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Opinion
Cast your mind back to 1998, when the NRL was formed, and see where international footy landed in the hierarchy.
From 1995, when the ARL refused to pick Super League-aligned players, through the farces of games against a Fiji XIII and PNG XIII in 1996 and on to the unrecognised (but actually quite good) Super League Test series of 1997, the highest level of rugby league was stuck on the back-burner as the game in Australia tore itself apart.
One of the joys of the reunification was the return of a full-strength Kangaroos team. The emergence of a new generation of stars, allied to improvements in professionalism in other countries, created one of the best eras for competitiveness.
When we’re picking the best 25 Kangaroos players of the 25-year-old NRL era, we have to refer back to that.
Comparing eras is always hard and made even harder with the inevitably smaller sample size that comes with international footy. The most games Australia has played in one calendar year since 1998 is eight, in 2000, when they won the World Cup and played one-offs against the Kiwis and Kumuls.
Between 2019 and 2022, they didn’t play at all – alright, Covid – but not exactly out of keeping with previous behaviour: in 2002, 2007 and 2012 they managed two games, while in 2015 it was just one.
This list will weight the earlier 2000s higher than the present day, for one, because the opponents were a lot better and the Kangaroos played a lot more.
The crop that just won the World Cup are great, but they played New Zealand (once) and Samoa (once) whereas the side in, say, 2004, played the Kiwis and Great Britain three times each. International rugby league in general might be stronger now than it was then, but the Kangaroos are not.
It’s undeniable, too, that it was harder to get a Kangaroos jumper prior to 2017 due to the eligibility rules, which now lead to several walk-up Australian starters opting to represent their heritage nations. Again, this good for the game but bad for the 2022 Kangaroos in this list.
We’re not going to be throwing 2000s tourists in just for the sake of it – sorry, Eric Grothe Jnr – but there is an obvious discrepancy that needs to be acknowledged.
Daly Cherry-Evans, the most capped player at the start of the 2022 World Cup, has 18 Kangaroo appearances, but over a decade. Anthony Minichiello beat that number in three seasons in the early 2000s.
You’ll be hearing both their names again, anywhere. Here’s the best that the Green & Gold has had to offer in the NRL era.
If you’ve missed it, this is the latest in our series celebrating 25 years of the NRL – and we have already ranked the best fullbacks, wingers, five-eighths, locks, second-rowers, players to never make Origin, coaches, captains, halfbacks, front-rowers, goal-kickers, recruits, heaviest hitters, fights, rookies, Kiwis, Poms, and Grand Final moments of the era.
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1 Darren Lockyer
2 Cameron Smith
3 Greg Inglis
4 Andrew Johns
5 Johnathan Thurston
6 Billy Slater
7 Danny Buderus
8 Petero Civoniceva
9 Shane Webcke
10 Brad Fittler
Top of the pile is Darren Lockyer, who holds the Kangaroo record for most appearances, has the second most tries and, crucially, made both of those records in the NRL era.
Perhaps no player is so associated with the Kangaroo jersey as much in modern times: for all his stellar career at club level, he never won the Dally M, and while he was unbelievable in the Origin arena, he would sit behind Wally Lewis and Allan Langer from before, plus Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston from afterwards in a ranking of Queensland stars.
Yet in the green and gold, he grew a leg. Two Golden Boots in two different positions, in an era when international footy was incredibly strong, plus repeatedly saving his best work for the hardest games.
His performances in deciders against Great Britain in 2001 and 2004, plus in the three Ashes tests of 2003 – arguably the closest the sides have been in the NRL era – live long in the memory. For a teenage, UK-based rugby league fanatic, there was no better.
Backing him up is Cam Smith, about whom very little extra needs to be said other than he was the great leader of his age, and obviously, incredibly good at rugby league. The only thing keeping him off top spot is the bloke above him, and that he began in 2006, when the competition had begun to wane, and ended in 2017, before it got good again.
The same could be said for Greg Inglis, though his influence in winning best in the world for his position twice – in two different positions – speaks to his influence. He’s also the third highest tryscorer in Kangaroos history, with a ridiculous 31 in 39 games.
As a fan watching him play against England, he was the player that you feared most and knew that you couldn’t stop, the embodiment of how far the NRL had moved in the mid-to-late 2000s.
Back at the very start of the NRL era, there was Andrew Johns. His influence in Tests was limited early in his career by being forced to play out of position at hooker – even in the 2000 World Cup, Brett Kimmorley got the halfback role – but once he got the 7 jumper, he was typically outstanding.
What keeps him off the very top is lack of football: he missed the entire 2003 Ashes, plus the 2004 Tri-Nations and retired in 2006, leaving just 18 international appearances, 12 of which were at halfback. He was man of the match in probably 10 of them, but that’s by the by.
Behind Johns in every list of NRL era halfbacks is Johnathan Thurston, and he’s right here again. He won three Golden Boots in 2011, 2013 and 2015, as well as being named man of the match in all four games he played at the 2013 World Cup.
He retired as the all-time record points scorer for the Kangaroos and with a ridiculous 92% winning record, having lost just twice in green and gold.
(Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
One of those, of course, was the 2008 World Cup Final, which brings us onto our next man: Billy Slater. His very good international career somewhat lagged his exceptional Origin and unbelievable club careers, but still is one of the best ever.
Taking over from Anthony Minichiello should have been a harder job than it looked, but Slater took it to new heights. Granted, his principal international moment will always be the brain fade that gifted the 2008 tournament to the Kiwis, but Slater was still named Golden Boot that year and went on to win in 2013 and 2017, so I’m sure he’ll be OK.
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Danny Buderus only managed 25 Kangaroo appearances, but it’s hard to think of anyone with a tougher role or a harder list of opponents.
He played hooker in the period between the 2000 and 2008 World Cups, meaning he faced New Zealand or Great Britain in 23 of his 25 Kangaroo appearances, including two Kangaroo tours in 2001 and 2003, and just five were played in Australia. If you judge a boxer on who they fought, then Buderus is one of the greats.
He was hard, and right alongside him were two equally tough blokes. Petero Civoniceva and Shane Webcke were the backbone of the Aussie pack in an era where they were regularly third-best internationally, and tasked with keeping the team going forward enough that all the playmaking talent could do their best work.
Webcke played from 1998 to 2004, including the 2000 World Cup, starting in the front row and losing just twice. Petero went even better, turning out from the 2001 Ashes until 2011, then strapping them on again in 2013 for his native Fiji.
Next is Brad Fittler, who is limited in the confines of this list by having done his best work prior to the NRL era. The bulk of his 40 Test caps came prior to 1998, though by the time international footy picked up again, Freddie was captain and won a World Cup, an Ashes and a tri-series against New Zealand.
(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images for RLWC)
11 Brett Morris
12 Cooper Cronk
13 Brett Kimmorley
14 Sam Thaiday
15 Paul Gallen
16 Anthony Minichiello
17 James Tedesco
18 Robbie Kearns
19 Craig Fitzgibbon
20 Willie Mason
Brett Morris won 88% of his international fixtures, losing just once, and scored in all but four of his 18 Tests. That left him with 23 in 18, including nine in five at the World Cup. In tries per cap, he’s the clear standout.
Aussie halfbacks have tended to be of the utmost quality, and while Cooper Cronk is not quite on the level of Andrew Johns, his record for the Kangaroos stacks right up with Joey’s. Cronk was Golden Boot in 2016, halfback of the year in 2012 and the scourge, particularly, of England. He saved his best for winding up the Poms.
Close on his heels is Brett Kimmorley, who kept Johns out of the chief playmaker role at the 2000 World Cup. After appearing twice in Super League tests, Noddy was in the wilderness for a year while Allan Langer held sway, but once Alfie retired, he made the 7 jumper his own.
His contribution, in particular, to the 2003 Ashes and 2004 Tri-Nations should not be overlooked: Australia were arguably the lesser side in ’03, but had the individual brilliance and leadership of Lockyer and Kimmorley to thank for the series win, while in ’04, with Lockyer out, he ran the ship alone.
At the other end of the size scale stand Paul Gallen and Sam Thaiday, two of the toughest to do it for Australia in the last 25 years. Gallen was named best of the backrowers at international level three times and made 32 apperances for his country – behind only Civoniceva and Thaiday in the modern age.
Thaiday is underrated in the ranks of Kangaroos, but he got picked time and again across a ten-year stretch, which suggest that he was doing something right.
Next are the Roosters fullback duo of Anthony Minichiello and James Tedesco. Mini only represented Australia across three seasons, but crammed 19 appearances in 2003, 2004 and 2005, winning an Ashes and two Tri-Nations in the process as well as the ’05 Golden Boot.
Teddy is Roos captain these days, and will doubtless overtake Mini, but with just ten games for Australia, he can’t go any higher. Fun fact: the pair played together, for Italy, at the 2013 World Cup.
Robbie Kearns timed his career perfectly to coincide with the NRL era, debuting in the 1998 series win over New Zealand, winning the 2000 World Cup and then two Ashes in ’01 and ’03. He also was one half of the most iconic international moment of the NRL era, too, not that he remembers it.
Lastly we have Willie Mason, the man who best typified the mid-2000s team. In between the Fittler and Johns era, but before the Smith/Cronk/Inglis/Slater generation, there was the largely unloveable but Lockyer-inspired team that played tougher than tough.
Faced with a rock solid GB pack of Adrian Morley and Andy Farrell, plus Jamie Peacock and Stuart Fielden, plus hardman hooker Terry Newton and lock Paul Sculthorpe, Mason was the unhinged enforcer off the bench.
Craig Fitzgibbon was part of the hard-nut squad with Mason in the mid-2000s, playing 18 Tests against stacked GB and Kiwis teams, while also adding plenty of skill to his aggression. Even with the game gone against GB in 2004 in Wigan, Fitzy was scrapping with Leeds centre Keith Senior right until the final whistle.
21 Valentine Holmes
22 Mat Rogers
23 Wendell Sailor
24 Daly Cherry-Evans
25 Gorden Tallis
Val Holmes was lowkey one of the best at the most recent World Cup, and also managed huge numbers in 2017 – and has a ludicrous 94% win rate in the green and gold.
Wendell Sailor and Mat Rogers would be in the conversation higher had they not both left the sport after the 2000 World Cup to join rugby union. From the beginning of the NRL until that point, they had been tryscoriing machines on either wing for the Kangaroos.
(Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images for RLWC)
Daly Cherry-Evans is the most capped current Kangaroo, and though he lost his place late in the 2021 World Cup to Nathan Cleary, his contribution over the decade prior to that – and the grace with which he took losing out to the boy wonder – said a lot about the man. From the 2011 Four Nations all the way through to last November, he was a mainstay of a series of great Kangaroo teams.
Last but not least is Gorden Tallis – who, amazingly, fits an entire career into the NRL era at international level. The Raging Bull debuted in first grade way back in 1992 and was in Origin in 1994, but never got the call for the Kangaroos until 1997 in the Super League Tests.
Once he was in the team post-1998, he only managed 13 appearances – though he never lost a single game in the green and gold.