Augustus John Ferdinand Risman

Has Jean hacked your account?

Doesn't count if you're going on history books. We all know he's a Hall of Fame original.

Did you see him ? And at his peak ?

JONATHAN DAVIES

Robert Rawhiri Hunter Paul

Unfortunately the question is actually going to be answered as who is your favourite player.
If you like backs rather than forwards or have seen more of your team and not much international, or you watched a particular era, it will sway your view.

If we do it by stats then Neil Fox is a serious contender
If we do it by effectiveness at club level then Ellery is a leader too
If we look at Internationals then the Aussies would be in the lead from 80s through till now.

Personally, Wally Lewis is the most effective, driven and skillful player I've seen, both in person and on tv. He has the advantage of playing with some great players at a great time for his teams......but in his case he made the others function and look good, rather than him looking good because of his team mates.
It's probably not used much now but I can't think of anyone else who has a part of the game or skill named after him. For a long time through 80s and 90s, a "very" long pass was called a Wally Lewis pass.
He was exceptional.

Roger Millward

Genuine question, for those who remember, how good was Stevo?

Stevo was a superb hooker and played a game that was ahead of his time.
Good hands, scooted quite a lot, had some pace and a terrific defender.

He went to Penrith and was a revelation along with another England hooker who IMO was better than Stevo, John Gray. You almost never ever hear anything about Gray but he was the standout English import in Australia for a number of years.

A mark of just how good he was is that in 1982, the year of the Invincible Kangaroos captained by Manly hooker Max Krillich, John Gray won the Dally M Hooker of the Year in the Winfield Cup (NRL).

Was fun reading this old thread.

Why did Brett Kenny stop playing for Australia at such a relatively young age (26 ish)? Did he retire from internationals or was he just not selected?

Testament can be found when if there was even a hint of injury or hint of a rumour that Johns might be out of the team, all betting across Australia was suspended, when he played Newcastle were inevitably favourites if he was actually out they'd plummet to long odds at the drop of a hat, he was so dominant

Can i have some???

Interesting that Slater hasn't been mentioned and Smith only fleetingly. 2 brilliant played who when this thread is run again in 5 years will feature more prominently.

Smith may well take the mantle from Johns, he's the only one who can

People are mentioning a lot of players who are pure athletes & incredibly agile

Smith & Johns were / are pure footy players, both incredible students of the game, both have brains as well as all the weapons they need / needed to play their position or turn a game on its head

Thurston is a bees prick away from these two, as a half he hasn't got the strength & defence of Johns