The next Immortal: The facts

Roar Rookie

21st June, 2012

2644 Reads

Anyone can contribute to The Roar and have their work featured alongside some of Australia’s most prominent sports journalists.

Tex Redmund

Roar Rookie

21st June, 2012

125

2644 Reads

Debate around the next Immortal has re-emerged and sadly become quite emotive based upon state lines. Lets try to take emotion out of the equation, and look at two players often mentioned.

Player A – retired with the most appearances, and most points for the Australian national team, and became the top-point scorer for his State in State of Origin history.

At a point in time, he had played most Tests for Australia (45), scored most points for Australia – 272 in tests and 551 in all matches, achieved most Kangaroo tours of Great Britain and France – four in 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994, and most Kangaroo tours as Captain – 2 in 1990 and 1994.

Player B – is one of only two players to have won the Golden Boot Award more than once and is the only player to have won the Dally M Medal three times.

He finished his career as the highest points scorer in Australian first grade premiership history with 2,176 points.

From the moment he was selected in his preferred position in Origin, he was either not selected at all or overlooked in that position for another player (and being selected in a different position) on more occasions than he was selected in his preferred position.

The data itself is pretty comparable, other than the number of occasions each player was deemed elite enough to captain their country – the highest accolade imaginable.

Player A						Player B
Club						Club
Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
England	31	28	8	0	128	England	3	1	12	1	29
Australia	166	74	283	2	864	Australia	249	94	917	22	2176
Total	197	102	291	2	992	Total	252	95	929	23	2205
Premierships	3					Premierships	2
Representative						Representative
Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
Origin	32	6	69	0	161	Origin	23	4	37	4	94
Australia	46	21	96	0	272	Australia	24	7	78	0	184
Captain						Captain
Origin	9					Origin	6
Tests	23					Tests	2

When the achievements in text are considered however, Player A has a clear, clear advantage in regards to achievements at the highest level.

When this is taken with the context that Player B was, from the time of his Origin debut, actually overlooked entirely or overlooked from playing in his specialist position on more occasions than he was seen as the number one player in his position – the answer becomes clear that Player A is a significantly better candidate as being the next Immortal.

How an Immortal could so often be seen as a lesser option at the highest level in his specialist position is beyond me.

Player A = Mal Meninga, Player B = Andrew Johns.

For reference, Geoff Toovey and Brett Kimmorley were both often preferred to Andrew Johns at half for NSW, with Johns often selected at hooker.

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