teammate Paul Vautin likened him to “watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon” after one destructive performance against Penrith in the 1980s — he was one of the best players in the game when he stayed within the rules. Trouble was, with his eyes spinning like poker machines and his blood boiling, rules were the last thing on his mind. In nine seasons of Sydney first grade he was sent off eight times and suspended a total of 138 weeks.

Les Boyd was one of the best players in the game when he stayed within the rules.

His elbow to the jaw of Darryl Brohman — smashing it in three places — in Game 1, 1983 is regarded as the most shocking moment in Origin history. It earned him a 12 month suspension. On his return he was banned a further 15 months for eye-gouging Bulldogs hooker Billy Johnstone. It was the final straw for Boyd in top flight Australian rugby league. He finished his professional career in England before returning to play for his local club at Cootamundra well into his 30s.