Who do you think should be considered the best RL player of all time?

Neil Fox

Wally Lewis is without a doubt the finest RL player that i have ever seen, Although i can't speak for players that were playing prior to 1977 when i started watching the game

Awkward question, maybe the way to get an idea would be to ask who the best player your side has had? as a KR fan I would put forward Roger Milward, from other teams two that stand out for me are Alex Murphy & Elery Hanley all three of them were outstanding as individuals & leaders at club & country level, they also redefined what it is to be a rugby player. but even after watching the game over 50 years there will be players from earlier that I have no idea about. From across the river I would nominate Johny Whiteley. I expect that every poster could find many more players deserving to be considered the best.

Ellery Hanley...............

No contest

Hanley must be up there.

For sheer effectiveness though i always loved watching big Mal

Ryan Bailey

Pfft. He was just lucky to be playing at a time when the refs never looked for offside...

An almost impossible question to answer.

The biggest problem is that certain people of certain ages can only comment on their particular era.

Also, comparing players in different positions is sometimes tough. And finally players who played in particularly successful and dominant sides can perhaps appear better than they really were.

That said, having a recollection of roughly 1990 onwards and having a season ticket at Saints throughout that period, I would say off the top of my head:

1. Darren Lockyer
2. Andrew Johns
3. Paul Sculthorpe
4. Andy Farrell
5. Keiron Cunningham

Probably Alf Ellaby.

Wally Lewis. Watched him stroll around with gumshield in hand until he was interested. He was quality.

Ps agree with biff, didn't see his post.

You mean Peter Fox surely.

Neil Fox

Career highest point scorer of all time which will probably never be overtaken

6,220 358t, 2,575g, including 4 one-point dg
(6,578 points when adjusted to 4pt tries)

Scored at a time when UK Rugby League was the greatest standard in the world also includes points from Test matches against Australia and New Zealand, challenge Cup Finals amongst other high profile games.

It's always a difficult question this. You can only be judged in your own era, so based on that I would say Wally Lewis. I am not old enough to have actually seen him play but I've seen plenty of old footage and the guy was something else.

That said though, the game has moved at such a pace in terms of professionalism, fitness and technique that in reality, if you sent a even a mediocre modern day player back to the 80s he would rip them to shreds. So by that definition the best player ever has to be whoever you regard as the best player in the world right now (or at least in the last 5 years). For me that would be Cameron Smith.

Totally agree. However some can overcome that with foresight. Lewis was one.

Ellery Hanley and Wally Lewis imo.

Hanley was incredible, a freak. Probably the only player of the last 30 years that has terrified the Australian teams. A pure athlete built for RL.

Kevin Sinfield

On the other hand, transport some great players of the 80s or any other era into modern training etc and they would be in a different galaxy to 99% of todays top players...

A really poor argument...

Whilst plenty of the great players from the 80's and earlier would do just as well now (if they undertook the same physical training as today's players, if not they'd get hammered) I don't see why they'd be in a different galaxy.

of course it's a question that cannot be answered really as all of us never saw the great players of the latter half of the C19 and first half of last century, the evidence is all annecdotal, and records patchy in some cases. also you get the arguments over which position a player played, so maybe you are better off coming up with the greatest fullback, winger, scrum half etc. etc.

one question you could ask therefore is which position do you think the greatest player of all time would/should occupy?

If you are basing your judgment strictly on all round rugby league talent then there is no doubt that Andrew Johns is the greatest player of all time.

Andrew Johns had a unique capability to see a football field player alignment and create scoring opportunities for himself or his team mates based on that. He was a great passer of the ball, the best field kicker of all time (he even invented the banana kick) and a great goal kicker (one of the top point scorers of all time). On top of that he was a very strong defender. As a running half back he also had a sidestep and a good dummy. But he was the greatest because he was simply the most creative player of all time.

Everyone else mentioned lines up behind Andrew Johns. It is worth noting that Andrew Johns was added to the most select group of Australian players -- the NRL Immortals -- less than ten years after he retired, and before older and highly respected contenders like Malcolm Meninga.

To suggest that Neil Fox was a better player is laughable. List Fox's skills and then compare them with the list I have enumerated for Johns. No contest. Fox was not even as formidable as Malcolm Meninga.

Darren Lockyer was very talented but was a weak defender, unlike Johns.

Ellery Hanley was one of the great English players of all time, and definitely world class, but he lacked several of the skills in Johns' repertoire.

Roger Millward was a brilliant running five eighth, perhaps the best five eighth that England has produced, but did not have all the skills that Johns had.

I would place Johnathan Thurston ahead of several of the players mentioned above, especially obviously Neil Fox. But even the brilliant Thurston stands behind Andrew Johns.

I stopped reading after that first line, absolute b0llocks, not even close.
You put no weight into your arguement whatsoever or have you only being watching rugby for the last 20 years or so..what a noob..

Johns is easily the best to play the game.
The game I always remember when thinking about his versatility is a Newcastle V Cronulla game where Cronulla had four quality props - Lang, Beattie, Stevens and another I can't recall - who decided the way to beat Newcastle was to run at Johns. I should say that Newcastle had a very weak forward pack on the day due to injuries.
Anyway, Johns sat four rep standard props on their backsides time after time after time with little help from his forwards for 70 minutes, then turned on 10 minutes of attacking brillance to score a try and set up another to pinch a victory.
No other halfback was often the best defender and best attacking player on the field on the same day, as he often was, and then kicked goals at nearly 90%, just for fun.

Another moment that sticks in my mind - Newcastle V Roosters at SFS. Roosters had a very strong side and were expected to win. They led easily till about halfway through the second half when Joey came to life and snatched victory from the Jaws of defeat. The Roosters fans were devastated and stood outside the ground chanting what they thought was a massive insult to departing Knights fans, "You're a one man team". As a Knights fan I was never prouder. Their "insult" was music to my ears.

I thought the question was 'greatest' not 'overrated'.

It would have to be Hanley for me. An absolute Beast of a player who did not need to be a great tackler or tactician to be considered.

Not many players from the 80's and 90's would easily slot in todays modern era of RL, but hanley is definitely one of them.