Brad Fittler should be the next immortal

[Jacks Fur Coat]

Can’t see Freddy ever becoming an immortal after his hallway dump; in conjunction with his comedic relief role in the commentary.

More garbage.

No, lets keep immortal status with real cleanskins like Joey Johns.

[ism22]

I don,t care who they call immortal. It is just some political BS anyway...

It is like making the Queen,s husband a knight. All you are doing is giving a random dude with too many titles to keep track of another one.

[NorfolkStreetKid]

I disagree with the immortals concept. It is a marketing , money making tool and nothing more. Certainly there should be a Hall of Fame showing players stats, achievments etc, but I think it is stupid to single out nine or ten players as so called immortals

[milanja]

Freddy was best on ground in the 2002 GF by a mile.

And yet the history books will say:

Freddy no CCMs
DCE one CCM

That's why MotM awards should be ignored.

Anyway Freddy was a much more complete player than Lockyer. Better runner, passer and defender (by a mile).

Maybe I'm just super biased but I don't see how Lockyer is ahead. He was great but Freddy was a genius.

Yep, still don’t know how he didn’t get it, at least it went to somebody on our team though.

getting a man of the match in origin when playing the best of the best, would be something that would probably go against him more, and only getting one result out of 4 GF when with us probably doesn’t help his case as being one of the most dominant players of his era, which includes meninga,Johns,Daley, Stuart,Lockyer. Throw in Kenny, sterling, Mortimer who have all been left out of the 80s era, and it goes to show that being great, doesn’t mean you qualify for immortality.

meninga to me qualifies in every aspect of the game.

[Bigchook]

If there was a market for it, meninga would be odds on. They won't go back and make someone an immortal that played the game before Andrew John's. Doesn't make sense. Meninga has done a lot for the game with his involvement with qld and Australia.

As for locky and Freddy, both champions. IMO locky was the better leader and captain. He had the clutch plays at the death that really showed his calmness under pressure. Freddy was just a freak. Tough and unbelievably skilful. The step, the vision.. He could do it all. Can't wait till we get someone in a similar mould to that again.

[eddie]

I disagree with the immortals concept. It is a marketing , money making tool and nothing more. Certainly there should be a Hall of Fame showing players stats, achievments etc, but I think it is stupid to single out nine or ten players as so called immortals

The fact that only players who played post WWII are eligible shows what a flawed concept it is.
My nomination for the next immortal will go to any player who can prove they will live forever.

[The Axe]

Glad you opened this thread Zac as I was only thinking the very same thoughts over the weekend.

an honour to be named whether or not the concept now owned by nrl and slightly devalued.

imho Fittler miles ahead of Lockyer but some excellent players that have not been named eg Provan and meninga.

personally I think Fittler will become an immortal. His argument will be made compelling once his coaching skills at soo are realised. Both meninga and Provan are renowned coaches respectively. Cant see how Lockyer even mentioned. Would name sterling, Johns, Alfie, smith and Thurston ahead.

[Hawkeye]

Seems easy to overlook players from bygone eras and focus more on the recent.
Norm Provan's record alone should put him ahead of all the other nominees. But then again, I've always thought Dave Brown's achievements in the 30's should've at least put him up for a nomination at some point !

[eddie]

. But then again, I've always thought Dave Brown's achievements in the 30's should've at least put him up for a nomination at some point !

But he is ineligible.
I wish the concept died with the magazine.

[ism22]

Seems easy to overlook players from bygone eras and focus more on the recent.
Norm Provan's record alone should put him ahead of all the other nominees. But then again, I've always thought Dave Brown's achievements in the 30's should've at least put him up for a nomination at some point !

I think it is easy because the standards were so much lower. I mean, I reckon I probably coulda played against the guys in the 30s, I woulda been about their size and I woulda been fitter than them because most were lazy chain smokers who trained twice a week and played on the weekend. To back this up, as a sprinter my times woulda gotten me into olympic finals. As a 30s rugby league player, having me would be like having a cheating east German sprinter from the 40s on your team and I woulda just blitzed through everybody with ease because they simply couldn,t keep up. I woulda seriously hurt people by hitting them at that kinda speed too (whereas I would be a skinny little runt in todays game - compare the body sizes - 30s players were just average dudes who relied on natural talent).

Training every day with a good diet, no smokes and a lot of science/recovery on your side was a joke back in those days! Not saying I was ever amazing, but nobody trained that hard in the 30s. NOBODY! So the skills were shyte and the game was played in slo-mo.

The concept of a modern day professional player is something I would argue only existed from pfff... mid 90s? (Was Meninga really one? I dunno). About that time people started getting frigging huge, going on professional diets, executing things with amazing precision and taking the professionalism of the sport a lot more seriously.

I don,t say this to disrespect champions of the day. I say this because times have changed so much that I don,t think you can meaningfully compare todays champs to yesterdays.

IMO we just don,t need to go here and identify the ,best,. Players were good for their day, they are in the history books already and no award will change history.

[Louis N]

There aren't too many Immortals left. Churchill, Gasnier, Beetson, Langlands all gone and JR in a nursing home for dementia. Provan ticks all the boxes, Coote was great and did a lot for the game after retiring with Men of League. Meninga has done it all from a player, captain and coach perspective. They are my top three in that order. I rate them above the others.

I would have given it to Jack Gibson, but it's a players only award.

[eddie]

Meninga should never be considered since his little speech at cronulla leagues club 20 years ago.
Ingrates and shit stirers should be ineligible as well.

[Louis N]

Meninga should never be considered since his little speech at cronulla leagues club 20 years ago.
Ingrates and shit stirers should be ineligible as well.

Eddie, a lot of punters think that Mal's shortest ever political career made up for indiscretions. It wasn't his greatest interview though. This is on his highlight reel for Immortaldom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGRu_bCBSzg

[The Skeez]

The Half Scottish/Polish Victorian Pixie. That's great.

Geez Queenslanders can be polite

[The Skeez]

I think it is easy because the standards were so much lower. I mean, I reckon I probably coulda played against the guys in the 30s, I woulda been about their size and I woulda been fitter than them because most were lazy chain smokers who trained twice a week and played on the weekend. To back this up, as a sprinter my times woulda gotten me into olympic finals. As a 30s rugby league player, having me would be like having a cheating east German sprinter from the 40s on your team and I woulda just blitzed through everybody with ease because they simply couldn,t keep up. I woulda seriously hurt people by hitting them at that kinda speed too (whereas I would be a skinny little runt in todays game - compare the body sizes - 30s players were just average dudes who relied on natural talent).

Training every day with a good diet, no smokes and a lot of science/recovery on your side was a joke back in those days! Not saying I was ever amazing, but nobody trained that hard in the 30s. NOBODY! So the skills were shyte and the game was played in slo-mo.

The concept of a modern day professional player is something I would argue only existed from pfff... mid 90s? (Was Meninga really one? I dunno). About that time people started getting frigging huge, going on professional diets, executing things with amazing precision and taking the professionalism of the sport a lot more seriously.

I don,t say this to disrespect champions of the day. I say this because times have changed so much that I don,t think you can meaningfully compare todays champs to yesterdays.

IMO we just don,t need to go here and identify the ,best,. Players were good for their day, they are in the history books already and no award will change history.

Firstly, there wasn't much food in the 30's, so people didn't have the energy to play sport.. or money either.
The 40's were largely war years, so most of the burly blokes went away on service to fight a bigger, tougher battle.
Now the 50's were a golden era. Plenty of champions. And plenty more tough SOB's. But to put it into perspective, the diminutive Immortal Churchill (I know a dirty Souths player) played 70 mins with a broken arm. The game back then was dirty, and not the unkept fields they played on either.