The greatest club side of all time (one year only)

[Bobby DIGital]

John “bludged for 300 games and never played rep” Morris

Just an out and out great "club" man.

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

A mate and I did a ranking thing at work (public service woo) assigning a value to top offensive and defensive rankings, wins vs losses etc in the NRL era (1998-present)
The top 10 teams were

2007 Melbourne Storm
2001 Parra Eels
2017 Melbourne Storm
2002 Canterbury Bulldogs
1998 Brisbane Broncos
2004 Sydney Roosters
2006 Melbourne Storm
2000 Brisbane Broncos
2013 Sydney Roosters
2015 Sydney Roosters

on the flip side the bottom three were

1998 Gold Coast Chargers
1999 Western Suburbs
2016 Newcastle Knights

there are some flaws and tinkering to be done with the rankings. for example 1998 had more teams so the lower teams were ranked worse than the lower teams in the other seasons.
theres also the 2000 and 2001 seasons with 14 teams. and the period where there were 15 etc.
but that's what we got. we are still working on it. I'm sure some smarter maths minds could come up with more advanced analytics.

I think the best club side in my lifetime was the 1993-1995 Canberra Raiders with a 53-1-12 regular season record in that time. Just the way they played..the dominant home wins etc. swashbuckling attack etc.
they were great.

 

[H.H]

Always hard to compare, but in my time the standout sides have been:

Eels 1982
Manly 1987
Raiders 1990
Broncos 1992
Raiders 1994
Manly 1996
Broncos 1998
Broncos 2000
Storm 2007*
Roosters 2013
Storm 2017

 

[firechild]

If we stick to regular season only, F/A is as good as any metric to determine the top performing teams. Only 7 sides in the NRL era have posted a differential of +300 or greater as per below

2001 Parra - 433*
1998 Broncos - 378
2007 Storm - 350**
2004 Roosters - 342
2013 Roosters - 315
2008 Storm - 302**
2000 Broncos - 300*

*26 games played as opposed to 24
**Team was stripped of all achievements due to cap cheating

2013 roosters stands out in that lot simply because no other team has done it since 2008. Storm 2017 and Roosters 2015 were mighty close though.

Parra would have an adjusted figure of 400 for a 24 game season in 2001 and Brisbane 277 in 2000 which would se them come off the list.

Why are you limiting this to the NRL era? I can understand excluding teams that nobody here saw play but Manly 1996 had a +358 differential, playing 4 less games than the 2001 Eels and 2 less than the 1998 Broncos. You also have to consider the teams they were up against. 1996 was a competitive peak in rugby league where teams like Brisbane, Canberra, St George and Canterbury were extremely good. Throw in some great sides like Cronulla and Norths. Manly '96 and Brisbane '98 were better teams than Parra '01 (confirmed by the fact they actually won their grand finals).

 

[horrie hastings]

1989 Tigers who only lost due to a horrible coaching mistake taking Siro and Roach off the field.

All 6 starting forwards played Origin (Siro, Roach, Pearce, Elias, m3aguire, Brooks) NZ Test hero Freeman at halfback, Australian fullback Garry Jack at fullback, the criminally underrated Mick Neil in the 6 l,Wallabies player James Grant on one wing and lightning Steve O'Brien on the other, England test legend Andy Currier in the centres with schoolboy Tim Brasher.

The 88 team that had Hanley was also good, Roach was suspended and missed the grand final.

If back door Benny’s field goal didn’t bounce back off the cross bar it could have been a different story.

 

[kdalymc]

As stated on previous page, if you even speak about pre and post 98 being a thing you will be banned

 

[Charlie124]

I find it very hard to go past the 2015 North QLD Cowboys because f**k the broncos. 17-16

 

[Sphagnum]

2018 Broncos. Their performance against the dragons in the finals was the stuff of legend.

 

[Valheru]

Why are you limiting this to the NRL era? I can understand excluding teams that nobody here saw play but Manly 1996 had a +358 differential, playing 4 less games than the 2001 Eels and 2 less than the 1998 Broncos. You also have to consider the teams they were up against. 1996 was a competitive peak in rugby league where teams like Brisbane, Canberra, St George and Canterbury were extremely good. Throw in some great sides like Cronulla and Norths. Manly '96 and Brisbane '98 were better teams than Parra '01 (confirmed by the fact they actually won their grand finals).

Because it is a natural demarcation and I personally don't remember much prior to the NRL era. There are plenty of other people looking at the pre-NRL era.

 

[Rhino_NQ]

I find it very hard to go past the 2015 North QLD Cowboys because f**k the broncos. 17-16

That must have feldt good

 

[Springs09]

Why are you limiting this to the NRL era? I can understand excluding teams that nobody here saw play but Manly 1996 had a +358 differential, playing 4 less games than the 2001 Eels and 2 less than the 1998 Broncos. You also have to consider the teams they were up against. 1996 was a competitive peak in rugby league where teams like Brisbane, Canberra, St George and Canterbury were extremely good. Throw in some great sides like Cronulla and Norths. Manly '96 and Brisbane '98 were better teams than Parra '01 (confirmed by the fact they actually won their grand finals).

They may have been good but there was also 20 teams with some complete garbage thrown in there that would up the good teams F/A. In 1995 the whole top 8 had a F/A of over 100. Also 96 had Bulldogs finishing 10th how is that 'extremely good'?

2001 there was only 14 teams and the teams as a whole were better quality. Also by the F/A statistic, Manly 1995 were much better.

 

[Bobby DIGital]

I think the best club side in my lifetime was the 1993-1995 Canberra Raiders with a 53-1-12 regular season record in that time. Just the way they played..the dominant home wins etc. swashbuckling attack etc.
they were great.

I like how you specified this period. I also agree that the 93-95 Raiders are the best club side I've ever seen. Obviously we narrow it down to 94 for a single year, but the Raiders would have comfortably won the premiership in 93 if not for R. Stuarts ankle break. We would have pounded Brisbane in the finals like we did at Bruce a few weeks prior. In 95 we only lost 2 games all year (the best record I can recall from my time as a Raiders fan), but Manly had also only lost 2 games that season so were our equal that year (as much as it pains me to admit that). It rained in the GF qualifier and the Dogs pulled our swashbuckling attacking side into an arm wrestle and handled us....then Manly. That was the end of our era.

 

[mozza91]

Watched abit of our game against the Raiders in 94 at Marathon on Fox this morning. Was deadset men against boys and we weren’t a bad side by any means.

I can’t think of any other side that could do that against us at home during the mid 90’s.

 

[King hit]

I'm not old enough to have seen them play, but the 1965 Dragons side contained 4 immortals, so they would have to be close.

When the centenary of Rugby League happened the judges chose the 100 best players and there were 11 St George players from that era in it, 4 from team of the century and 4 of them are now immortals.

 

[Bobby DIGital]

Watched abit of our game against the Raiders in 94 at Marathon on Fox this morning. Was deadset men against boys and we weren’t a bad side by any means.

I can’t think of any other side that could do that against us at home during the mid 90’s.

And the funny thing is Laurie Daley didn't play that game as he was injured at the time. That's the game where Mullins scored 4 tries, 2 of them 100 odd metres. The back 3 of Mullins, Nagas & Nadruku would score long range tries on almost a weekly basis. I've never seen anything like it before or since. Even Melbourne's recent back 3 couldn't come close.

 

[THE CHAMP]

Watched abit of our game against the Raiders in 94 at Marathon on Fox this morning. Was deadset men against boys and we weren’t a bad side by any means.

I can’t think of any other side that could do that against us at home during the mid 90’s.

98 broncos in Newcastle was pretty spectacular one of my all time favorite games

 

[Tommy Smith]

I'd choose the 98 Broncos over the 94 Raiders on the strength of the prop forwards.

 

[mozza91]

98 broncos in Newcastle was pretty spectacular one of my all time favorite games

Brisbane put 20 on us. Canberra scored 50.

 

[Springs09]

Brisbane put 20 on us. Canberra scored 50.

98 Knights were a lot better than 94 Knights

 

[Matua]

It's the '94 Raiders

1. Mullins: NSW, Australian rep. One of the most electric players to ever play
2. Nagas: NSW, Australian rep. Astoundingly good winger in his day.
3. Meninga: QLD, Australian rep. Immortal. Arguably the most decorated RL in history, when taking into account his QLD coaching records too.
4. Wiki: NZ rep. 55 test appearences, one of the best players in NZ RL history.
5. Nadruku: Fiji rep. Would be one of their best players ever. Also can outdrink everyone you can name
6. Daley: NSW, Australian rep. One of the best players to ever play.
7. Stuart: NSW, Australian rep. Owner of Alan Langer. Comfortably a top 5 all time halfback.
8. Lomax: NZ Rep. Very hard man enforcer type. 16 test caps.
9. Walters: QLD, Australian rep. The second best modern style hooker of all time.
10. Pongia: NZ Rep. 35 test caps. Another big hard bastard who fit the style at the time.
11. Croker: NSW, Australian rep. Probably the worst player in this team. Which speaks to it's quality
12. Furner: NSW, Australian rep. Clive Churchill medalist. One of the highest point scoring forwards in history.
13. Clyde: NSW, Australian rep. 2x Clive Churchill medalist, including one on a losing team. Best running lock of all time.


Good luck topping that.

I think that Melbourne will feel a bit aggrieved if the contracts of that squad aren't given a hard look at.