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We all have our rugby league heroes. Those players who epitomise everything that’s great about the greatest game of all, the particular club we support, and sport in general.
They are the players who typically give the obligatory “110 percent” week in and week out, and play the game in a manner that brings credit to themselves, their club and the game.
They can get through their entire careers without resorting to foul play, being involved in off field scandals, or even making a poor taste best man’s speech.
They are generally not only admired by their own club’s fans, team mates, and the mothers of aspiring footballers, but also by their opponents, and even, if at times begrudgingly, by the one-eyed supporters of opposing clubs.
They are not necessarily the best players in the game, but they are the players you’d be happy to invite home for a family barbecue. They are the good guys.
Of course, just to balance the ledger of human behaviour, the game also has more than its fair share of villains. That group of rogues, scoundrels and sometimes outright thugs who while probably loved by their own team mates and supporters, are openly disliked by everyone else, and often deservedly so.
They don’t mind getting down and dirty, in fact some of them thrive on it, and sometimes it’s just their public image that make them so unlikeable to all but their own loyal fans.
These are the game’s anti-heroes who the opposition supporters just love to hate, the target of their boos, and far too frequently the media cannon fodder that feeds the 24 hour news cycle.
So who are the heroes and villains of each club? Do some clubs attract more than their fair share of villains? Are some clubs just made up of heroes? Let’s take a look at each of the clubs and reveal more.
Is it just me or do the Broncos have a very vanilla squad, one that’s both hard to love and hard to dislike? Maybe the fact that that they haven’t been a serious premiership threat for many years means that opposition fans just don’t get excited about their roster these days.
Their recruitment hasn’t helped either, as just as many of us were beginning to see the dark side of Tyson Gamble, they’ve let him head to the Knights. Add to that the loss of both Tevita Pangai Jr and Matt Lodge in recent years and you could be forgiven for suspecting that the Broncos are trying to become the good guys.
Payne Haas is probably the closest thing the Broncos have to a villain at the moment, but that’s more for his off-field antics than anything else, while high hopes in the villain stakes are held for Selwyn Cobbo provided he can take his pod casting skills to the next level.
On the hero front, Adam Reynolds and Patrick Carrigan would be leading the way, on the back of what they bring to the club, but things could change quickly for Reynolds if he doesn’t get the team into the top eight this year.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
What I like about the Raiders is that their coach Ricky Stuart has taken on the mantle of public enemy number one, and he can probably count his close friends in the NRL hierarchy these days on the paw of a weak-gutted dog.
Ricky seemingly neither cares about what he says nor the fact that the Raiders have been in the premiership wilderness for the past nine years under his leadership.
From the Raiders squad, Hudson Young is a villain in the eyes of many, Tom Starling has been a big hit on the Central Coast in recent times, Jack Wighton has the Raiders CEO on speed dial, both Joseph Tapine’s missus and Jordan Rapana have their detractors, and who can forget the school development work of Corey Harawira-Naera? Admittedly, CHW was a Bulldog back then.
If we’re talking Canberra heroes, there’s none more heroic than Jarrod Croker, the 292-game veteran and point scoring machine who lives and breathes the Raiders, and still refuses to lie down no matter how many times he’s badly injured. Let’s hope this good guy gets a chance to pass the 300 game mark for Canberra this year.
It comes as no surprise to me that there’s far more villains than heroes in the nation’s capital.
I’m sure if you ask most Penrith supporters, the Canterbury Bulldogs are a cross between the evil empire and a death star that is systematically plundering the Panthers’ riches, under the rule of Gus Vader.
Looking through the club’s list of likely villainous players, it’s hard to go the past the overpaid, under-performing and often over-vigorous enforcer Tevita Pangai Junior as public enemy number one, particularly now that noted loose cannon in Jack Hetherington has been banished to Newcastle.
TPJ is sure to make the headlines for all the wrong reasons at some stage this year and earn the ire of the opposition fans. Jayden Okunbor also rates a mention for his inappropriate after school activities.
On the loveable loyal dog front, the recently retired workhorse and club stalwart Josh Jackson would have been right up there if he didn’t take “early retirement” in order to help fund Canterbury’s back door acquisition of the Panthers squad.
Of the remaining heroic contenders, it’s hard to go past Josh Addo-Carr, who appears to be a hero in everyone’s eyes with the exception of Brad Fittler, while Matt Burton, another good guy, isn’t far behind him.
Josh Addo-Carr runs with the ball against Melbourne. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)
I looked long and hard through the Sharks’ 2023 line-up and struggled to find too many players that evoked an emotional response, whether villainous or heroic. It must be a Shire thing.
The closest I could come to a villain, now that Andrew Fifita has retired, is Jesse Ramien, although it’s highly likely that Siosifa Talakai appears regularly in Morgan Harper’s nightmares. Back to Ramien, and to me he often looks like a player who barely has things under control.
The Sharks have some of the nicest guys in the NRL in Will Kennedy, Ronaldo Mulitalo and Nicho Hynes, but perhaps the only player with heroic tendencies is the irrepressible Cameron McInnes, who doesn’t appear to know how play anything but flat out.
If the Titans were really serious about featuring heavily in the villain discussion, they wouldn’t have let Kevin Proctor slip through their grasp. He had it all, disciplined by the Kiwis for recreational drug use, suspended for biting Kiwi team mate Shaun Johnson, and eventually sacked for vaping while sitting on the reserves bench.
Now all the Titans are left with are Patrick Herbert, who has been known to have a nasty disposition, and Lazy Davy who, who while fairly docile on the field, is an overpaid tall poppy who gets fans up in arms.
Heroes are a bit thin on the ground as well on the glitter strip, with AJ Brimson and big Tino on the top of the very small pile.
Titans fans love what Brimson can do when he’s on-song, and surely the club would have a couple more wooden spoons in their cabinet if not for the week in, week out heroic efforts put in by Tino.
The key to be regarded as a rugby league hero on the northern beaches is to have a surname that’s hard to pronounce and even harder to spell, like Trbojevic, and Manly have three of them.
Younger brother Ben has yet to hit the heroic heights, but no doubt he’ll get there eventually, while big brothers Jake and Tom can seemingly do no wrong at Manly, unless of course if they are injured, and they are the heart and soul of the club.
(Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)
I hear someone suggest Dally Cherry-Evans for inclusion here, but for all of his boyish good looks, most fans can see his dark side.
When we’re looking for Manly villains, it’s hard to go past the rainbow warriors whose refusal to play in Round 19 last year split the playing group, effectively derailed Manly’s season, and put an end to Des Hasler’s tenure as coach. You know who you are.
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