The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

The Magnificent Sevens: The best halfbacks in rugby league history

20th September, 2016
Advertisement
Andrew Johns' virtuoso performance led NSW to their a famous State of Origin series win in 2005. (AAP Image/Tony Phillips)
Expert
20th September, 2016
79
6361 Reads

Who are rugby league’s magnificent sevens? Taking a bit of a cue from the remake of the classic Western, I thought I’d take a gander at who could rightly claim to be rugby league’s best in the number 7 jumper.

The Leader – Steve Mortimer

It’s an indelible image – Steve Mortimer, battle-scarred captain of NSW Blues, hoisted onto the shoulders of sweaty, happy teammates. And there he is, reaching for the heavens like Sergeant Elias in the publicity shot for Platoon.

Except Mortimer is crying because finally the Blues had beaten Queensland in State of Origin. It was 1985. Mortimer had been a gun for a decade. But this was surely his last chance. And he knew it. Didn’t see him play? You missed out. The game’s best chip-and-chase. The game’s best grass-cutter cover-defence. The game’s best tongue, stuck to this top lip like he was working out equations.

Super player. A gun.

The Gambler – Allan Langer

Advertisement

It’s funny what you remember. It would’ve been 1989, probably Lang Park, and there’s Allan Langer taking a quick tap instead of kicking for touch in his own half.

And away he ran, this snowy-haired little imposter, jagging across field, throwing dummies before shooting out a wide spiral bit of kit to winger Alan McIndoe who scorched away for a try. And it was just outrageous. No-one would have thought of doing it.

The man tried things. Grubbers at speed, the ball seemed to be attached to him. He was like Lionel Messi, except dribbling the ball through the meaty feet of the biggest men in the game. And all of them – and we’re talking madmen, beasts like Ian Roberts, Peter Tunks, Les Davidson – intent on savaging the annoying little rooster who’d dare to take them on in their house.

Yet Langer ripped it off. For such was his go.

State of Origin game 2 at ANZ Stadium

The Sharpshooter – Johnathan Thurston

The great Johnathan Thurston, the champion, even King of all North Queensland, could have easily occupied Andrew Johns’ stanza in this enjoyable piece of whimsy, and vice versa. For when the big game is on the line, you want the ball with “JT”.

Advertisement

You want him cradling it in those soft hands. You want his eyes scanning the line for weakness. You want him throwing that massive dummy, the one they know he’s selling yet are powerless to resist buying.

Thurston’s dummy is like a Big Mac – you know it’s bad but sometimes you’ve just got to have it.

Yet what gets him into this paragraph over Johns is the accuracy of all his work, be it kicking, passing or knowing when to run. The man’s a marvel, the standout player of the post-Johns generation and, they reckon, even better than Johns. Might he even be the best there’s ever been? Thurston continues to make a case.

Thurston

The General – Peter Sterling

Someone say Big Mac? Our Sterlo used to eat one on the way to each match.

In days when Benny Elias was in Rugby League Week talking about the benefits of pre-match bananas, and Wayne Pearce was the most famous tee-total in the game, Sterling would pull into the drive-through at Maccas and order a nice fat Big Mac.

Advertisement

And then he’d drive to Parramatta Stadium and kill ’em.

What a player. Crab-like running style and wiry physique, Sterling owned games. His combination with Brett Kenny for the Eels and NSW was one of the best there’s ever been. Second best could be Sterling’s combination with Wally Lewis. Not to say he made those men look good, because they did that on their own. But Sterling helped. Most of Jack Gibson’s moves ran off him somehow. He won four premierships. He’s very comfortably among this class.

The Clutch Player – Andrew Johns

Ah, Joey. The holy Joseph Johns, the son of a coal-miner’s son who came from Cessnock and smashed up everything. What a player. Ridiculous player. Brute defence, barge-arse, brilliant kicking.

He invented kicks. He kicked one from the sideline at Newcastle, Bill Harrigan said it was the greatest thing he’d ever seen.

Why? Because he’d placed it inches from the opposing try-line and cut it like a boomerang. Wooshka. Johns could do things, at speed, under the pump, in the biggest games, that other players wouldn’t try mucking about training.

Advertisement

So yes – a bit special, our Joey.

The Outlaw – Billy Smith

Like this journo, you may have never seen Billy Smith play.

But you almost don’t need to have. Because the stories abound. All those yarns, those great yarns. And they’re still talking about him today.

If you’re a footy nerd like me, you’ll hang off those old boys like a kid with his grandad, and ask them to talk of his combination with Graeme Langlands, his integral part in the never-before-never-again 11 premierships in a row, how he pretended to drive a Penfold’s van into a pond in the Hunter Valley.

There he was playing for Australia in England, in the frozen bogs of Wakefield and Widnes, this impish character, this hard little critter, and he’s just shredding ’em.

Advertisement

He could play in the centres. He scored thousands of tries. He was fast, unpredictable. And they’re still talking about him 40 years after he played his last game. Fair mark of the man right there.

The Warrior – Tommy Raudonikis

Stories abound of Tommy Raudonikis, too. Some may even be true.

He did bite Johnny Gibbs on the bridge of the nose.

He did once say that if he’d seen Steve Mortimer in the car park pre-match he’d have tried to run him over.

And he did once start laying into opponent and arch-rival Greg Oliphant while the Queenslander was being treated on the ground by medics. Such were the blood-soaked and knuckle-dragging times.

Yet he could play, too, Tommy. Really play. They don’t make mugs captain of Australia. He could dart out of dummy-half, slip through a hole. He could offload. He was a chunky man but there wasn’t much of him. But what there was he threw at opponents like a pit-bull going hard at a chunk of osso bucco.

Advertisement

Great competitor, super player. Halfback of the ‘70s. Nuff said.

Who makes your list for the magnificent sevens?


Don’t miss the action-packed new movie The Magnificent Seven, starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke, in cinemas on September 29. Follow @SonyPicturesAUS for all the updates on the movie and more.

close