The next Immortal: The facts

Drugs are Drugs they are on the Banned substance list for sport wether ecstasy ,cocaine or Steroids they are all banned and if you take them as a profesional sports man you are a drug cheat . No other sport in the world would knowingly admit a Drug cheat into there hall of fame if they were caught or self admited to being a drug cheat . Rugby league will be open to scrutiny if it admits a drug cheat . Other sports from around the world have removed Gold medals well after Olympic games after athletes admited to taking drugs that could not be detected Baseball removed some members from the Hall of fame after it was reveled that they took drugs during there profesional sports days this whole thing has become more a NSW v QLD thing it’s not state of origin guys for mine I don’t want jhons admited into the immortals because he admited to being a drug cheat over a ten year period of his carrer even if at times he took the banned substances in the off season you can still be tested an found guilty of being a drug cheat in the off season just because he wasn’t caught does not make it any better in my oppinion he admitted to being a drug cheat that should be the end of it .If not for this indescresion he would have my vote hands down .I think Norm proven has to be admited this time around his list of feats speak for themself and he’s on the trophy all our teams try to win if not him then Sterling or Meninga would get my vote any one of those three would sit alright with me

Drugs are Drugs they are on the Banned substance list for sport wether ecstasy ,cocaine or Steroids they are all banned and if you take them as a profesional sports man you are a drug cheat . No other sport in the world would knowingly admit a Drug cheat into there hall of fame if they were caught or self admited to being a drug cheat . Rugby league will be open to scrutiny if it admits a drug cheat . Other sports from around the world have removed Gold medals well after Olympic games after athletes admited to taking drugs that could not be detected Baseball removed some members from the Hall of fame after it was reveled that they took drugs during there profesional sports days this whole thing has become more a NSW v QLD thing it's not state of origin guys for mine I don't want jhons admited into the immortals because he admited to being a drug cheat over a ten year period of his carrer even if at times he took the banned substances in the off season you can still be tested an found guilty of being a drug cheat in the off season just because he wasn't caught does not make it any better in my oppinion he admitted to being a drug cheat that should be the end of it .If not for this indescresion he would have my vote hands down .I think Norm proven has to be admited this time around his list of feats speak for themself and he's on the trophy all our teams try to win if not him then Sterling or Meninga would get my vote any one of those three would sit alright with me

There has been mixed messages sent out for the judging criteria for the next immortal. In one ear you hear: " the player is to be judged on their on field efforts only" and in the other ear " the player's behaviour on and off the field is to be taken into account." So it's merely a question of: Are you allowed to vote for Andrew Johns (Player B) or not? If so which i am inclined to believe the panel are, then Andrew Johns will be named the next immortal- if not well... the title is Mal Meningas.

oikee, Rugby League immortals are judged for their performances on the field, nothing else. Regardless of drugs and off field behaviour, if you think having Andrew Johns as an immortal will cheapen the lable, you clearly have not watched any of his matches. Why should he be denied because your kids and grandkids won't like it? You kick up a stink over off field behaviour without looking at his stats, accolades and highlights, which is what these immortals are selected on.

norm provan without question should be the next rugby league immortal, he won 10 premierships in a row at the dragons, and he captained like 6 of them, people even say hes the toughest, and most hard working forward of all time, he should deffenetly be picked before joey johns or big mal, even brian bevan should get a mention before them, he scored over 700 tries in his career, thats bloody brilliant.

Joey Johns

Oh stop your dribbling, oikee.... what's the use of selling 105 thousand tickets to your one and only home-game in origin next year oikee, when Suncorp has only capacity for around 50,000??? That shows a bit of a difference right there... at least our stadiums can hold a decent size crowd.... where are you gunna fit the other 60,000 who won't be able to fit in to Suncorp even if they have tickets, in your yard with a big screen? You must have the most perfect ticket- booking system ever invented up there if your ticketing agencies can sell and administer 105,000 tickets in only one hour! Them's big numbers... Perhaps you should write to the QRL and request them to build bigger stadiums to support the massive crowds you always get at Suncorp.. And I think if we only had three clubs spread in an entire state a la Qld - let alone the One City Wonders (the Broncos) as the only team in your capital city, then we might well be able to crow more than you do now about our massive supporter base!!! If you added all supporters of all the NSW NRL clubs together and spread them among three teams only , whom do you think would then have the highest supporter base and put more bums on seats at matches? Not Qld teams, that's for certain... The 'plastic world' that QLD created began 32 years ago..... and is continually perpetuated by oikee...

King Wally was doing drugs every day. That's right oikee, we are going to have to strip Wally of his immortal status for not setting the right examples for our easily influenced youth. The facts speak for themselves. The drug that Wally regularly imbibed in, is widely known as the number one killer worldwide, the most addictive, and also creates the highest number of health issues arising from its use. The drug that the NRL outlawed more than twenty years ago. The same drug that I believe you were taking on a regular basis oikee, and have only just managed to give up by going cold turkey, and substituting them for posts on The Roar. If you can forgive King Wally for smoking, then I can forgive Joey for partying. Wally used to suck a few down before a big match to calm his nerves - surely that's performance enhancing. Both were champions on the field, and what they did in their own time should be their own business.

oikee I admire your passion on this subject but youre going to have to move past the drug taking. Johns was widely acknowledged as the best RL player in the world for a considerable portion of his career, whilst taking recreational (and thats very, very different to performance related) drugs in the background with NO idenitfiable impact on his performance. That in itself says more about the minimal impact of recreational drugs in Johns' case than it says about drugs are bad, etc. Im not advocating drug use and Johns has obvioulsy made some questionable decisions, but the end result is that his standing as a role model has been somewhat tarnished. If what the other immortals are saying is to be taken as a nod to Johns' eventual induction as an immortal, then that tarnish has clealy worn off. And you would have to respect their opinions.

Look, no matter how much you guys give it to me, it will never even come close to the fact that you guys are condoning a drug user to be immortalised and saying to every kid. Its ok. I dont think anyone of you have even truely thought about what message you will be sending. This is rugby league's highest honor, to become a immortal. And no, as i argued above, it is not only about his playing career, because if we had a Charles Manson on our hands and he was the greatest footballer in the world, we still would not make him a immortal, we would be ashamed. I know i would be. Anyhow, forge ahead, blindly as ussual.

No i am looking further than that Mals, i am thinking of the message we will be sending to kids. We are immortalising a drug taker. Mate it cant be said any easier than that. The game will be making a self confessed drug taker a immortal. It has nothing to do with what state he comes from, i would be as outspoken about any player who did the same. Like i said, none of my kids will be party to this, and i will make sure it is known by everyone i know. Sorry, these are my morals, not you or anyone will change my mind. I made the argument above to Ryan when he said it is only about his playing career, bullocks, and if it is, we need to change this fast. I have had my say, argue amounst yourselves, i will wait for the outcome.

So you 2 guys, you and Barry above dont mind our code to put up as our most treasured role models a Drug taker. That is what you are both agreeing to, well i wont be part of it, i wont rate the immortals, and the whole thing will just be that little bit sleazy. good luck with that, but no kid, grandkid, son, daughter ,anyone i know will be part of this farse, that is all it will be , your agreeing to immortalise a drug taker,. Nice work chaps, good luck with that, i wont be part of it, I hope you understand that jibbering Barry. I put up a good argument, you guys are like white pointers, your eyes roll back into your head and you close everything, you refuse to listen to anyone who might talk sense,. Anyhow, good luck, like i said, i wont be party to this nonsense. And enjoy living with it if he gets voted. And i hope rugby league can live with the fact they dont mind making a self confessed drug taker a immortal, bugger everything else, bugger the kids, bugger the lot, it means nothing, we are blind to everything, we just have to forge ahead blindly, without conscience, make him immortal, it will appease the gods,. I give up, i tried , now its up to the gods.

Same senario Ryan, if Lockyer mass murdered, would we still pick him as a immortal, hey kiddies, it's ok, he was a good footballer. Where are you going kiddies, come back, he is only a self confessed drug taker. Forget all that, he played good footy. ??? You can see where i am going Ryan surely. Yes, Mal, Lockyer, anyone, if you or me did this, do you think it would look good. ? No lets be sensible. And this is why i think someone needs to step in and change the way we look at the Immortal voting. As i just showed, it is not a sensible way of doing the process. Anyhow, i have given my best shot at this argument, it is now in the hands of the gods.

"I can't believe they chose that CENSORED over me" - Andrew Johns, upon hearing who the next immortal is.

Yes thank goodness. Who knows what me and a bunch of others would do ;)

I think it may have been mentioned above but Mal was picked in the second row on the 86 Kangaroo tour because he couldn't force Kenny and Miles out of the centres. Wally Lewis was picked at lock for the first Origin game. Dale Shearer was picked in many different positions in Origin and tests. Choppy Close played a few Origins on the wing. Ditto Michael O'Connor and Ettingshausen. Daley and Fittler played in the centres in Origin. Darius Boyd and Brent Tate are both playing on the wing for QLD this year. I'm not suggesting that all these guys are immortals but picking players out of position to squeeze the best 13 into rep sides has always been done and it no way diminishes said players talent or ability.

Oh and on the subject of being chosen for NSW and Australia out of position - yes he was so good they just could not leave him out of the side and chose him as hooker ahead of all the specialist hookers in the country. If there was a better centre than Mal would he have forced his way into the forwards ? i think not. There is also a lot of politics that play in a players " suitability" for a team. At the time when Kimmorley was chosen his good friend and club coach was in charge and earlier when Toovey was chosen ahead of him he was a young boy and Toovey was at the peak of his career. If you think that Meninga was a better player than Johns we have obviously been watching a different game. You weren't born in QLD by any chance?

Your argument is pretty damn shallow and easily picked apart - if you look at the difference the respective players have had on a game at the top level lets dig a little deeper shall we? Did Mal change the way a centre plays the game ? I would say no , did Joey change the way a half back plays the game ? you bet he did and he could control a game like few others before him. Lets have a look below at some awards - ( Mal Meninga won a players player award for Canberra in 1991 , go check out the Knights site and see what Andrew Johns won for his club ) Player A Golden Boot Awards - 1 (1989 ) , Dally M Medal - 0 , He finished his career playing in the national comp at the elite level with 864 points, , Proven - Summons Medal ( fans favourite player) - 0 , Clive Churchill Medal ( man of the match in the grand final ) -0 Dally M 'Representative Player of the Year' Award - 0 , State of Origin man-of-the-match : 1 Player B Golden Boot Awards -2 (1999 and 2001) , Dally M Medal - 3.(1998, 1999 and 2002) He finished his career in the national comp at the elite level as the highest points scorer in Australian first grade premiership history with 2,176 points , Provan-Summons Medal (fans' favourite player): 5 (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002) Clive Churchill Medal (man-of-the-match in the grand final): 1 (2001) Dally M 'Representative Player of the Year' Award: 1 (2005) State of Origin man-of-the-match: 4 Voted #1 in the 'Modern Masters Top 30 Players of the Past 30 Years' poll (Rugby League Week) Player A played in a position which was in the outside backs Player B Played in arguably the most important position on the field Player A - Mal Meninga Player B - Andrew Johns - the next immortal

Well in defence of Mal's political career it's tough to get much done in 28 secs.

i have heard many respected judges call johns the best player they have seen, i have never heard Mal called this, still he was a great player but a rather average politician