Oldest player in the NRL by year.

[Craig Johnston]

"give me some respect" has to be at least 38

 

[Jason Maher]

lol from Wikipedia

2005 saw Jason Smith back in Australia playing with the Canberra Raiders. He also turned down a request to make a State of Origin comeback for Queensland.

What a legend.
'Jason you have been selected to play for Maroons in the State of origin"
'Nah fugg dat'

Now it all makes sense. It's not that I Bleed Monthly had never heard of him, it's that he blocked memory of Smith out of his mind because he couldn't deal mentally with someone who said no to playing for Queensland.

 

[Ojlovednicole]

IBM:
Statement please?

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Back then you could be first grade because the bench was short so it doesnt really count.

Im only really taking into account the professional era.
Anyone know of the early '00s?

Back then, I don't believe that had a bench, or even replacements.

And there was 2nd, 3rd grade too.

Plenty of past greats played 150 First Grade games for team X and 140 Second Grade games for team X and 25 Third Grade games for team x and at the end, it wasn't 1st Grade games that really counted, but that they'd played 315 grade games at team x.

Hell, even until the mid-1990's, replacements didn't get counted as games. Only starting players got a game. These days, you get a bloke playing 10 minutes a half and he can rack up 200 games.

 

[Ojlovednicole]

Your last points not correct.
In the mid 90s those games definitely counted.

At least from 1993 onward.

But thats not a criticism of your point on the whole.


Back then it was like playing for the epping rams subbies rugby whom my Namibian friend plays for.

5 grades with first grade being decent athletes but nowhere near NRL Quality.

 

[roostersrule2]

Didn't Chris Houston debut at 48?

 

[Ojlovednicole]

Didn't Chris Houston debut at 48?

No,
He debuted at 23.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Houston_(rugby_league)

 

[Ojlovednicole]

I thinjk the oldest player to debut was late 2os. 28 from Gary Winter i think?

 

[Haffa]

Craig smith was 35 when he retired in 2006.

Not sure if he was the oldest that year though.