LU penrith Panthers all time 17 - nominations for Lock

[soc123_au]

This one for me will go to Lewis, but there is plenty of other worthy options. Freddy, Vandervoort, Sattler, Taylor, Mortimer. Who else have you got?

 

[Pomoz]

Van Der Voort - high work rate, fearless, injury prone, limited ball skills, tackling machine, slow
Sattler - skilful, fast, medium work rate, good tackler, skilful
Lewis - good work rate, skilful, fast, fearless, try scorer, injury prone, excellent tackler
Freddy - already at 5/8th but the best lock we have had. Could do it all, tackle, pass, score, kick
Taylor - too soon, but an awesome player. Like to see him score more, but 50 tackles a game does take the juice out of the legs
Waterhouse - Strong, fast, offloading machine, good tackler, medium work rate, try scorer, could find a gap and break the line. Great player.

An old timer will have to nominate locks before 84, all the others I have seen with my own eyes. Purtell, Nathan Smith, Burns and Gualavo have all played there as well. Nathan Smith tried hard and always gave 100% but isn't in the same class as the others.

I will ignore Freddy and assume he is 5/8th but I would rank them as:

1. Lewis
2. Waterhouse
3. Sattler
4. Van Der Voort

Van Der Voort is the only one who didn't play SOO. Mind you, he had Bradley Clyde in front of him. Lewis and Waterhouse played for Australia.

 

[soc123_au]

I cant believe I missed Waterhouse.

Freddy & Preston are tied for 5/8th at the moment. He will be included in the poll & if he wins multiple spots then we will have a 2nd poll to determine his position.

 

[Panther Mick]

Van Der Voort is the only one who didn't play SOO. Mind you, he had Bradley Clyde in front of him. Lewis and Waterhouse played for Australia.

Van der voort from memory was ruled out of the NSW side through injury. It was 2 years it happened to him 91 and 93 I Think. He also was in contention to play for Australia until his knee gave way in 1990.
He had alot of injuries throughout his career, had he got a lucky break I believe he could have become a fixture in representative sides.

 

[Pomoz]

One of the reasons Freddie was such a great player is that he was so durable. In 1991 he had his appendix out two weeks before the grand final. Poor old Col was made of candy floss. Having said that, his work rate means he gets in amongst it increasing his chance of injury.

The best players seem to be able to avoid injury until later in their career. To be fair to Luke Lewis, he was pretty durable early on, but he started in first grade when he was 18 and it takes its toll. How the hell blokes like Gallen last as long as they do is a miracle. Hindmarsh was the same. High work rate, smashed in every game, rep teams and yet they kept going for years.

 

[Mr Bean]

Anyone know how many games Mortimer played at lock?

 

[Blues Riff]

Lewis for me. I wouldn't mind seeing Sattler on the bench though.

 

[grifter]

^ This

 

[murraymob]

van deer voort

 

[Arthur Daily]

Vandervoort
Waterhouse
Sattler
Lewis
should be nominated.
Mortimer was everywhere. Where ever a hole needed to be filled. Centre, 5/8, Lock second row.

 

[BxTom]

Van Der Vort for me too. As said earlier, if not injured at crucial times, he would have been an Australian rep. He was one of the backbones of the Panthers.

Tom.

 

[Doomednow]

Lewiissssss

 

[TheFrog]

Van der Voort (who gets my vote) was an old fashioned no-nonsense tackling machine, and one of the biggest reasons we contained Canberra so completely in the second half of the '91 GF. We would have gone further in '89 too but he was injured scoring against Canberra in the minor semi final, a try that gave us the lead in the second half. Without our tackling demon, we could not hold the red hot Raiders out. With Geyer and Cartwright in the second row, Cartwright with outstanding ball skills and Geyer with serious mongrel, they made the perfect backrow.

Luke Lewis is his only genuine challenger in my opinion, but I prefer Lewis in the backs. Scott Sattler was a fairly average player for a very long time, but improved immeasurably in his last year or two.

The only lock who comes to mind from the early years is Warren Fenton, who played 119 games, including one finals match for us in the 1980's but he's not really a contender for mine.