Who is better, Meninga or Lewis?

[Green Eye]

Who is better, Meninga or Lewis?


WALLY LEWIS
First grade career:
Brisbane Valleys;
Wynnum-Manly;
Brisbane Broncos - 46 games;
Gold Coast;
Wakefield Trinity (1978-92)
Points: 102 (20t, 11g).

Representative Honours:
Australia (33 tests): 1981-1989, 1991;
State of Origin (Queensland, 31 games): 1980-1991.
Captained: Broncos 1988-1989;
Queensland 1981-1991; Australia 1984-1989.



MAL MENINGA
First grade career:
Southern Suburbs (Brisbane) 1979-85 - 109 games;
St Helens 1984-85 - 31 games;
Canberra Raiders 1986-94 - 166 games.
Total first grade games - 306

Premierships:
1981, 1985, 1989, 1990, 1994.

Grand final runner up:
1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1991.

Representative Honours:
Queensland - 32 State of Origins;
Australia - 45 Tests; Oceania.

Your thoughts?

 

[Mr Angry]

I cannot go past Wally, the best player I ever saw. Could control a match like no other and saved his best for the best. Meninga was a great player also but would not make my all time best side, Wally would.
3. R Gasiner
4. B Fulton
6. W Lewis
I follow the blues.
Different positions also, so hard to compare, I also think Gene Miles was a better player than Mal and he is more comparable as he was a centre, Brett Kenny another I would pick before Mal, so for me Mal would be centre number 5 - all time.
My thoughts anyway.

 

[Green Eye]

I'm not looking at playing position but more of leadership and success. I agree about your comments on Lewis but he wasn't the greatest club player. He did bring out the big guns for the right matches though.

 

[Mr Angry]

Point taken, and Meninga wins when looking @ premiership success. Wally was always Mals captain whenever they played together - it think that says a lot. Wally was a revelation at Wynnum. Meninga played alot more Sydney football and when Wally finally played NRL he was too busy fighting with Bennett.

 

[Mayor_Quimby]

Meninga for mine

 

[Tigertread]

Lewis by the length of the Eagle Farm straight.

 

[Green Eye]

I guess we could ask the question who is better as a players leader than Mal or Wally? Many hail Johns as a better captain but in comparison is he better than Mal or Wally? Is there someone else who is even better?

 

[Green Eye]

Maybe I should have called this forum "Who is the greatest rugby league player ever?" :lol:

 

[Mr Angry]

Johns is not a captains arsehole for mine same for Tallis- great players - probably the best we have now, but not what I consider great captains. The best captain I can think of is Clive Churchill, great player, great on field leader (Johns, Tallis and Wally go good here) and great off field leader (Johns, Tallis and Wally fail here for mine). Off Field duties are greated these days - granted - but I am sure Mr Churchill would have handle himself much better than the current crop.

 

[Green Eye]

I think it's a sign of the big $$$ game. Shame.

 

[Justme]

IMO Lewis, Meninga doesn't even come close.

As for leaders, one player that comes to mind is Steve Edge. Pretty ordinary player really but his success rate at both Saints and Eels was outstanding, don't know what he had but he certainly had something.

 

[legend]

I think Meninga because he dominated at every level whereas Wally was only good at state and international level. His club form was crap.

Mal toured as a Kangaroo four times, twice as captain. A record that will likely never be beaten. The only thing to elude Mal was a series win as Origin skipper.

It was also very rare Mal lost his spot to another player. Lewis lost his spot to Brett Kenny on the 82' tour and rightly so. Kenny is the most naturally gifted player I ever saw. But that's for another thread. :lol:

 

[Green Eye]

On ya Legend....


King Wally? I would hardly call him the king. Great player but he is no king. Not saying that title should go to Mal but IMHO Mal was a better player / leader / person than wally.

If I was to compare Wally to another sporting personality I would pick John McEnroe. Who's with me? ;-)

 

[legend]

Billie Jean King? :lol:

 

[Mr Angry]

I would agree there.

 

[bender]

Could all those suggesting that Wally was not successful at club level please list the bad games he actually played. Even going solely on his time at the Broncos, Lewis was still an outstanding club player who raised the level of his fellow teammates every time he played.

 

[legend]

There was a game in 1988 and Wally made the biggest.....

 

[Green Eye]

Bender,

Not suggesting that he was a terrible club player, far from it, but he wasn't as good a club player as he was a represetative player. It is a well documented fact. See bronconet or many other sites that tell the same story.

 

[Mystery Man]

It's a bit unfair to judge Wally's club form purely on the time he spent in the NSWRL (which I'm assuming a lot of people do). He spent the prime of his career playing for Valleys and Wynnum-Manly in Brisbane. Still, if my memory serves me correctly, he won the Dally M five-eighth of the year in his first season for the mighty Broncos (not that I place much faith in the Dally M's).

 

[iggy plop]

Wally Lewis was by far the best both as a leader and player. Mal was a bludger in the first half of his career, but blossomed 89-94.