1 IT'S SOAP OPERA. Rugby league is Gone With The Wind meets Home And Away. No one writes the script but every day there is a different chapter, so unbelievable no Hollywood script writer could dream it.
2 GRAND FINAL ENTERTAINMENT STUFF-UPS. From skydivers landing on the stadium roof to giant, collapsing TV sets and soundless Billy Idols. Classic.
3 BIG HITS. From Mark Carroll colliding with Paul Harragon to Sonny Bill Williams shoulder-charging Joel Clinton, the clash of the big men is one of the game's great sights.
4 THE ETHOS OF TEAMWORK. Good clubs don't care who gets the credit, bad clubs only worry who gets the blame.
5 ANDREW JOHNS. Joey was a joy to watch as he revolutionised the game with brilliant passing and kicking. There are many highlights but his Origin comeback to help NSW to a series win in 2005 stands out as does his performance in Newcastle's 1998 finals-series clash with the Bulldogs. There are plenty of brilliant footballers but only the very great can dominate in a beaten side.
6 BENJI'S SIDESTEP, SONNY BILL'S SHOULDER CHARGE AND MATT GIDLEY'S FLICK PASS. Every time they produce one of their trademark feats, these three players bring the crowd to their feet and you can't help but applaud. More please!
7 WEDGIES. Jason Stevens was a master at grabbing an opposition player's shorts and pulling them upwards as hard as he could - but John Hopoate took the practice to a new level.
8 RETRO JERSEYS. The Newtown Jets haven't played in the elite competition for more than 20 years but their jerseys are now more fashionable than ever. Ditto the 1980s jumpers worn by Balmain, Western Suburbs, Parramatta, Canterbury, Cronulla and even the Illawarra Steelers.
9 MEAT PIES. The quality can vary from venue to venue, but the taste is not the main thing. It's the right we all have as footy fans to devour a dog's eye covered in dead horse and then dribble a bit of it down our shirts as we cheer a mid-bite try.
10 ITS HUMILITY. Former Kangaroos hooker Frank Johnson often said: "Never expect anything from rugby league and you'll never be disappointed."
11 MAL MENINGA GOING INTO POLITICS. OK, so it wasn't on the field and he had left the sport, but it's still pretty memorable. The former Australia and Canberra Raiders captain went on ABC breakfast radio to formally declare he would be an independent candidate for the 2001 ACT election. It was just another radio interview - but it was when Mal realised he wasn't going to cut it as a politician. Seconds after it began, he came to a halt. "I'm buggered. I'm sorry, I have to resign," he said, then exited the studio.
12 ROY MASTERS. The longest-serving St George coach, Western Suburbs' Coach of the Century and one of Australia's best sports writers. As Magpies coach in 1979, Roy introduced class warfare - and other mayhem - to rugby league. Les Boyd, nicknamed "the baby-faced assassin" because of his role as one of the main characters in the famous Fibros v Silvertails feud, later said: "I didn't believe all that stuff that Roy was telling us but I made myself believe it."
13 STEVE BOWDEN v MARK BROADHURST. Bowden's destruction of Broadhurst in the Newtown-Manly minor semi-final in 1981 is up there with the best.
14 MARK RIDDELL'S DRINKING CONFESSION. In an era when most professional footballers treat their bodies like temples, Riddell proved he'd busted the modern-day norm when he revealed his penchant for beer and bourbon. In 2003, an overweight Riddell confessed to Dragons officials that he regularly drank about 40 schooners a week. "At least you're being totally honest, a lot of players wouldn't be that honest," the officials said. "Well, if we're being totally honest," Riddell said, "I probably have about 40 bourbons as well."
15 FRANK HYDE. Before free-to-air and pay TV, the only way to tune into a game live if you couldn't get to the ground was on the radio. And one Francis Aloysius Hyde, made listening to a game a regularly memorable event. Calling the matches for 2SM from a card table on the sideline, Frank also made you feel as though you were close to the action, and his trademark "It's long enough, it's high enough and it's straight between the posts" became as much a part of the game as its stars.
16 PAPUA NEW GUINEA. The only country in the world with rugby league as its national sport. When the Kangaroos play in PNG, they are met at the airport by hordes of fans just wanting to get a glimpse of them, the grounds are never big enough to accommodate the crowds and afterwards supporters chase the team bus.
17 THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE PLAYER. Despite full-time training, big money and coaches cocooning their teams from the public, the intrinsic character of the player has not changed.
18 PARKES RUGBY LEAGUE TEAM. The Parkes Spacemen is a great name for a team, but their junior team's moniker of the Space Cadets is inspired. Honourable mentions go to the Maitland Pumpkin Pickers, the Thirroul Butchers, the Warilla Gorillas, the Augathella Meat Ants, the Woolgoolga Seahorses, the Bombaderry Swamp Rats, the Binnaway Bombshells, the Dapto Canaries and the Grafton Corruption (a touch footy team but we like the name).
19 HAZEM EL MASRI. Born in war-torn Lebanon, Hazem's family fled to Sydney and we're sure glad they did. Not only is he perhaps the best goalkicker league has produced, El Masri is an ambassador for the game and a great role model for all Australians.
20 ITS LANGUAGE, RICH IN MALAPROPS. The word was invented for the code. Malaprop? No, the Canberra champion was a centre, although he did play one Test as a second-rower.
21 IF IT'S NOT WORKING, THEY'LL CHANGE THE RULES. One hundred years ago, rugby league addressed the problem of too many men on the field and 50 years ago threw out the one-yard rule, still practised in rugby union today. League is constantly willing to examine itself and develop. Consequently, it has remained a constantly adapting spectacle.
22 DALLY MESSENGER. The first superstar of rugby league.
23 THE 1997 ARL GRAND FINAL. Even if Andrew Johns didn't put Darren Albert over for the match-winning try on full-time, the sight of Knights fans lining the streets of Newcastle to farewell their team the day before and then following them down the F3 in a convoy to the SFS would still be worth savouring.
24 OTHER GREAT GRAND FINALS. There's nothing better than sitting around at a barbecue with your mates and family watching the season decider. Among the great grand finals were - 1997, Newcastle 22 Manly 16 (see 23); 1989, Canberra 19 Balmain 14; 2003, Penrith 18 Sydney Roosters 6; 1973, Manly 10 Cronulla 7; 1971, South Sydney 16 St George 10; 1969, Balmain 11 South Sydney 2; 1977, Parramatta 9 St George 9; 1941, St George 31 Eastern Suburbs 14; 1943, Newtown 34 North Sydney 7.
25 'I JUST SHAT IN SCHLOSSY'S SHOE.' Julian O'Neill's famous comment to a teammate after Souths players trashed a Dubbo hotel room in 1999. Needless to say, Jeremy Schloss threw out the shoes. It was just one of many incidents O'Neill is infamous for, including being arrested after he had skipped court by a vigilant London bobby who had seen him collect a man-of-the-match award on TV. He also once tried to set fire to a dolphin mascot.
26 WESTERN REDS. One of four expansion clubs to debut in 1995, along with Auckland, North Queensland and South Queensland, the Reds produced a memorable performance in March 1995, in their opening game in the competition against St George, at the WACA Ground. A record crowd of 24,392 turned out to watch their new team beat the Dragons 28-16, with the Reds the only expansion team to get a win that weekend.
27 DON McKINNON. The Manly prop was caught on live television taking a leak on the Lang Park turf during the Brisbane Broncos' debut game in 1988. McKinnon explained later: "I'd drunk about five litres of Staminade before we went out because it was a hot day and all the trainers were saying to get plenty of fluids into you. I got plenty into me all right, the only problem was I had to get rid of some."
28 THE CURSE OF NORTH SYDNEY OVAL. They may no longer be in the NRL but Norths showed in last year's premier league grand final that they still know how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's something Bears supporters have had to endure since 1922. Even the way their planned relocation to Gosford ended with them going broke before they got there was so typical of the club. Still on North Sydney Oval, former Bears chairman Ray Beattie once said of the old ground: "It's like an antique rocking chair - beautiful to look at but hard to sit in."
29 MICKEY LANE. Nowadays clubs have no hesitation about announcing mid-season signings, but things were a lot more cloak and dagger in the past. In 1977, St George coach Harry Bath was keen to sign a young back from Brisbane. The problem was the player was locked in negotiations with his Queensland club. So the Dragons decided to keep things quiet, and played the youngster in their pre-season trial match at Grafton, using the name Mickey Lane. The player was recognised and fined $500, but he did sign with St George in 1978, and went on to be the club's leading tryscorer in 1979. Mickey Lane aka Mitch Brennan.
30 WALLY LEWIS. Without The King, State of Origin wouldn't be what it is today. The memories of his magic for Queensland still hurts Cockroaches everywhere.
31 STEVE GEARIN'S TRY IN THE 1980 GRAND FINAL. It didn't matter whether you supported Canterbury or not, Gearin's try against Easts was a magical moment. The Dogs were chasing their first grand final since 1942, and had the game wrapped up, leading 13-4 with just over five minutes to play. Fullback Greg Brentnall had been put into a gap near halfway and decided to put up a towering bomb on the run. Gearin weaved past defenders on his chase and, as the ball finally came down, he caught it on the run as the tryline arrived.
32 ERIC SIMMS. On July 27, 1969, Souths were doing a job on Penrith. But what made this game a little different was that not only were the dominant Souths team keen to win, they were also looking for every chance they could to help Simms break the pointscoring record set by Dave Brown in 1935. Whenever an opportunity arose, Souths would spin the ball to Simms, who would take a pot shot at field goal, worth two points in those days. At full-time, Souths had won 40-18, and Simms had nailed five field goals, still a record. He kicked 19 field goals that season and went on to break Brown's mark with 265 points.
33 TV TED ELLERY: THE AMCO CUP AND WESTERN DIVISION. In 1974 a bunch of country players, led by "TV" Ted Ellery, and a future Kangaroo in Terry Fahey, played in the midweek competition representing Western Division. They knocked over Auckland, stunned Canterbury, and then playing "at home" in Orange, defied all odds by defeating the reigning premiers Manly on a penalty countback after scores were locked at 12-12 at full-time. Two weeks later they beat Penrith 6-2 in the final to complete an amazing footy fairytale.
34 THE MAN IN THE BOWLER HAT. Imagine if one of the Kangaroos had walked down the street of Ilkley wearing nothing but a bowler hat as John Raper allegedly did in 1967. Although Raper used a bowler hat as his trademark, it was Balmain forward Dennis Manteit who had actually performed the deed.
35 THE MacDOUGALL BROTHERS. There have been plenty of brothers to play league but none have attracted has many headlines as the MacDougalls. The brothers have always played close to the action. Except when they ran, with Scott suspended for eight months after declining a drugs test, ripping off his jumper, jumping the fence and disappearing into bushland wearing only shorts, socks and footy boots. And they call Adam "Mad Dog". This season he and Luke will line up with Newcastle, while Ben returns to Melbourne.
36 LES MARA. For most of its first 100 years, rugby league suffered through its inability to tap into the Latin market - and then along came Mara. Like most old league players Mara suffered from breathing difficulties as a consequence of repeated broken noses. Unlike most old league players, Mara turned to the marching powder to clear the blockages and is now spending many years at the Governor's pleasure.
37 REG REAGAN. Matthew Johns's alter ego first emerged publicly in a 2000 match report after the Knights star, struggling to come to terms with the fact he hadn't been offered a new contract, told the Herald he had instead sent Reg - a late 1970s character, who hates sunscreen, smokes Winfield reds and drinks KB - to play in his place against North Queensland. "When I don't feel like coming to training and playing, I just lay in bed and send him [Reagan] along," he said. Since then, Reagan has gone on to become much more than just a legend in his own mind.
38 MAD MONDAY. After a bruising season, what better way to mark the end of the campaign than for the players to don their mothers' dresses, gather at the local and get absolutely blind. One of our favourite end-of-season costumes was worn by Craig Gower, who celebrated Penrith's 2003 grand final triumph by dressing as a home boy.
39 MUD. Once upon a time, before curators got all clever and built their fields on sand with proper drainage, when it rained football was a whole different ball game. Dirt was transformed from a solid to a fluid and wingers ran like they were wearing gumboots and, 15 minutes in, everyone's jumper was the same colour.
40 INDIGENOUS PLAYERS. For their toughness and skill. Take a bow Artie Beetson, Greg Inglis, Ian Russell, Phil Duke, Larry Corowa, Ricky Walford, Matt Bowen, Johnathan Thurston, David Peachey, Steve Ella, John "Chicka" Ferguson, Steve Renouf, Anthony Mundine, Cliff Lyons, Mal Meninga, Nathan Blacklock, Ewan McGrady, Dean Widders and co.
41 MAX MANNIX. He may not rate as highly as Chris Anderson, Daryl Halligan, Hazem El Masri or other great Bulldogs wingers but Max Mannix will always have his place in folklore after an incident in his club's clash with St George in 1984. Mannix made a break, charged 80 metres down the sideline, and without an opposition player within cooee, he launched into a swandive to score. Problem was in mid-air, Mannix, fumbled the ball and it spilt to the ground.
42 NEWTOWN 0 CANTERBURY 0. In a rain-soaked match in 1982 the Jets and the Bulldogs slugged it out for 80 minutes with no points. As Newtown coach Warren Ryan dead-panned after the game: "The better side drew."
43 VALUE FOR MONEY. The athletes who play league get paid peanuts compared to their ability.
44 STATE OF ORIGIN. Since Arthur Beetson put one on the chin of his Parramatta team-mate Mick Cronin in the very first Origin in 1980, the annual series has been a highlight of the league calendar. Remarkably, after 81 matches, Queensland have won just one more than NSW in what is the game's fiercest rivalry.
45 IT IS THE BLUE-COLLAR GAME AND NOT THE LEATHER PATCH GAME. It's hard to play a game in heaven when you don't believe in heaven.
46 REFEREES. Without them, the game would be chaos and we wouldn't have had Bob Fulton threatening to run over Bill Harrigan with a cement truck or Gorden Tallis being sent off for calling the same whistleblower a "f---ing cheat". Greg Hartley was another controversial referee and will forever be remember for awarding Manly seven tackles in the lead-up to a try in their 1978 finals-series win over Parramatta, while former Wests great Arthur Summons is still dirty about the refereeing in the 1963 premiership decider. Asked at Thursday night's centenary season about the trialling of two referees on the field, Summons said: "I reckon one is one too many."
47 FANS. Without them, it would just be another game. Some, like Laurie Nichols, The Mad Butcher, Parramatta Jesus and The Phantom Siren, have become synonymous with their teams.
48 ANTHONY MUNDINE AND NATHAN BLACKLOCK. The Dragons may never have won a premiership when they played, but geez they were fun to watch. With Mundine's creativity and Blacklock's speed, the pair either scored or were involved in most of their team's tries during the late 1990s and they often capped them off with somersault, backflips and even a dance.
49 SIMPLY THE BEST. The advertising campaign starring the sexy, sassy Tina Turner was so good that two decades on the NRL considered bringing it back. The Hoodoo Gurus "That's My Team" was a cracker, too.
50 MANFRED MOORE. Former NFL player Manfred Moore was brought to Australia to play with Newtown in 1977. He had some success scoring a few tries and bringing much publicity to the team. But it was an incident at half-time of his first game at Henson Park in March 1977 which will live on as one of the rare memories in league. As the players made their way off the field to the sheds for the half-time break, Newtown secretary Frank Farrington approached Moore with two footballs under his arms, telling him he wanted them tossed over the grandstand American football style. Moore wasn't a quarterback but, with coaxing, he gave it a shot. The first one fell into the stand. However, the second, to the roars of the crowd, sailed right over the stand.