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It’s a tale as old as time. You have two rugby league stars who have excelled at club and Origin levels in the same position.
But now that it is time to represent their country, two into one doesn’t go – a scenario playing out in England right now with Manly’s veteran captain Daly Cherry-Evans and Penrith’s young superstar Nathan Cleary vying to be Australia’s halfback for the knockout stages of the World Cup.
Four decades ago on a Kangaroo tour to the UK, Brett Kenny was the rising star who unseated future Immortal Wally Lewis for the five-eighth’s role with his Parramatta teammate Peter Sterling also getting the nod ahead of his older rival Steve Mortimer.
Kenny believes Kangaroos coach Mal Meninga, who was a centre on that Invincibles tour of 1982, should also go with the younger option and pick Cleary for the quarter-finals after each playmaker gets one last chance to show their wares in this weekend’s last group game against Italy.
“I would have Nathan Cleary only because he’s younger, he has proven himself in Origin and in grand finals, I think he is a very smart player and I just believe it’s probably time now for Australia to start looking at the younger guys,” said Kenny, who played 265 games for the Eels, 17 Origins with NSW and 17 Tests in the green and gold.
“I think he is an outstanding player. I believe that he will be the NSW halfback and possibly I think the Australian halfback for as long as he wants to be.”
Kenny remembers that while his battle with “the KIng” had its challenges, mostly positive things came out of it.
“It was always going to be difficult, and I guess depending on what side of the border you came from as to whether people rated you better than the other,” joked Kenny.
Parramatta Eels footballer Brett Kenny (AAP Image/Brendon Thorne)
“And I think the reality is it brought the best out in both of us. And in the end, while I may have played five-eighth back in 1982 in those Test matches on the Kangaroo tour, I finished up playing in the centres after that, and Wally was the five-eighth. So yeah, that was a good battle.
“Everyone obviously wants to play in a certain position, and when you’ve got two or three guys that are all capable that play at that level in that position that makes it very interesting.”
Despite what many may think, Lewis was quite gracious when it came to stepping aside – at least towards Kenny.
“Wally was good. In 82 he was very helpful. I was over there, I was only 21 years of age, first time ever playing for Australia. And Wally was the vice-captain, and he was great,” said Kenny.
“And you know, I would imagine it would have been very difficult when you’ve gone over there and you are the vice-captain, and you just played in a series in Australia as vice-captain and also in the five-eighth position, and now you are not playing in a Test match – it would be very difficult to accept. And I’m not saying that Wally accepted it obviously, he would have been filthy.
“But in saying that he didn’t take that frustration out on me. He was very helpful to me.”
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While everyone on tour understands that the best team possible needs to be on the park, Kenny admits it’s hard for teammates and friends not to pick sides.
“Obviously with Wally and myself, I was playing for NSW, and he Queensland and of course I would play outside Peter Sterling, and then we had different halfbacks and centres and so I guess those guys would look at the situation and may have a preference only because they’ve been playing outside either one of us for so long,” said Kenny
“I think a lot of times when you get to the level of international rugby league the players are obviously great players and genuinely can adapt to whoever might be playing inside them or outside if it’s not the guy they’ve been playing alongside of for a long time.
Wally Lewis (Photo by Getty Images)
“And the current Kangaroos are probably feeling the same. Some have played with Cleary and others with Cherry-Evans. They’re probably happy with whoever gets picked but there’s probably a little bit of loyalty lying with one of them as opposed to the other.
As for their expectant halves partner, Kenny believes Cameron Munster will be happy with whoever is beside him.
“He plays for Queensland in Origin and his halfback with him is Cherry-Evans. So, you would sense that he probably is used to playing outside Cherry-Evans, but from what you read, and from what he’s been saying, I think he enjoys playing alongside Nathan Cleary as well. Cleary is a guy that thinks a lot about what he’s going to do, prepares himself well, and Munster says he is a bit of a maniac, so they are two opposites.
“And they always say opposites attract.”
Kenny says the Maroons and Blues would get on surprisingly well when they all wore green and gold despite their fierce interstate rivalry.
“If you remember, in Origin, you would never want to miss the first five minutes of an Origin game back in the 80s. Because there was always a fight in the scrums. And I used to think, how do these guys go about belting the hell out of each other in an Origin game and then a week or two later, they room together playing for Australia? It used to amaze me.
“I become good mates with Wally and Gene Miles and Mal Meninga and all of those guys. And so when I played against them again after that first Kangaroo tour in 82 after you got to know the blokes, I didn’t put as much effort into the tackle – I’d still tackle them but I wouldn’t try anything. Because they were more like a mate because I knew them. But when you didn’t know them, you were quite happy too! I remember Peter Tunks saying to me after the first origin games we played 85, ‘I used to think the Parramatta forwards were arseholes. But, then you get to know them and they’re not bad blokes.’
“But it wasn’t all like that before you got to meet them in the representative team. If you didn’t know them you would try to belt the hell out of them, but once you got to know them, you didn’t put as much shit into the tackle that you would have before.”
(Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Regardless of what side of the border you came from, the players would always find something to unite them.
“Wayne Pearce used to hang out a skipping rope in the hallway and he would be out there skipping at six o’clock in the morning. You can imagine there were a lot of guys who had been out on the drink the night before. We didn’t have to get up that early, we had to be up and down stairs by seven o’clock. But they didn’t need someone skipping in the hallway at 6am.
“So one day he picked up his skipping rope, picked up the handles and that’s all he had. Someone had cut the rope.”
Kenny believes DCE will handle the news well if Cleary does get the nod ahead of him. “I think he will be fine with it. He will obviously be disappointed. You want to play in the finals if you get there, but it’s just a part of life. You know, you get to a stage where the younger guy is going to come in and take your position and I think that’s what will happen,” said Kenny.
“The older you get you’d like to think that your experience would be enough to get you into the team, but sometimes it’s not enough. It’s the old legs, and he’s slowing down a bit, you’ve got this young kid who is a lot quicker, and I think very smart between the ears.
(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images for RLWC)
“Cleary just seems very calm. And he seems to be able to do things when the team might be struggling a bit, he seems to be able to do something to get them out of trouble. I don’t think Cherry- Evans is able to do that a lot of times for his side, whether it be Manly or Queensland. I think a lot of times he can’t come up with something that’s going to get them back into the game.
“And I think he would understand and appreciate that. He’s now in that veteran’s position, it’s going to be harder to stay in the number seven jersey or number 48, or whatever the bloody hell they have now.”
Kenny, who cherished his No.6 jersey, is well and truly not a fan of the new numbering system adopted by the Kangaroos. “It’s ridiculous, said Kenny.
“I don’t think they realise what it means to players. I remember hearing Willie Mason talking about it and he said when he first played for Australia wearing number 10 or number 11, he said ‘I started to think about the players before me that wore that jumper.’ And that’s exactly right.
“I wore the No.6 jersey and in front of me there were the blokes like Lewis, Alan Thompson, before him John Peard. That’s what it’s all about. You’re part of that group of players that wore that jersey.
“To get someone like Cameron Munster and he’s going ‘well one of the great five-eighths we’ve ever had was Wally Lewis who wore the same jersey. Now he will say ‘I was five-eighth, but I didn’t wear the same jersey.’
“I saw a cartoon in the paper and there’s a husband and wife sitting down watching the football, they’ve got all their supporters gear on watching the World Cup. And you can see on the cartoon there are these numbers that someone’s called out 35, 21, 2, 16 and the husband says to his wife ‘I didn’t realise the Powerball was on tonight’ and she said ‘no, it’s not Powerball it’s the World Cup. They’re just reading out the Australian team.”
© AAP