25 in 25: Best players in NRL era never to play Origin - Blacklock, Orford, Johnston, Presto, Barba, Sutton?

The 25th season of the NRL is almost done and dusted so to commemorate the first quarter-century of this instalment of the premiership, The Roar will be looking back at the 25 best players and moments in 25 categories.

After yesterday taking a look at the No.1 gun fullbacks of the era, it’s time to see which players were the best who never got the chance to enter the State of Origin arena. 

Either through injuries, bad luck or shortsighted selectors, these are the players who would have been worthy representatives for the Blues or Maroons but did not get their shot. 

Due to there being a greater player pool of NSW players, most of the names on the list are Blues snubs – their selectors have made some odd choices over the years.

In each of these articles recapping the elite performers and standout moments, we have separated the 25 into the top 10 (the best of the best), the next 10 who simply couldn’t miss the cut and the final five who just beat out a bunch of other worthy contenders.

Mandatory Credit: Adam Pretty/ALLSPORT

Each player has been judged on their collective efforts from 1998 onwards, not including their efforts prior to that season, or if they’re an active player, up until 2022, without speculating on how their career might play out over next season and beyond.

The plan is to have a player only selected in the position where they spent most of their career but the people have spoken so if a player was truly elite in more than one position, like Darren Lockyer or Greg Inglis, they will now be included more than once.

The best of the best – the top 10

1 Matt Orford
2 Ben Barba
3 Preston Campbell
4 Nathan Blacklock
5 John Sutton
6 Alex Johnston
7 Andrew Walker
8 Jordan McLean
9 Chris Lawrence
10 Reni Maitua

The first three each won the Dally M Medal but were never given a chance by Origin selectors. 

Orford was selected in 2004 after NSW halves Brett Kimmorley and Trent Barrett were out injured but he had to withdraw due to a hamstring strain, opening the door for Brett Finch to make his debut.

Barba was on course for Queensland honours after his breakout Dally M season at Canterbury in 2012 but his career went off the rails in subsequent years and he remains one of the NRL’s great what-if stories of recent times.

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Campbell was considered too small by NSW selectors despite that not being an obstacle to him winning the game’s highest individual honour at Cronulla and then a premiership ring at Penrith.

Blacklock played two Tests for Australia in 2001 but the prolific Dragons winger should have had many more representative jerseys, particularly during a four-year stretch when he scored 22 or more tries each season.

Sutton was another player who went oh so close to Origin – in 2013 he and Josh Reynolds were selected in the squad with the Bulldogs five-eighth winning the spot for the final spot on the bench.

Johnston, who recently moved into the top five for most tries in premiership history, played a Test for Australia in 2015 but despite record-breaking efforts on the South Sydney wing, has not been called upon by the Blues.

Andrew Walker was one of the most talented players, particularly when it comes to kicking and passing, but after representing Australia in a Test in 1996, his rugby league career stagnated a few years later and he made a successful switch to rugby and represented the Wallabies before returning in 2004 for a season at Manly where he showed he still could be an attacking force.

McLean, Lawrence and Maitua are three players who wore the green and gold but did not translate that success to the Origin arena. McLean was chosen for the series decider this year but suffered a hamstring injury at training – the veteran Cowboy has a few more seasons to get off this list.

The best of the rest – elite performers

11 Luke Patten
12 Alan Tongue
13 Jarrod Croker 
14 Darren Britt
15 Glenn Morrison
16 Ryan James
17 Jake Granville
18 Joel Clinton
19 Aaron Payne
20 Aiden Tolman 

These 10 players were, for the most part, influential at club level but not deemed good enough by state selectors.

Patten, Tongue and Croker were as dependable as the day is long for the Bulldogs and Raiders – while Queensland selectors would often pick such players to wear maroon, the Blues have shied away from this style of player but if given the opportunity, this three would have more than held their own at Origin level.

Britt is a curious case – he played nine Tests from 1998-2000 but was never sighted in a sky-blue jersey. The hard-working Bulldogs prop, who captained the club for several seasons, played 227 first-grade matches in a career which started with Western Suburbs.

Morrison was considered a rep star of the future when he burst onto the scene to win the Dally M Rookie of the Year award in 1996 but despite consistently strong performances for the Tigers, Bears, Cowboys and Eels over the next decade, he represented NSW Country five times but did not receive an Origin call-up.

(AAP Image/Lukas Coch)

James was in, then out, of the NSW team for game one in 2018 after the selectors had a late change of heart and then when a spot opened up for game two, he missed out on the berth when Blues coach Brad Fittler surprisingly picked Sharks veteran Matt Prior for what turned out to be his only ever Origin.

Granville and Payne are members of the “I would have Played for Queensland if not for that Cameron Smith Fella Club”. The long-time Cowboys hookers were certainly capable but never going to get a start while the Storm star had a mortgage on the No.9 jersey for more than a decade.

Clinton had a couple of powerful seasons at Penrith, leading their pack alongside front-row partner Martin Lang, but despite wearing the green and gold in 2004, NSW went with other options in their pack.

Tolman has only just retired after more than 300 NRL appearances over 15 seasons but during his prime at Melbourne, club officials were continually baffled that the Blues didn’t add him to their pack given his non-stop efforts for the Storm.

The final five

21 Shannon Boyd 
22 Mitch Aubusson
23 Sione Mata’utia
24 Richard Villasanti
25 John Morris

Boyd was a big bopper who had a couple of barnstorming seasons with Canberra which yielded four Test jerseys in 2016 but his form went south when he made a big-money switch to the Gold Coast.

Mata’utia and Villasanti fall into the category of players who hit the heights briefly in their career, each rewarded with Australian selection, but who quickly came back to earth.

Aubusson and Morris, along with Sutton and Tolman, are the only other members of the NRL’s 300 Club who did not play rep footy. Aubusson, at the Roosters, and Morris, in stints at the Knights, Eels, Wests Tigers and the Sharks, were reliable stalwarts with great utility value who could have filled an interchange role for NSW.

Mitchell Aubusson of the Roosters. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Just missed the cut

Daniel Gartner and Aaron Raper, who was selected in a NSW 17 but was not given any game time, were two players who seemed destined to be rep stars in the mid 1990s but injuries cruelled the latter stages of their careers.

Sharks centre Russell Richardson was another seen as the next big thing and was rewarded with Test selection in 1999 but he quickly fell out of favour.

Brent Webb was an Indigenous player from Queensland who represented the Kiwis at Test level because he had lived in New Zealand for three years while playing for the Warriors.

Pretty much every fan base over the years has thought one of their players should have been given a go by Origin selectors. 

There are countless other players who racked up many games in the NRL who never made the leap from established first-grader to rep star, such as Cowboys stalwart Scott Bolton, Ashton Sims, Broncos utility John Plath, Chris Heighington – who ended up declaring for England, Shane and Ben Walker, Bulldogs playmaker Craig Polla-Mounter and Mark Minichiello, who famously said he was the best player in his family when the Roosters signed his brother Anthony.