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Opinion
The 25th season of the NRL is done and dusted so to commemorate the first quarter-century of this instalment of the premiership, The Roar is looking back at the 25 best players and moments in 25 categories.
We have already gone through the best fullbacks, locks, players to never make Origin, coaches and Grand Final moments of the era.
Now it’s time to look at those who led their teams into the playing arena with distinction but also kept their side on the straight and narrow when times were tough off the field.
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.
Injured Canterbury captain Steve Price and stand-in skipper Andrew Ryan in 2004. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
1 Cameron Smith
2 Darren Lockyer
3 Brad Fittler
4 Steve Price
5 Boyd Cordner
6 Paul Gallen
7 Andrew Johns
8 Jamie Lyon
9 Isaah Yeo/Nathan Cleary
10 Danny Buderus
Smith stands alone at the top of the leadership ranks – the Storm legend is the only player to have been named Dally M Captain of the Year and the first person to lead three teams to premiership wins since Allan Langer in the 1990s.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Lockyer surprisingly never received the Dally M gong but his leadership in guiding Brisbane to the 2006 Grand Final win as well as with Queensland and Australia means he will likely be an Immortal before too long.
Fittler matured into the captaincy role and it’s no coincidence his best efforts as skipper were towards the end of his career when he led the Roosters to three straight Grand Finals, including the 2002 triumph.
Price was robbed of the chance to lead Canterbury to premiership glory in 2004 by a knee injury but, fittingly, stand-in skipper Andrew Ryan called him up on stage to lift the trophy in recognition for his outstanding contribution as a leader on the field and off it during a couple of major scandals at the Dogs.
Cordner was the benchmark for the Roosters during their recent golden era and although he wasn’t big on speeches, his actions spoke louder than words in their two premiership wins, as well as with NSW and Australia.
Boyd Cordner (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Gallen was the glue that kept Cronulla together during some lean times before the historic 2016 premiership and he also deserves more credit than he probably gets for the way he stuck to his task at NSW despite facing a golden generation of Maroons in the Origin arena.
Johns is another captain who was polarising in that many fans didn’t like his occasionally petulant on-field behaviour but the way he led the underdog Knights to a 2001 boilover against Parramatta in the premiership decider shows he had the ability to inspire his troops for the big occasions.
Lyon, after Smith and Price, is the only other player to have won Dally M Captain of the Year twice in the NRL era. A somewhat reluctant leader, he took over from Matt Orford at Manly to go all the way in 2011.
Yeo and Cleary can be paired together because although they are both relatively young in their leadership careers, they have both attained equal success as co-captains of Penrith’s premiership wins over the past two years.
Buderus was a natural leader and although he was never able to get his beloved Newcastle to a Grand Final, he was arguably a better captain than his predecessor in Johns, especially at Origin level where he was one of the Blues’ finest skippers.
11 Kevin Walters
12 Craig Gower
13 Nathan Cayless
14 Johnathan Thurston/Matt Scott
15 Ben Hornby
16 Scott Prince
17 John Sutton
18 Glenn Lazarus
19 Allan Langer
10 Matt Orford
Walters’ career was winding down by the time the NRL era was kicking off but he took over the Broncos’ captaincy from Allan Langer midway through a down 1999 season for the club and led them to their fifth title the following season.
Gower was a bit of a ratbag early in his career but matured to become a leader at Penrith, often playing through injuries, and his determination was a huge factor in their unlikely charge all the way to the 2003 premiership win over the Roosters.
Cayless surprisingly never won Dally M Captain of the Year despite a decade of stellar service at the Eels after being handed the role at a young age. If Parra had managed to reverse the result in 2001 or ‘09 on Grand Final night, he’d be in the top 10 for sure.
Johnathan Thurston (Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Thurston and Scott are another pairing that go hand in hand – JT was not initially thriving when handed the outright captaincy at the Cowboys but Paul Green’s decision to split the duties with Scott lessened the load on their star player, culminating in their memorable 2015 title success.
Hornby was a quiet achiever at St George Illawarra, succeeding higher-profile skippers like Trent Barrett and Mark Gasnier to unite a talented team and take them all the way to their drought-breaking 2010 trophy.
Prince was a picture of confidence in 2005 when he led the Wests Tigers through the finals – he could see what the team was capable of achieving even though everyone else was amazed. He then guided Gold Coast into the NRL with a steady hand to ensure the new team hit the ground running.
Sutton is a hard one to compare against the other skippers – he captained Souths into history at the 2014 Grand Final but then lost the position in the off-season after an incident in a training camp in the US.
Lazarus and Langer fall into the category of great leaders but when you only count their efforts in the NRL era, they have less than two seasons on the resume but each have a premiership win.
Orford was like Hornby in that he wasn’t the highest-profile player in his team but he managed to get Manly humming and the 40-0 Grand Final win over Melbourne in 2008 is a record that may never be broken.
21 Andrew Ryan
22 Jake Friend
23 Anthony Minichiello
24 Stacey Jones
25 Gorden Tallis
Ryan achieved a slice of history when he led Canterbury to a Grand Final win in his first match as captain in 2004 but it was no surprise that he went on to be a reliable skipper for several years at the Bulldogs with his non-stop work ethic.
Friend stepped up to partner Cordner at the Roosters, taking away a lot of the off-field duties that didn’t come naturally to the second-rower while also being a rock-solid presence at hooker for his younger teammates.
Minichiello only captained the Roosters at the tail end of his career but had the respect of his peers and holding aloft the 2013 premiership trophy was his reward.
Stacey Jones is a Kiwi rugby league legend. (Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
Jones, if he had a better team behind him, would have, could have and should have tasted premiership success but dragging the Warriors to the 2002 decider would be the high point of his lengthy NRL career.
Tallis is remembered as a fearsome competitor and a strong leader on the field but his captaincy record was not crash hot compared to some of his Broncos counterparts despite having a star-studded team – a preliminary final in 2002 was the closest he got to a premiership as skipper.
There are so many very fine leaders who did exceedingly well in the NRL era.
The likes of Jason Taylor (1998), Jason King (2012), Ben Kennedy (2006), Alan Tongue (2008), Braith Anasta (2010), David Peachey (2001) and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck were the others who won Dally M Captain of the Year during their careers.
There have been others who have led their clubs for several seasons but are yet to go all the way to a title like Canberra’s Jarrod Croker, Manly veteran Daly Cherry-Evans, Eels fullback Clint Gutherson and Dragons halfback Ben Hunt.
Sharks stalwart Wade Graham, Adam Reynolds for his efforts at Souths and this season at Brisbane, fiery old Bulldogs prop James Graham and Wests Tigers legend Robbie Farah are among the others who you could mount a case for being considered in the upper echelon of leaders over the years.