Best ever?

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Now that Joey has retired, how do you rank him against the greats? Best ever? I never saw Raper, Langland, Bozo et al play. However, from what I can gather, I DON'T think they could not only do, but DID, the things on the field that Joey did (ie captain and lead, set up tries, score tries, punishing tackler, general kicker, great goal kicker, etc). Do you agree? I think best ever.
 
Out of players who have played (mostly, ie not mostly in the pre' 90's, like eg Lazarus, Mullins, etc) in the last 10 years, where would you put Beaver? I'd only have him behind Lockyer, Johns. Even above Fittler and Webcke
 
Johns is a great player and I wish he had never been around, especially in 97. He had the advantage of playing behind some dominant packs with good coaches etc. Origin and Test football also enabled him to show his genius.

I still don't rate him as highly as a few of the immortals from the 60s/70s as he spent more time injured than most superstars. However he is certainly without parallel in the modern era and he will be missed for that.

(I haven't forgiven him for his histrionics last year though - he came across somewhat flawed in my books!!)
 
Best ever is a hard call and as others have said it is almost impossible to place current players with some from decades earlier. I will say I think he is one of the all-time greats, even as far as one of the top 10 of all time.

As CW said he blotted his image last year but still nothing takes away from his ability to read and play RL. Best wishes from me and sad to see him leave under these circumstances.
 
The best player i have ever seen was Wally Lewis.The way he used to dominate State of Origin was amazing,but that is the question here,he only ever played in big games three times a year,while Johns has played in the number 1 competition in the world for the last 14 years,and has been the premier player in it.
It wouldve been great to see Lewis play in the NRL in his prime,then we couldve got a better guide to how good he really was.
 
Yeah i agree with duff really.

It is hard to compare but if you go by stats (which i'm not that keen on doing) with Lewis, the stats will tell you the story.

I'm not going to compare really.. but i will say week in, week out he is the best i have seen and it sucks he went out on these terms but like i said in another thread. He had nothing left to prove to anyone and nothing left to do in the game. He's done it all. Very grateful i got to see such a player in his prime.
 
Andrew Johns Achievements:

First grade for Newcastle Knights
* 249 games (club record).
* 78 tries
* 913 goals (club record)
* 22 field goals (club record)
* 2,176 points (club record and the most points ever scored by an individual)

NRL Records Match records
* Most tries in a match: 4 - July 29, 2001 (record shared with Darren Albert and Adam MacDougall)
* Most goals in a match: 11 - March 19, 2006
* Most points in a match: 34 - July 29, 2001

Season records
* Most goals in a season: 110 - 2001
* Most points in a season: 279 - 2001
* Most field goals in a season: 5 - 1998

Club records
* Most goals for club - 903
* Most points for club - 2156
* Most field goals for club - 22
* Most First Grade games - 230

Representative honours
* Test matches - 21 (1995-4, 1996-2, 1997-1, 1998-3, 1999-1, 2000-1, 2001-4, 2002-1, 2003-1, 2005-2, 2006-1) - captained in 2 matches (2002-2003)
* State Of Origin - 23 (1995-2, 1996-3, 1997-2, 1998-3, 1999-3, 2000-2, 2002-3, 2003-3, 2005-2) - captained in 6 matches (2002-2003)
* Country Origin: 3 (1995, 1996, 2003) - captained in 1 match (2003)
* World Cups : 1995 and 2000 (1995 World Cup Matches Counted as Test Matches. 2000 Matches did not)
* Kangaroo tour : 2001 (All matches counted as Test Matches)

Awards
* Dally M winner : 3 (1998, 1999, 2002)
* Provan-Summons Medal winner : 5 (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002)
* Clive Churchill Medal : 1 (2001)
* Player of the Series Australia v Great Britain 2001
* Most Valuable Player in 1995 World Cup
* Rugby League Week's Player of the Year : 3 (1998, 1999, 2002)
 
The press have been telling us he's the best for 5 years, so I guess he is.............pffft

He has played some of the best games I've seen. But he's had many shockers thrown in there. The problem is he wasn't playing at the highest level over extended periods due to is health and social problems.

I'd rate Bozo, Ricky Stewart, even Tooves ahead of him.
 
Agreed Byso, he was a very good player playing behind very good packs. When the forwards weren't good he didn't shine.
 

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