- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
When Rugby League Week named Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier, Bob Fulton and Johnny Raper as the inaugural Immortal inductees in 1981, my first reaction was where were Ken Irvine and Graeme Langlands?
I had no argument on the four they chose, however. Churchill was the best fullback I’d ever seen until Billy Slater surfaced, Gasnier was without peer in the centres, Fulton was the best utility footballer and Raper the best lock.
But Irvine was the finest winger, with Langlands the very best fullback-centre, so how could they miss out?
The Langlands mistake was rectified in 1999, but for some unfathomable reason, Irvine has still missed out – for 37 years.
The NRL are the new owners of the Immortals concept and can right that wrong tonight. Two new Immortals will be inducted and Irvine must surely be one of them.
The ‘cast of thousands’ – RLW selectors – may have been too young to see Irvine play, but that’s no longer the case.
Ray Warren is 70, he would have seen Irvine play, so too Phil Gould, who started his career with Penrith three years after Irvine retired. Fulton and Raper, if the latter is well enough to be involved, both played with Irvine for NSW and Australia, while Wally Lewis started his career just two years after Irvine retired.
So there are enough of those who are well-versed with Irvine’s all-round brilliance to carry the day.
That brilliance included express speed, the ability to beat a man on the outside – or the inside – and his defence.
[latest_videos_strip category=”rugby-league” name=”League”]
The most telling proof is his 171 tries from just 176 games for the North Sydney Bears, who spent most seasons close to the bottom of the ladder.
As a winger, he hardly saw the ball in general play. He had to go searching to have any chance of dotting down. To score nearly a try a game was nothing short of phenomenal.
Leaving the Bears to sign with Manly to score 41 tries from 80 games gave the flyer 212 tries from 237 games. He is still the top scorer in NRL history, even though he retired 45 years ago.
The closest is Slater, who is in the twilight of his career with 187 from 313 games.
But Irvine had more to do, crossing for 30 tries from 24 games for NSW, and 33 from 31 Tests. That gave him a career 275 tries from 311 games – or 0.88 tries a game.
The only footballer with a better try strike rate is Gasnier, with 170 career tries from just 180 games, for a 0.94 average.
But Irvine was a winger, and in my book the best of both codes.
The closest to him in rugby league ranks over the years have been Kangaroos Johnny King, Eddie Lumsden, Eric Grothe Sr, and Valentine Holmes, with the best of the Englishmen Billy Boston, Martin Offiah, and Ryan Hall.
I rate Irvine higher than the best of rugby international wingers like Wallaby David Campese, Springbok Bryan Habana, and All Black Jonah Lomu.
Ken Irvine ranks better than all of them. He has Immortal written all over him and should be the next named.