An emotional Ron Coote takes to the stage as the 14th Immortal
The NRL have confirmed former South Sydney Rabbitohs and Sydney Roosters champion Ron Coote as Immortal number 14, but attention will quickly turn to who comes next.
For the record, I completely agree with colleague Dan Nichols who this morning wrote the NRL got it absolutely right on Coote.
They did.
It’s the perfect way to close the Immortals of that generation before beginning to move forward to others in the coming years.
This was the last chance for Coote – a six-time premiership winner, New South Wales and Australian representative and captain – to be included in rugby league’s most exclusive club, and you’d find few arguing he doesn’t deserve to be there.
But now attention turns to what’s next.
Under NRL rules introduced this year, only one player can be inducted into the NRL Immortals club every four years. That means the next induction is in 2028, 2032 after that, and so on.
When there are plenty of players potentially deserving of the title, that is going to make things difficult.
Already this year there were calls for Cameron Smith to be included. I’m on the record saying that would have been far too soon, but there is absolutely zero doubt that he will be there one day.
The timing of Smith’s announcement is everything though. There is no hard and fast rule that inductees must be placed into the group in chronological order, and that was on display on Wednesday with Coote being inducted. He played well before a number of players already named Immortals, including Andrew Johns who was controversially elected well inside of a decade following his retirement.
But there is also no problem doing it that way and having players wait, as Coote had to for his induction. He retired in 1978. That’s almost 50 years ago.
To not cheapen the concept of the Immortals, the NRL must be patient on Smith, both for the concept’s benefit, and for the fact other players simply deserve to go in first.
You could make the argument – and I will here – that three or potentially even more players deserve to go into the Immortals group before Smith.
One thing that does appear to be clear after Wednesday night’s induction of Coote is that the time for Peter Sterling to be considered an Immortal has come and gone, as it would have been had Coote not been inducted on Wednesday.
That’s because it’s time to move onto the next generation, and there are is an absolute walk up candidate to be named next.
The champion was named to the Dally M team of the year six times in three different positions, won the Provan-Simmons medal, is in the team of the 1990s, won a Golden Boot award, won two premierships and captained his country 25 times, playing 38 Tests and 31 Origins for New South Wales.
While it’s a good thing coaching records aren’t considered for the Immortal list, there is no doubt to this writer that Fittler goes in next. His retirement, in 2004, will be 24 years ago by the time he could now be inducted, and he deserves to be on the list as one of the all-time greats with versatility.
One of his arch nemesis, Darren Lockyer, should be going straight in after that.
Retiring in 2011, Lockyer goes down as one of the all-time great Queenslanders. He is the third-highest all-time games holder with 355, all for the Broncos, played 36 Origins and a staggering 59 Tests, captained his state, country and club, won three premierships and a Super League crown, won the Golden Boot twice, was named in the team of the year six times across two positions, and is part of the NRL’s team of the 1990s.
He is also part of Queensland’s team of the century and took over from Fittler as Kangaroos’ captain, winding up leading the Australian national side for a staggering 38 Tests.
His resume is arguably better than Fittler’s, although there isn’t much between them, and under the NRL’s new rules, one induction every four years means he should be waiting until just after his New South Wales rival to go into the elite club.
After that, you could realistically argue for Cameron Smith in 2036, but to my mind, there is one more player who needs to jump in ahead of the all-time games record holder
That’s Glenn Lazarus.
He revolutionised the way props play the game. Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008 after retiring in 1999, he was a five-time premiership winner and would have had a sixth with the Broncos in the Super League if not for injury.
Those six title teams came across three separate clubs. He was also the inaugural captain of the NRL’s most successful expansion club in the Melbourne Storm, where he led the side to their inaugural premiership.
The fact remains that he is the only player in the history of the game to win premierships with three seperate clubs.
More than that though, he was named in the New South Wales team of the century in 2008, the NRL’s team of the 1990s was always thereabouts when it came to representative selection, pairing his 254 first-grade games with 19 Origins for New South Wales and 21 Tests for Australia.
After that, it will be time for Cameron Smith. You simply can’t deny him any longer, but 20 years post-retirement sounds about right for one of the greatest players of all-time to slot into the Immortals group.
His numbers are simply off the charts and will never be beaten. 430 NRL games, 42 Origins, 56 Tests, of which he captained a fair chunk of those. Officially a three-time premiership winner, he played finals footy in virtually every season of his career.
He is also a two-time World Cup winner, a multi-time Origin series winner, has won the Dally M Medal twice, and been named to the team of the year a ridiculous nine times, taking out the Clive Churchill Medal twice, the Wally Lewis Medal four times and the Golden Boot Award twice. He is a walk up Immortal, but will have to wait.
That’s where it gets interesting. Do the NRL go backwards, or make another of Smith’s Queensland teammates from that unprecedented eight series in a row the next Immortal in 2044?
Johnathan Thurston is the obvious candidate. Maybe the best half of all time, he played in all of those eight series wins, and more after that, winding up with two premierships, a Clive Churchill Medal and a staggering four Dally M Medals.
It’s that statistic alone which says he deserves to go in. No one else has won the medal more than three times, with that being Andrew Johns.
Thurston wound up with 323 NRL games, 37 Origins and 38 Tests, while he also kicked 923 NRL goals, 99 for Queensland and 165 for Australia.
In that time, he was also named to the team of the year seven times and won the Golden Boot on three occasions.
The numbers trump the rest and there is little doubt he deserves to go in sometime in the next 20 years.
It’s hard to suggest anyone else from the Queensland era of dominance will become an Immortal, although Cooper Cronk’s incredible premiership record could have him in the discussion.
So, here is how I’d play the next five Immortal slots:
2028: Brad Fittler
2032: Darren Lockyer
2036: Glenn Lazarus
2040: Cameron Smith
2044: Johnathan Thurston
Of course, there will be arguments for the likes of Allan Langer, Laurie Daley, and Sterling or Brett Kenny, but this is the way it should be moving forward over the next two decades.
After that, you’ll be starting to talk about the players we see on the park today.
Where will Nathan Cleary’s career end up? At the moment, you could make the strong argument that by the time he hangs up the boots, he is going to be in that discussion.
Will James Tedesco be considered? He has captained his state, country and club, won a couple of premierships, a Dally M Medal and is one of the players of his generation.
Daly Cherry-Evans and Cameron Munster lead the Queensland charge of the current players closing in on their own retirements, while you could argue someone like Harry Grant is going to be in the mix by the time he hangs up the boots. There is plenty of football to be played for players like he, Cleary and Sam Walker though, giving plenty of time for the NRL to roll through the currently outstanding candidates who need to be inducted before they start talking about that.