NRL announces 10 new Immortal candidates

DARREN Lockyer, Mal Meninga and Dragons legend Norm Provan are among 10 Immortal candidates, but only two players will earn the prestigious honour.

STAMPED in the paving alongside League Central, there catching the morning sun, are the names in the Australian Rugby League’s Team of the Century.

All eight Immortals, naturally, are among them.

In a time of fake news and alternative facts, of suspicion and ambition, the Immortals stand solid and certain.

They are without debate. The best of the very best, the men who changed everything.

Darren Lockyer and Mal Meninga are both nominees for the Immortals.

Fullbacks were essentially there for kick returns before Clive Churchill. Much like the modern day rugby union fullback.

It was Churchill who decided to run. The first to begin chiming into the backline to create the extra man.

Every fullback after that tried to play like Churchill.

Reg Gasnier had the gift of acceleration.

He made centre the most valuable position in the backline. That’s where you played your prince.

Johnny Raper was so good his talents transfer to today’s game. Exceptional at the one-percenters, with the talent on top to change the game in a moment. Statistically, his 1966 grand final performance is the greatest ever played.

Bob Fulton was fast and quick and busy. If you went looking for a player today that compares take Billy Slater and add 10 per cent. Okay, 20 per cent.

When the game needed to be won Fulton took the ball. He would be a fullback in the modern game.

They were the four original Immortals.

Another four have since been added — Graeme Langlands, Wally Lewis, Arthur Beetson and Andrew Johns — and on August 1 another two will potentially be added.

The 10 candidates have been named.

They are Dally Messenger, Frank Burge, Dave Brown, Brian Bevan, Duncan Hall, Norm Provan, Ken Irvine, Ron Coote, Mal Meninga and Darren Lockyer.

Herbert Henry "Dally" Messenger circa 1908. Picture: Ian Collis.

I was part of the screening committee to bring the list of 92 eligible players, all currently in the NRL Hall of Fame, down to 10 for consideration to be one of the next two Immortals.

It was difficult, but civil.

For instance, there is not a man alive who can say he saw Messenger play so how can you assess his merits against the hype? His credentials are the reports of the time, the wide held regard for him.

Of the 17 names imprinted in the pavers in front of League Central eight are already Immortals and eight of the remaining nine made are up for selection now.

The tough omission was the hooker in that team, Noel Kelly.

The two players who filled his space were Dave Brown and Lockyer.

Darren Lockyer was a superstar for the Broncos and Queensland. Picture: Jono Searle

Brown was called the Bradman of League. He missed the Team of the Century simply because of the availability of talent already in the centres.

Ahead of him were current Immortals Gasnier, Fulton and Langlands as well as Meninga, and five into two simply cannot go. But what a player.

Mal Meninga is up for selection among the Immortals.

Brown once scored 45 points in a game. It would be 50 in the four-point try era.

He led the Roosters to the 1935 premiership with 38 tries in 16 games, still an NRL record for tries in a season.

In defence of Brown ahead of Kelly, not every position had to be represented among the finalists, unlike a team. In that way, hookers could be compared against centres who could be compared against backrowers.

There is a common misunderstanding about the Immortals. It is not a democracy.

It is not about popularity or personality.

Statistics, someone once wrote, are the cut flowers of sport. At best they are a coaching aid, an accompaniment.

The Immortals began with the simple premise of naming the best rugby league players ever. Nothing outside their ability on the field, not their coaching record or boy scout badges or political persuasion was to be considered.

St George Norm Provan celebrates his tenth-straight premiership. Picture: Supplied

The four original judges locked themselves away in a room at the Wentworth Hotel in 1981 and were at a stalemate for eight hours before the deadlock broke.

The meeting went through the night.

This Immortals vote will be somewhat easier. No agreement is necessary. It won’t be voted on by committee, so will have no deadlock.

A 12-man panel meets July 31, the day before the grand ball where the six new Hall of Fame inductees will be announced and where the two Immortals will be named with more than a little ceremony.

Before they get there the 12 will spar for several hours before somebody calls uncle.

They will then leave one by one and pass by an iPad where they will enter their selections on a 3-2-1 basis, the two polling the most to be named.

There will be debate over this lot, but no defence of this particular group will be offered here. Their defence will be their talent.