Best player you have ever seen.

[Eagleman]

My top 5 in no particular order would be -
Lewis, Thurston, Johns, Clyde, C Smith.

 

[manly al]

Can"t split Fulton , Wally Lewis and Andrew Johns

 

[TWO DOGS]

Fulton
Eadie
Reilly
Beetson
Lyons
Lewis
Reg Gasnier

All fantastic players but Bozo number one.

 

[Killer03]

Joey is the best I've seen (too young to see bozo) and wally etc I just didn't see enough of.

Killer is definitely the best centre I've seen.

I would begrudgingly say Cameron Smith is right up there. And one player who rarely gets mentioned these days but was great in the 90s and early 2000s was Fittler. He knew how to win big games.

 

[The '47ers]

1. Menzies. Easily my favourite of all time..... Completely biased pick

I'm with you 100%, absolute legend on and off the field.

 

[Woodsie]

IMO Wally Lewis was a good International, a very very good club player .... but simply the best SOO player EVAR! Grew ten feet tall and invincible when he pulled on the Maroon.

 

[Bearfax]

I'm with you 100%, absolute legend on and off the field.

We had two of the all time greatest second row forwards in the game in Randall and Menzies. Very different in styles, but they would have been awesome playing together

 

[Bearfax]

IMO Wally Lewis was a good International, a very very good club player .... but simply the best SOO player EVAR! Grew ten feet tall and invincible when he pulled on the Maroon.

For a rather largish player, he had an amazing agility, and was surprisingly fast as well as tough. He had a great sense of timing and led from the front. His defence was similar in nature to Thurston, always in their face like a rabid dog. Games I watched with him in it he just dominated. He is the only five eighth I saw who could make Cliff Lyons falter in his game, and I recall no other five eighth who could out compete Napper. Mind you Lyons improved against Lewis as he got older. Both in my opinion were much more dominant figures on the field than the favoured ones, Daley and Fittler.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Hard to split Bozo, Lewis, Johns, Lockyer and Thurston with an honourable mention to Cameron Smith.

All for varied and different reasons.

Said with my Manly cap off.

 

[Bearfax]

Hard to split Bozo, Lewis, Johns, Lockyer and Thurston with an honourable mention to Cameron Smith.

All for varied and different reasons.

Said with my Manly cap off.

Thurston is by far the best player in the game at present and an assured Immortal. Cameron Smith is the only other player today I would rate Immortal status. Lockyer is also a definite Immortal.

 

[Chip and Chase]

For a rather largish player, he had an amazing agility, and was surprisingly fast as well as tough. He had a great sense of timing and led from the front. His defence was similar in nature to Thurston, always in their face like a rabid dog. Games I watched with him in it he just dominated. He is the only five eighth I saw who could make Cliff Lyons falter in his game, and I recall no other five eighth who could out compete Napper. Mind you Lyons improved against Lewis as he got older. Both in my opinion were much more dominant figures on the field than the favoured ones, Daley and Fittler.

Brett Kenny and Wally Lewis images adorn the SOO Shield. Kenny more than held his own against Lewis at Origin level, and in fact when they went head to head at 5/8 Kenny has the superior record. Kenny bumped Lewis from the Australian 5/8 spot for a while, but because of Qld politics and Kenny's superior skill set meaning he could play centre equally as well, he pushed wider to accommodate Lewis. Kenny won a Challenge Cup in '85, being the first Aussie to get Man of the Match at Wembley I believe, in a game widely regarded as one of the better ones played. He scored two tries in 3 consecutive GF's as well, a record that will be hard to top.

Lewis was a phenomenal competitor, had a good football brain and used to lift the whole team during Origin, but I can't consider him in my top best footballers ever. He wasn't even the best of his era in my opinion. I wonder how history would judge Lewis if he had tested himself at NSWRL level rather than staying in the weaker QRL comp. By the time the Broncos emerged he was past his prime.

 

[Shnorky]

With JT probably cooked who is the best player you have ever seen in your lifetime.
You don't have to be Methuselah to name one because no matter what vintage you are you would have a preference.
It's hard to put biases aside with players from other clubs but sometimes necessary.
Fortunately I don't have to because the best in my time is a player who single handedly won the toughest, most brutal, closely marked GF of all in 73.
That man is our very own Bob 'Bozo' Fulton.

Probably a bit biased here but phil blake was the most gifted attacking footballer ive ever seen, every time he touched the ball the crowd would rise with anticipation. Wombat was the most complete in all aspects of the game for so many years
Wihout being one eyed -
phil blake was the most gifted attacking footballer ive ever seen, and Wombat was the most complete footballer.

 

[nightster]

Bob Fulton, Arthur Beetson, Ellery Hanley, Glen Lazarus, Bret Kenny, Ian Roberts, Johnathon Thurston, Cameron Smith, Cliffy
not necessarily in that order

 

[Harvies elbow]

Probably a bit biased here but phil blake was the most gifted attacking footballer ive ever seen, every time he touched the ball the crowd would rise with anticipation. Wombat was the most complete in all aspects of the game for so many years
Wihout being one eyed -
phil blake was the most gifted attacking footballer ive ever seen, and Wombat was the most complete footballer.

Blakey made his debut some 35 years ago and I haven't seen the like of him since.
Can't think of anyone even similar.

 

[bob dylan]

1 Johns
2 Lewis
3 Fulton
4 Beetson

 

[Loobs]

The only opposition player that made me continually crap my dacks has been friggen Gaz. How bads that lol

 

[Hamster Huey]

Not as old as many and it took until my late teens to move from Perth so the field is limited to the mid-80s onwards.

Joey Johns was easily the best I've seen.

 

[yokahontas]

I'll list 5..... 1 is controversial

1. Menzies. Easily my favourite of all time..... Completely biased pick
2. Joey. Hate to say it, but the guy was a magician
3. Lyons - what a player. I only caught the tail end of his career.... But the guy was a genius
4. Lyon. Love the man - great centre
5 - my controversial pick - Ricky Stewart.

Before you shout me down - my early memories of league are of Ricky Stewart throwing long spiral passes, and hoisting booming torpedo bombs for Brett Mullins in the days where the green machine was unbeatable in Canberra. I think he played a big role in the evolution of the half back role, but also the possible attacking combinations of a full back.

Don't like him a whole lot, but I think he was a bloody good half - and tough as nails

I would love a thread around 'would have been great but got cut down by injury'.... Plenty could go on that list!!! Campese anyone???

Nik Kosef. Was one of my favourites in those awesome mid-90s Manly sides, but had no luck at all with his knees.

 

[Harvies elbow]

Nik Kosef. Was one of my favourites in those awesome mid-90s Manly sides, but had no luck at all with his knees.

Really was a great player Nik.
Would've been up there with the likes of Clyde and such imo.
Great ball skills and a great defender.

 

[Kiwi Eagle]

Joey by a very long way

Lockyer was pretty good too.

Tough to compare different positions, Johns was the complete skill set and all round the best complete player, but other guys were amazing in their own way, examples such as Mullins in the mid 90s with ball in hand, amazing to watch but running game was his only skill

The biggest waste, SBW. Can't stand the guy now, but before Mundine got in his ear, his 1st few years of his career were amazing and he had everything

Cliffy my favourite player of all time, in terms of skills, B Stewart and Lyon were both amazing all round players and who could forget Beaver as well. Toovey the toughest player of all time