I saw all those players play but had to omit some. I thought long and hard about Gasnier.

Slater
Grothe
Meninga
Inglis
Ferguson
Lewis
Sterling
Lazarus
Smith
Webke
Cleal
Pearce
Clyde

Lockyer
Sironen
Roach
Young

Peter Sterling has publicly admitted that he was not as good as Andrew Johns.

No Arthur Beetson = Not Serious

After reading all the comments I could countenance three changes to my original list and still sleep comfortably tonight.

Those three changes would be Darren Lockyer for Brett Kenny, Bradley Clyde for Ray Price, and Glen Lazarus for John O'Neill.


The Kangaroo squad would then be:


FB: Billy Slater, Graeme Langlands

WG: Ken Irvine, Eric Grothe Snr., Kerry Boustead, Michael O'Connor

CE: Reg Gasnier, Mal Meninga, Greg Inglis, Bobby Fulton

FE: Wally Lewis, Darren Lockyer

HB: Andrew Johns, Johnathan Thurston

LF: Johnny Raper, Bradley Clyde

SR: Bob McCarthy, Ron Coote, Steve Menzies, Noel Cleal

PR: Arthur Beetson, Bob O'Reilly, John Sattler, Glen Lazarus

HK: Cameron Smith, Steve Walters



Honourable Mention: Ken Thornett, John Ferguson, Gene Miles, Jarryd Hayne, Brett Kenny, Brad Fittler, Laurie Daley, Peter Sterling, Alan Langer, Ray Price, Gordon Tallis, Petero Civinoceva, Paul Gallen, John O'Neill.

Oh sorry, I didn't realise we could only pick the team you approved of

In MY Opinion, Sterling was a better player than Johns whom In MY opinion is overrated.

I never saw that much of Beetson so haven't included him in my team

I would have that squad but IMO you have got to have Brad Fitler, Benny Elias and Paul 'the chief' Harragon in there.

I agree - Fittler is a must.

Freddy maybe, although he wouldn't be in my personal top 3 either at 5/8 or lock.
Harrogon no chance, and Elias shouldn't even make the tour as boot boy. If you wanted a hard hooker rather than just a grubby relic from a bygone age, then allow me to recommend the rake from the Australian team of the century - Noel (Ned) Kelly.

And who does he replace from among the team I have selected?

Play him at Loose Forward.

He was different class to your two choices. He had more than twice as many caps as Clyde and 11 more than Raper. He was the third most capped Aussie when he retired. He was the most capped NSW Origin player when he retired. When games were tight he always came up with the match winning play - as did Lockyer and Meninga in their day. To me that's what makes a great player - not flash Harry's who score a hatful against weak opposition (like certain British "superstars"icon_wink.gif. To me those 3 along with Fulton who was ahead of his time are the best Australian players I have seen.

Johnny Raper is an Immortal of many years standing. So you would have to dump Bradley Clyde to make a space for Bradley Fittler.

Filter, as good as he was, wasn't as good a back rower as Bradley Clyde.

He was a great stand off and a very good loose forward but certainly not better than Raper, Ray Price, Clyde