The Immortals became whole on Wednesday night when five greats of the game were bestowed with rugby league’s highest individual accolade. Pioneering stars Dally Messenger, Frank Burge and Dave Brown were named Immortals along with 10-time premiership winner Norm Provan and four-time Kangaroo tourist Mal Meninga.
The Immortals concept was started in 1981 as a Rugby League Week promotion for port and has grown into the most revered of rugby league distinctions. Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper and Bob Fulton were named with pre-second world war players ineligible as judges limited themselves to players they had seen.
Since then Arthur Beetson, Wally Lewis, Graeme Langlands and Andrew Johns were added. The concept came under the NRL umbrella following the closure of Rugby League Week. It was announced that two Immortals would be named on Wednesday night before the surprise naming of five, with pre-war players eligible for the first time.
Rugby league has long been negligent of its history and the NRL has long been as derelict of respecting the game’s past as it has been slapdash about planning for the code’s future. They got it right this time though, ensuring the sanctity of the Immortal concept was protected by the process and the limited number of additions while ensuring it stretched back to the game’s infancy.
The Immortals now cover the 111-year history of the code in Australia, the 13 most accomplished and outstanding players Australian rugby league had produced.
The addition of the pre-second world war trio is incredibly important as both a recognition of the game’s pioneers and a protection against the sands of time eviscerating the collective memory of those that forged the way for the code.
There was no doubt at all that Messenger was going to be named an Immortal this year. He is the most important figure in the code’s history and the one figure from the game’s fledgling days recognised and revered today.
Though he played only 48 games across six seasons, his contribution to the establishment of rugby league dwarfs even his brilliance on the field that included kicking goals from 80 metres out, a bamboozling running game and a supreme creativity that burned in the memory of all that saw him. His defection from rugby union legitimised league. He was the star of the 15-man game when he joined the band of rebels in setting up a new code that would quickly surpass his former because of his popularity and standing. In a time of great unrest, Messenger signed with the rebels in 1907 (and was blackballed for life by union, his records as a rugby player wiped from records for over a century), played for Easts in the first season of the premiership and toured with the famous All Golds in 1909.
Harry Sunderland, one of league’s great administrators and entrepreneurs, boldly declared in 1940 that “without Messenger’s magical appeal … there would be no league”.
The inclusion of both Brown and Burge was a massive win for purists and historians alike, no doubt led by Immortals chairman and revered chronicler Ian Heads. Both were giants of of the game at the time but the legend of their deeds and contributions have faded with the passing of time.
Such was Brown’s standing in the 1930s, he was dubbed “the Bradman of league”. A sublime talent, he made his first grade debut at 17 and was the NSW captain by the age of 19 and Australian skipper by 22. No player established a string of more unbreakable records than Brown, who still holds the record for most points in a game with 45, the most tries in a season (38, scored in just 14 games) and most points on a Kangaroos tour with 285. His Easts side finished first or second in seven of his last eight seasons before he retired at the tender age of 28.
Burge was the most surprising of the inductees, the fight for his legacy significantly damaged by the expulsion of Glebe in 1930, the club he spent all but one season with, leaving no club to spruik his wonderful deeds. A blockbusting forward, he scored an astonishing 148 tries in 167 games, including a record eight in a single game. Tom Goodman, one of the three men to decide the inaugural Immortals, said of Burge that he “was the greatest forward the game ever produced … and may have been the greatest league player ever”.
The induction of Messenger, Brown and Burge will ensure that their deeds will forever be remembered and their contribution that is sewn into the fabric of the sport immortalised.
Provan and Meninga were the two post-War inductees and there can be little argument on either.
Provan has been overlooked in the previous four rounds but his 10 premierships with St George remains a record today and one that will never be neared. He becomes the fourth Dragon of that famous St George team of the 1950s and 1960s that won 11 premierships straight to be named an Immortal.
Meninga was the most damaging outside back of his era, a devastating ball runner who somehow maintained his unique combination of power, speed and skill for over 15 years as a player. He is the only player to tour with the Kangaroos four times, he won two premierships with Brisbane Souths and three with Canberra and was the most important figure in the first two decades of State of Origin outside of fellow Immortal Wally Lewis.
The NRL has now ensured the entire history of the game is covered. The appropriate number of players sit among the greatest of the greats. History was respected. The right greats were named.
Rugby league can stand tall today. It is finally paying the right homage to those that made the sport what it is today.
