Rugby League Week: End of an era

[TheDalek079]

The Dally M's were thought up by a newspaper. I'm sure the motivation there was to sell more papers.

That concept seems to be going strong.

Whatever the league plans to do with it, I hope they do a better job than they have with the hall of fame. No new inductees since 2007!

What would I like to see? I'm glad you asked.

NRL buys the Immortals concept, integrates it with hall of fame to have base level hall of famers, and then, the immortals. Immortals can only be named from current hall of fame members.

Each year on grand final day inductees to the hall of fame are announced at the ground and live to air. 5 at a time can be added as there are a host of players deserving that are all ignored due to the NRL's lax attitude with honoring it's past players.

As time goes on, the number added each year can diminish.

sounds like you believe there should be more inductees into the HoF. Can you give some examples of players you believe should be inducted?

 

[The Mad Hatter]

Hall of Fame Members::

Inducted Player Name (career span) Position Club(s)
2002 Clive Churchill (1947–1957) Fullback Central Newcastle, South Sydney Rabbitohs, Brisbane Norths
2002 Reg Gasnier (1959–1968) Centre St George Dragons
2002 Johnny Raper (1957–1970) Lock-forward Newtown Bluebags, St George Dragons, Western Suburbs Rosellas (Newcastle), Kurri Kurri
2002 Graeme Langlands (1963–1976) Fullback/Centre St George Dragons
2002 Bob Fulton (1966–1978) Five-eighth/
Centre Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles, Eastern Suburbs Roosters
2002 Wally Lewis (1978–1992) Five-eighth Fortitude Valley Diehards, Wynnum-Manly Seagulls, Brisbane Broncos, Gold Coast Seagulls
2003 Dally Messenger (1908–1912) Centre Eastern Suburbs Roosters
2003 Dave Brown (1930–1941) Centre Eastern Suburbs Roosters
2003 Wally Prigg (1929–1939) Lock-forward Western Suburbs Rosellas
2003 Keith Holman (1949–1961) Halfback Western Suburbs Magpies
2003 Arthur Beetson (1966–1981) Prop-forward/
coach Balmain Tigers, Eastern Suburbs Roosters, Parramatta Eels
2003 Mal Meninga (1979–1994) Centre Souths Magpies, Canberra Raiders
2004 Harry Bath (1940–1959) Second Row/
coach Balmain Tigers, Warrington Wolves, St George Dragons
2004 Norm Provan (1951–1965) Second Row St George Dragons
2004 Ken Irvine (1958–1973) Wing North Sydney Bears, Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles
2004 Harold Horder (1912–1924) Wing South Sydney Rabbitohs, North Sydney Bears
2004 Frank Burge (1911–1927) Lock-forward Glebe Dirty Reds, St George Dragons
2004 Vic Hey (1933–1949) Five-eighth Western Suburbs Magpies, Parramatta Eels
2005 Jimmy Craig (1915–1930) Fullback Balmain Tigers, University, Ipswich, Western Suburbs.
2005 Chris McKivat (1910–1912) Halfback Glebe Dirty Reds
2005 Duncan Thompson (1912–1925) Halfback/Coach North Sydney Bears / Toowoomba Clydesdales
2005 Brian Bevan (1942–1962) Wing Eastern Suburbs Roosters, Warrington Wolves
2005 Brian Carlson (1951–1962) Utility-back North Sydney Bears
2005 Ron Coote (1964 -1978) Lock-forward South Sydney Rabbitohs, Eastern Suburbs Roosters
2006 Ken Kearney (1948–1961) Hooker St George Dragons
2006 Sid (Sandy) Pearce (1908 -1921) Second Row Eastern Suburbs Roosters
2006 Charles Fraser (1910–1920) Fullback Balmain Tigers
2006 George Treweek (1926–1934) Second Row South Sydney Rabbitohs
2006 Duncan Hall (1945–1957) Prop Wests Panthers, Fortitude Valley Diehards
2006 Peter Sterling (1978–1992) Halfback Parramatta Eels
2007 Arthur Halloway (1908–1920) Halfback Glebe Dirty Reds, Balmain Tigers, Eastern Suburbs Roosters
2007 Tom Gorman (1919–1931) Centre Toowoomba Clydesdales, Past Brothers
2007 Joe Pearce (1929–1940) Fullback / Second row Eastern Suburbs Roosters
2007 Harry Wells (1951–1961) Centre South Sydney Rabbitohs, Western Suburbs Magpies
2007 Keith Barnes (1955–1968) Fullback Balmain Tigers
2007 Cyrus Wren (1977–1986) Front Row Manly Sea Eagles

 

[Knight76]

sounds like you believe there should be more inductees into the HoF. Can you give some examples of players you believe should be inducted?

Are you saying there are no past players worthy of recognition? That the current 30 members are all the worthy players who have played the game?

In 2007 the NRL commissioned 130 "experts" to pick the top 100 players to have ever played the game. Yet only have 30 in their hall of fame! Does this not seem odd to you?

 

[RockWheel]

Are you saying there are no past players worthy of recognition? That the current 30 members are all the worthy players who have played the game?

In 2007 the NRL commissioned 130 "experts" to pick the top 100 players to have ever played the game. Yet only have 30 in their hall of fame! Does this not seem odd to you?

I think the 2008 naming of the 100 greatest players was meant to be a major expansion of the hall of fame (all current hall of famers from '02 to '07 were automatic selections in the top 100). If not it should be, and the hall of fame should be restarted with those 100 players as the base.

 

[Knight76]

Yes, but unfortunately the NRL seems to have abandoned the hall of fame entirely.

 

[Danish]

There are about 9000 players to have ever played professional rugby league in Australia going by www.rugbyleagueproject.org. I would expect the hall of fame to be restricted to the elite playing group. Lets say, the top 1%.

With that in mind, we are about 60 players short in the current hall of fame, and with around 80 odd debutants each year, you could likely add a new member every year as well and still keep the list of players to only the elite.

We could add 7 players per year for a decade to catch up, then move it back to 1 per year from there.

Alternatively, we could add 3 players every year for the next 30 years, and then switch back to 1 at that point. This would be my preference.

If you did introduce 3 players per year, I'd have a rule that you must be at least 10 years retired. This reduces the likelihood of the media running campaigns for fan favourites and stealing positions from more worthy players (this issue is why idiots like Lewis and Johns are immortals but not Provan). I'd also put a cap on the amount of times you can be nominated to 5, and also have voting limited only to retired players and officials (coaches, CEOs, board members, and referees). NO MEDIA INCLUDED ON VOTING PANELS.

 

[Dogs Of War]

Yes, but unfortunately the NRL seems to have abandoned the hall of fame entirely.

They really need to add this to Grand Final week. Maybe start the finals series with names being bandied about like the NFL do, and during Grand Final week name the guys who make the hall of fame. Similar to the NFL, limit it to say 5 people a year max. It would just add another element to discuss during the finals series.

 

[Jatz Crackers]

I'm not the f**kwit that thinks calling someone old (who isn't) is an insult but then blows his load over a shit concept from the 80s.

Of course anyone who actually knows something about the sport knows we already have a hall of fame that is run by the governing body that is far more respectable and far more logical than a ridiculous gimmick from a failed magazine.

But like I said, you'd have to actually know about the sport and not just like the taste of Greenberg's jizz to consider that issue.

Since you are too old to comprehend even the most basic english language sentences I will repeat it just for you.

I said "if it has anything to do with the history of the game (good or bad) then it should be in-house and controlled by the codes governing body"

So as you were old man deli. Here look in this mirror:

 

[TheDalek079]

Are you saying there are no past players worthy of recognition? That the current 30 members are all the worthy players who have played the game?

In 2007 the NRL commissioned 130 "experts" to pick the top 100 players to have ever played the game. Yet only have 30 in their hall of fame! Does this not seem odd to you?

for some reason i thought the top 100 were all added to the hall of fame :/ If they haven't then yeah, we can add those players

 

[Card Shark]

RLW finishes this week or next?

Last copy I bought was the premiers edition.....so I'm happy with that...but sad it's going, used to buy it every week.

 

[Glenn]

RLW finishes this week or next?

Last copy I bought was the premiers edition.....so I'm happy with that...but sad it's going, used to buy it every week.

Round 5 is the last week.

 

[Knight76]

They should name a new immortal in their last edition.

 

[Knightmare]

In the last issue they should name Scott Minto, Paul Carige and Greg Smith as the next Immortals.

 

[TheFrog]

They should name a new immortal in their last edition.

I suspect that the terms of the sale to the NRL would preclude such a thing.

 

[siv]

So who have been the now defunct RLW players of year

 

[Captain Apollo]

So who have been the now defunct RLW players of year

1970 Tommy Bishop
1971 Bob Grant
1972 John Ballesty
1973 Johnny Mayes
1974 Arthur Beetson
1975 Bob Fulton
1976 Ray Higgs
1977 Mick Cronin
1978 Geoff Gerard
1979 Ray Price
1980 Kevin Hastings
1981 Kevin Hastings
1982 Kevin Hastings
1983 Phil Sigsworth
1984 Peter Sterling
1985 Ray Price
1986 Peter Sterling
1987 Peter Sterling
1988 Ben Elias
1989 Gavin Miller
1990 Mal Meninga
1991 Ewan McGrady
1992 Paul Langmack
1993 Steve Walters
1994 Cliff Lyons
1995 Laurie Daley
1996 Allan Langer
1997 Brad Fittler
1998 Andrew Johns
1999 Andrew Johns
2000 Andrew Johns
2001 Andrew Johns
2002 Andrew Johns
2003 Steve Price
2004 Nathan Hindmarsh
2005 Nathan Hindmarsh
2006 Luke Bailey
2007 Johnathan Thurston
2008 Billy Slater
2009 Jarryd Hayne
2010 Paul Gallen
2011 Corey Parker
2012 Ben Barba
2013 Corey Parker
2014 Jarryd Hayne
2015 Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.
2016 Jason Taumalolo.

 

[RockWheel]

Taumalolo won in 2016

 

[Captain Apollo]

Taumalolo won in 2016

Cheers. Updated the list

 

[Nuke]

So, as per usual, I bought the RLW today and was interested (and kinda disappointed) to see that they're not doing one next week. There is one final one, something like 96 pages, which no doubt will be mostly about RLW's history, comes out the following week.

I must admit, I thought it would be best if it had to close down, to do it at the end of the season and not 5 rounds in, but if they HAD to do it when they're doing it, then to try going along business as usual for the most part.

 

[axl rose]

There is one final one, something like 96 pages, which no doubt will be mostly about RLW's history, comes out the following week.

Makes sense if they are putting some decent effort in for the last one, tracking down and interviewing former players/ editors etc. Would be nice if they went back to the A3 size for the last edition as well.