Very interesting and formidable team, but just a few notes:

When push comes to shove I would pick Lockyer over Slater at fullback – Slater wins on the raw fullback statistics but selecting for a ‘real game purely to win’ scenario (while still keeping within your selection criteria) I would still ever ever so slightly go for Lockyer over Slater in a line ball decision.

I have enormous respect for Gary Larson’s gladiator workhorse effort and he was a very effective and invaluable Origin player – also Trevor Gillmeister pulled off some game changing tackles, but I think I would go for Gorden Tallis and Bradley Clyde – although when I think about it, it is probably a lineball decision between Clyde and Gillmeister as to who should partner with Tallis – Clyde better in attack, but Gillmeister better in defense and certainly better in pulling off big tackles.

I find the most interesting decision however to be that of Allan Langer. I must admit that when I first started reading the article I thought it was very likely going to be a battle between Andrew Johns and Johnathan Thurston, with Allan Langer getting an honorary mention of coming very close but just falling short of the level of Johns and Thurston – but when one considers the combination with Wally Lewis then I think you probably made the right decision here.

True – that is the one thing that does go against Sailor at Origin level – I think he only scored one try – not a very impressive statistic for a three quarter trying to make a ‘best of’ team – however he makes up for it with his blockbusting runs that helped Queensland get on the right foot when coming out of their own territory – and him not scoring more tries was probably mostly bad luck – if he had played a few more Origins then luck likely would have balanced out a bit and his try per game tally would probably be quite reasonable.

It’s interesting how there can be notable differences between a team based on a ‘best of’ scenario and a team based on the most number of games in each position.

For example, Wendell Sailor would be the first winger I would pick for QLD under a ‘best of’ scenario, but due to the Super League war and the fact that he switched to Rugby Union, he didn’t end up playing all that many Origins – he still played a fair few but not near as many as he would have otherwise played.

On the other side of the coin, with all due respect to Martin Bella, he isn’t a player that is really all that significantly thought of when it comes to selecting a best of QLD Origin team (at least in the starting line up) – Webcke, Civonoceva (who did make the team), Beetson, Steve Price, and Matt Scott are all players who tend to be more front of mind for the two prop positions in a best QLD Origin team.

In any case, having played so many games in a given position in the Origin arena and with all that experience and ‘feel’ that comes with it, such players certainly wouldn’t let the team down in a real life ‘best of’ match even though another player may have otherwise been selected in such a ‘best of’ scenario.

Great to see all four Queensland teams win in a given round! Has there ever been another time when this has happened? Back in the 95 – 97 period did Brisbane, South Queensland, North Queensland, and the Gold Coast all win together in a given round?

Sure – I take the point – Kenny was better in State of Origin at five-eighth than at centre.

A Kenny – Lamb halves combination does sound enticing, however what about Peter Sterling? Would he go to the bench? I think Sterling needs to be in the starting side – and the only real spot for him would be in the halves.

I know Gavin Cooper in and of himself isn’t quite at the same level as Glenn Stewart or Boyd Cordner, however I would be tempted to have gone with Gavin Cooper as one of the second rowers due to his awesome combination with Thurston!

The Fittler – Johns halves combination is awesome, but I wonder whether a Thurston – Johns halves combination would be even better. Perhaps Fittler could be moved to the centres? Fittler could replace Gidley or perhaps Gidley could still be retained and Inglis moved to the wing? Maybe even have Fittler at lock?

Either way, a spine of Slater – Thurston – A. Johns – C. Smith or Slater – Fittler – A. Johns – C. Smith would have the opposition defense on edge the whole game!

Just read the 80’s article and I see Meninga is in that team so he can’t be in the 90’s team – haha, I should have suspected that he was going to make the 80’s team first!

I think you made the right choice in putting Brett Kenny at five-eighth, however part of me thinks that perhaps Terry Lamb should be five-eighth and to put Brett Kenny in the centres. Still, I think Kenny at five-eighth and having Cronin in the team at centre is probably the right choice.

I personally would have put Meninga in instead of Ettinghausen – I might still have Ettinghausen in the team and move him to the wing at the expense of Hancock.

It is interesting how many Broncos are in this team but very much to be expected given how well they did in the 90s.

The Gold Coast spine actually seems to be almost as good as The Canterbury spine – I probably would still go with the Canterbury spine but I don’t think Gold Coast’s spine is too far behind. However, in the other areas, Canterbury appears to have a greater advantage, and I can’t see Gold Coast causing an upset – Canterbury to win the game, although the scoreline would, surprisingly, likely be a little closer than what one may first think.

Although after reading the comments, I wonder if my statement that they would be reasonably competitive in any given years competition is a bit too generous.

On paper this team looks like it could be a relatively competitive team in any given year of the competition (but certainly not in a dream team competition), but when you consider that this team would be pretty similar to the Crushers team in any single particular specified year of their existence (1995, 1996, and 1997) and that they did not do well in any of those years, then I was probably a bit too hasty with my comment. With all due respect to the players themselves, I think this team would struggle in many years of hypothetically competing in.

This team would be reasonably competitive if it were fielded in any given year of a competition – e.g. hypothetically fielding it in the 1992 competition, the 2005 competition, the 2021 competition, the 1974 competition, the 1986 competition etc etc – but it (with all due respect to the players) would be on the end of some pretty big hidings in an all-time club dream teams competition and would have no realistic chance of being up at the top end of the table come the end of the competition.

Again, I’m saying this with all due respect to the players, but what can you realistically expect from a best-of team with a club that only contested three seasons.

oops – actually a little typo – I mean are both Queenslanders.

Wally the King Lewis and Scott Prince are both Queenslanders.

Before reading the team lists my pre-conceived notion was that North Queensland would moderately comfortably – not outright, but nevertheless moderately comfortably – be the better team. However reading over the team lists it is actually quite hard to pick the winner.

I would still say the Cowboys would get over the line courtesy of two of the JT’s – Johnathan Thurston and Jason Taumalolo. No disrespect to the other JT – James Tamou who no doubt would provide an important contribution for the Cowboys – but I think it is Thurston and Taumalolo that would really be the decisive difference.

Taumalolo gives the Cowboys a slight edge in the forwards, while Thurston would probably prove to be the difference in the backline – despite the quality of a Shaun Johnson – Stacey Jones halves combination for the Warriors.

Rugby League Royalty:

Wally the King Lewis and Scott Prince and both Queenslanders.

Yeah, I tend to agree – at the end of the day I probably would rank Andrew Johns above Ricky Stuart – but I do nevertheless think that many people slightly under-rate how good Stuart was.

Yeah I think I would go Canberra with this one.

The forwards are probably fairly evenly matched, but I think Canberra has the better backline.

Gary Belcher over Robbie O’Davis, the Canberra three-quarter line over the Newcastle three-quarter line, and I would probably even say the Daley-Stuart halves combination over the Hagan-Johns halves combination.

I know Andrew Johns is probably rightfully regarded as the greatest halfback of all time, but I think the ‘gap’ between Laurie Daley and Michael Hagan (with all due respect to Hagan) is probably a bit greater than the ‘gap’ between Andrew Johns and Ricky Stuart.

In fact, part of me even regards Ricky Stuart as a serious contender for the greatest halfback Australia has produced. He didn’t quite have the level of attacking razzle-dazzle as say Allan Langer, Johnathan Thurston, or Andrew Johns, however Stuart did have an incredibly effective long kicking and long passing game, and while Ricky Stuart is indeed regarded as a great halfback, he is probably nevertheless still a little under-rated – he is in the same level of first class category as Sterling, Langer, Johns, and Thurston.

And one other reason I think the Daley-Stuart combination would edge out the Hagan-Johns combination is because Daley and Stuart are a ‘tried and true’ (I think that is the right expression?) combination whereas I don’t know how many – if any – times Hagan and Johns played together in the halves.

Long story short: Forwards are fairly even, Canberra have a better backline, and hence Canberra have the overall advantage.

Ken Irvine and Brett Dallas on the wing – would have to be the fastest wing pairing of all time!

St George Illawarra to win quite comfortably in this one.

If Brad Fittler played enough games for Penrith to qualify and then subsequently picked in the team, then I would say it would bring the teams up to be almost exactly even – too difficult to pick a winner. However, as such, Cronulla would still have just as much of a chance to win as Penrith.

Yeah, with all due respect to Craig Gower, I would go with Greg Alexander at halfback over Craig Gower. Greg Alexander still made the team on the bench but I think that he should be in the starting side at halfback.

I actually think that Cronulla has a slight edge here. Cronulla and Penrith are probably on the whole relatively even here – but I still think that Cronulla has a slight edge.

Sometimes he could even tackle like Trevor Gillmeister – Renouf wasn’t just a superb attacking player but he could also pull off some tremendous tackles at times.

I agree that Brisbane would win in such a hypothetical game. Melbourne have some great names, but I think the Broncos have the advantage in both the forwards and the backs here.

I’m a tad bit surprised that Chris Johns made it over Justin Hodges. However I suppose Chris Johns is probably a little bit of an under-rated player. Still, I would pick Hodges – not only due to his defense and general attacking capabilities, but also his dummy-half running which was incredibly valuable.