;-);-);-)
POOR old Sydney. They pick a rugby league team of the century and five Queenslanders gatecrash their party and make the top 17.
So what do they do in Spiv City? They claim a conspiracy, of course. Well, what else would you do when so many great players from the north of the Tweed dared to be as good as they were.
My old mate
Ray Chesterton, one of the judges, got himself all in a lather over the final 17 and claimed, not for the first time, that the Queenslanders on the judging panel voted as a bloc and that gave players such as Mal Meninga, Wally Lewis, Duncan Hall and Noel Kelly an advantage.
Apart from being a horrible slur on the Queensland-based judges, this is an outrageous slap at the integrity of NRL CEO David Gallop who, as non-voting chairman, was charged with ensuring the vote was fair.
Now, let me say up front I think this whole exercise is dumb. No one can compare the talent of someone who played the game in 1920 with the ability of someone who played in the 1990s.
But Ill play their stupid game and declare right here that Chesteron was right in a way: there was a rort pulled in this. Against Queensland.
Lets go through the team.
Fullback Clive Churchill. No real argument there because he actually played for Queensland once but he did play at a time when fullback play was totally different. No bombs, no behind-the-line grubbers, no gang-tackling. Was he a better player than
Frank Drake or Darren Lockyer? Either of them could have been picked ahead of him and I wouldnt have lost a seconds sleep.
Wingers
Ken Irvine and Brian Bevan. Irvine deserves his spot but Brian Bevan? Whos kidding here? The bloke never played for his state or country. He scored a zillion tries in England but so what. He also played in an era when wingers stood on the wing and waited for the ball. They would run into touch if they looked like being tackled and never had to do one hit-up from dummy-half. Give me
Kerry Boustead any day.
Centres
Reg Gasnier and Mal Meninga. Gasnier is an Immortal so he was an automatic selection but was he really as good as they made out in Sydney? A good gap-runner who capitalised on breaks created by others and he never managed to get on top of Queenslander
Alan Gil in interstate games.
Gene Miles was a better footballer.
Five-eighth
Wally Lewis. Oh, come on, youre not going to argue with that are you? Thought you might, Ray, but Im not going to waste time on that selection.
Halfback
Andrew Johns. Good player but I cant get past the fact that he was drug-fuelled for most of his career and
Allan Langer outplayed him whenever they clashed. I would have had
Barry Muir ahead of them both, even though he was born across the border.
Lock
John Raper. No argument.
Second row
Norm Provan and Ron Coote. Provans record speaks for itself and when I was a kid Coote was my favourite player but how did they go past
Kel OShea and Brian Davies?
Front row
Arthur Beetson and Duncan Hall. Got that right, Ray, well done. Thought you might have found a spot for Glenn Lazarus on the bench, though.
Hooker
Noel Kelly. Good call, although it must have been a close-run thing with
Steve Walters. Both wonderful players.
The bench
Graeme Langlands, Bob Fulton, Dally Messenger and Ray Stehr. Chang and Bozo, fair enough, but did we have to have the sympathy votes for the other two? In a fair vote,
Herb Steinhort and
Mick Madsen would have been there.
So, my team of the century would be:
Clive Churchill (NSW)
Kerry Boustead (Q)
Mal Meninga (Q)
Gene Miles (Q)
Ken Irvine (NSW)
Wally Lewis (Q)
Barry Muir (Q)
John Raper (NSW)
Kel OShea (Q)
Norm Provan (NSW)
Arthur Beetson (Q)
Noel Kelly (Q)
Duncan Hall (Q)
Int:
Graeme Langlands (NSW)
Bob Fulton (NSW)
Glenn Lazarus (NSW)
Mick Madsen (Q)
Seven Cockroaches. I cant be fairer than that.
http://blogs.news.com.au/couriermai...omments/conspiracy_yeah_too_many_cockroaches/
Seems like it was only yesterday. "Time flies, money flies and blow flies"
