During last week’s test match Joseph Manu set up one of the great tries with a ridiculous one-handed, held up, double pump, outside to inside pass.
As a result, he is being hailed as the next great centre in our game.
However, you might also remember the first half when Manu laid out the red carpet and scattered rose petals for Latrell Mitchell every time he took the ball down the flank. Was Manu the best or worst player for New Zealand that day?
It got me thinking, who do we love? The steely-eyed professional who specialises in the ‘one per centers’ and loves ‘the grind’? Or is it those players who can win and lose a game?
Those who can make the footy field their backyard playground, even if only for a moment, who believe defence is what other players do, those who make us sigh, laugh, cry and exclaim ‘shine on you crazy diamond!’
To help you decide if you are a dazzle or grind type of person, here is a quick match up of two sides that to me personally, define each type of player.
I’ve only gone back to 1979, when I first watched the footy.
Who gets you to pay your admission fee and who wins you the game?
The dazzlers
1. Jarryd Hayne – At some point in the crazy 2009 season the NRL tweaked the rules to decree that no one was allowed to tackle the Hayne Plane, even when he was walking or skipping backwards.
2. Dale Shearer – Rowdy loved the chip and chase, and the crazy side step. Narrowly beat out Adam “Mad Dog” McDougall and Mick “Three Knees” Hancock, the two angriest players to ever assault the field of play.
3. Latrell Mitchell – A man playing against boys who sometimes makes toddler level errors.
4. Greg Inglis – Used to go missing for weeks at a time. Specialised in being anonymous in State of Origin Game one each year. Game two then became the GI show after a wave of criticism. What a show it was.
5. Josh Addo-Carr – Try enthusiast with a penchant for length-of-the-field tries. No kick return is boring.
6. Phil Blake – For two years Phil Blake was the best player on this or any other planet. Then the opposition found out he couldn’t tackle.
7. Steve Mortimer – Turvey could have been on both lists. This is the 1979 model, full of chip and chases, cover defending specials and tries from the scrum base (remember those before second rowers were allowed to break early?).
8. Artie Beetson – He was so good that it didn’t matter he could only last 25 minutes before needing a pie and a rest. “Half a Game Artie”.
9. Kerrod Walters – Running upright, head thrown back, locks flowing, special plays with his brother. Kerrod was the least of the brothers in career terms, but he was the one that the crowd stood up for.
10. Paul Osborne – The best prop in the game for those magical 15 minutes in the 1994 grand final.
11. Mark Geyer – Explosive in every sense of the word.
12. Martin Taupau – Offload after offload, until he tires after 20 minutes.
13. Jason Smith – chain smoking crazy man who had the ability to physically slow down time when he was jogging with the ball in hand.
Jarryd Hayne is well-known for his flashy play.(AAP Image/Dan Peled)
The Grinders
1. Michael Gordon – Super safe, super reliable, super boring.
2. Graeme Atkins / Neil Hunt / David Liddiard / Mick Delroy – Who? Who is the odd man out in this backline list? Peter Sterling, Brett Kenny, Eric Grothe, Steve Ella, Mick Cronin, Atkins/Hunt/Liddiard/Delroy. They are collectively the boring other winger in the greatest backline in rugby league history.
3. Chris Johns – Played for Brisbane, NSW and Australia. Now, try to remember a single moment.
4. Paul Bowman – The definition of stalwart. Did he score any tries, like ever?
5. Jason Nightingale – Possibly the slowest high-quality winger in football history.
6. Cooper Cronk – The man is professional enough to play out of position. Cronk was not born, he was made in a watch factory in Switzerland. Need a last second field goal to win a match? Cronk is so methodical that even that is predictable.
7. Kevin Hastings – Three-time Rugby League Week Player of the Year in an era of Mortimer, Sterling, Steve Morris and Tommy Raudonikis. Now, try to remember something, anything (apart from the Mo). I tell you what I remember, eight out of ten in the RLW ratings – every single week.
8. Aaron Woods – Apart from the hair, everything is slow motion. Effective yet boring. That’s why he has great stats but no one believes he can actually play.
9. Max Krilich – Just played every week, forever.
10. David Klemmer – What you say? The man with the crazy eyes, bald head and inkling for abusing referees? Now, try to remember an offload. Just one. Master of taking the second hit up.
11. Craig Fitzgibbon – He ran, he tackled, he kicked goals, he played the same way every minute, every hour, every week, every year.
12. Steve Folkes – Super player, supremely fit, only ran the ball if there was no one else to do it. Tackled forever and never missed one in his entire career.
13. Ashley Harrison – The funny thing is he had designs on being a playmaker, but even when he did that it was dull.
Two Canterbury coaches round out this list.
Ted Glossop created the entertainers from a potpourri of Mortimers and Hughes’ while Warren Ryan was responsible for the Dogs of War and the most boring series of grand finals in history.
A special mention to the most extreme case of dazzler versus grinder in the history of rugby league.
Alan Langer, The man who invented the term ‘mercurial’, versus Ricky Stuart the long kicking, perfect passing Iceman to Langer’s Maverick.
Ricky Stuart was the game’s foremost ‘grinder’. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins)
Langer was known for putting grubbers through for himself, stealing the ball from unsuspecting forwards, “not” tripping opposition forwards and engaging in the Dodgeball school of ball running (dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge).
Stuart, however, was precision in every pass and raking kick for boring field position, enabling his exciting teammates (Gary Belcher, Brett Mullins, Noa Nadruku, Mal Meninga, Laurie Daley, etc) and letting them thrill the crowd.
Every year the national selectors would be seduced by Langer’s brilliance. Every year after a game or two they realised that no one except the Walters boys, who grew up with him in Ipswich, had a clue what he was doing, and they turned back to Mr Reliable. And Mr Reliable got the job done.
And then Stuart threw that dummy, made that 70-metre run, and offloaded to Meninga to snatch victory from the Poms. I bet he regrets that now, because it got him thrown off this list. He’s coached angry ever since.
Over here
Roar Rookie
I'm glad to see Kerrod Walters name mentioned here. He was a great attacking hooker who could get the Broncos firing from anywhere on the field. The Ipswich trio of the Walters twins and alfie were phenomenal and we'll worth the admission price.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Agreed, he had a lot of spark about him.
Matt H
Roar Guru
To be fair, it's a pretty easy task to wind up Klemmer as well. Hopefully he doesn't read this article
The Barry
Roar Guru
Aaah...I didn’t get the rocks and diamonds aspect to the dazzler...should have from the article. Thanks for winding me up re Klemmer! Pretty easy task.
Matt H
Roar Guru
I didn't think O'Sullivan was a grinder at all. Great little player. A grinder is more like, say, Chad Townsend or Jeff Robson. Competent, but they make one of the most interesting jobs on a footy field look like a boring chore.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Chris Mortimer and Andrew Farrer would have been great additions, I didn;t go back that far. But to be fair I could have put the entire Warren Ryan coached team in as the Grinders XIII. Dean Lance also a good pick. I had actually been tempted to put in Craig Bellamy. But there are any number of grinder forwards over the years. What made Ashley Harrison special is that he thought that he should have been a dazzler. I disagree on Erik Grothe. To be a Dazzler you have to be almost as bad as you are good and Grothe was just great. Bowen and Barba are both very solid Dazzlers, but Jarrod Hayne is the king of rocks and diamonds so there was no room. Anthony Milford and Kodi Nikorima would also have been comfortable in that side. And I threw Klemmer in there just for you. I just remember a number of Origins where Woods and Klemmer were strong, intimidating, made metres and had absolutely no effect on the result.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Thanks DP, I am happy to withdraw Nightingale and replace him with a cyborg made up of Matt Geyer and Ross Conlon.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Naaa, he didn't score it but ran down and kept pace with a noted speedster with ridiculous ease. :) thanks TB, comments duly accepted - on Matt and how Gypsy finished his career and yes - I'm a fan. Might just jog a few other's memories about Gypsy before they package him in the 'retired geriatric' club?
The Barry
Roar Guru
Wow..that’s an obscure bit of vision DP...Nightingale didn’t even score the try!!! Only a fan could come up with that one...illustrates your point perfectly though and to be fair to Matt probably not how I remember Nightingale...not any more!
The Barry
Roar Guru
I really liked Chris O’Sullivan. I don’t think he was a grinder at all, very clever player, still shone at times in that star studded Raiders team. Played his role perfectly and a massively under rated player...but yeah maybe next to Daley, Stuart, Meninga, Ferguson, Walters, Belcher he looked like a grinder...
The Barry
Roar Guru
Nice article Matt There could have been spots for Chris Mortimer and Andrew Farrar in the grinders backline. Mick Pobjie of Jets, Souths and particularly Tigers vintage could have possibly been captain. Dean Lance would have been my no.13. One of the “other blokes” in those crazy good Raiders sides of the late 80s, early 90s. He was an awesome no-nonsense player. Eric Grothe Snr unlucky to miss out on the razor dazzle team as were Matt Bowen and Ben Barba. Not offloading and running gun barrel straight have always been my big knocks on Klemmer but he changed his passing game in 2018 for 23 offloads and 147 passes in general play (ranked 11 and 2 respectively for middle third forwards). Although you’d certainly be excused for not finding reasons to watch Bulldogs games this year.
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Regardless of my comment re Nightingale, this was a good read Matt. :)
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Jason Nightingale slow??? Did you ever watch the guy play? 1 example - 2010 semi against Manly, Nightingale gave Gaznier an 8 - 10 m start and caught him inside 20 m and kept up whilst just loping along in 3rd gear while Gaz (who was a recognised speedster) was going close to full pelt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ng0LpGKNAo4 Don't judge his speed on the last year of his career, the guy was seriously fast.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Thanks Nat, you are right, if you have an overdose of dazzlers you get the traditional Auckland Warriors. But a team of quality grinders with say four players to elevate the play to that special level is a formula that mostly works.
Nat
Roar Guru
Good article Matt and some cracking old names brought back into the front of mind (I used to love Chris Johns, now I don't know why!). I think that's one of the best things about league is the diversity. The flashy centers and wingers making all the highlight reels. Then the lumbering forwards doing a job that 'Joe Public' cannot comprehend but also the smallest bloke on the park who is the master manipulator and they are all intimidated by each other for their various skills. For every highlight there is 1% grinder who got the team into position. A big backrower races out for a big hit and the little half spies the hole he just left. Melbourne may just be proof that a team of honest workers with a few brilliant players is the formula most teams are chasing.
3 R M
Guest
Thanks for the laughs Matt that Canberra back line had another unheralded grinder Cris Osullivan . For me he still holds the award for the best pass ever .it was a outside dummy bottom handed inside flick try assist Mandrake style it must have been rehearsed because it fooled everyone except the ball runner.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Thanks Geoff, I was also up live for that game and is was a truly great rugby league moment. Despite being a Brisbane supporter I always thought Ricky was underrated. I could have been lazy and put the entire Canberra team in as the Dazzlers. Also any number of Auckland teams over the years.
Geoff from Bruce Stadium
Roar Rookie
I might be biased but the Ricky Stuart show and go 40 or 50 metre and linking up with a loomimg big Mal Meninga to win the second test against the Poms in Old Trafford is the greatest moment in rugby league - EVER - bar none. I saw it live back in 1990 and remember jumping around the lounge room like a schoolboy at 1 am in the morning or whatever it was. I never tire of watching it on Youtube. What a match - what atmosphere - and what a finish. One of the greatest moments ever in sport. Great article Matt. I'm a relative newbie only following RL closely for the past 20 years or so since I moved to Canberra but this is a great list. I think you could find a spot for BJ Leilua and Jordan Rapana in the dazzlers team and possibly Blake Austin in 2015 until opposition players stopped falling for the right foot step and I'm sure you could find a few Storm and Sharks players to represent the grinders but the teams you've assembled are pretty impressive.
Matt H
Roar Guru
Thanks Paul, great memory that. Definitely got him kicked out of the Grinder list plus free beers for life.
Paul
Roar Guru
The other guy I'd have included in the Grinders was Scott Sattler. He did the 1%ers week in, week out but when it came to a certain GF tackle on Todd Byrne, he turned a 1%er into a piece of rugby league immortality. https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=pjvL5sBas_Q