NRL Indigenous Round - My Top 5 Indigenous Players of all Time

in #sports6 years ago

This weekend marks the NRLs annual indigenous round which is very important to Australia Indigenous community and the players past and present that have added so much to the game of Rugby League. At current the NRL has approximately 13% of its playing ranks being identified as Indigenous, this is a remarkable figure considering the small portion of the population that makes up Indigenous Australians, however if anyone has played with, against or watched Indigenous players its a figure that could be even higher as they bring a unique skill to all sports that cant be coached.

1. Arthur Beetson

Big Artie as he was affectionately was a pioneer in Australian Sport, the first Aboriginal sportsmen to captain Australia at senior level. Known as the greatest ball playing forward of all time Artie was a big man who moved liked the wind and coupled that the softest of touch when passing and offloading the ball. He was probably most famous for returning to his home state of Queensland and captaining the Maroons in the very first game of State of Origin in 1980, he is the reason Origin is what it is today.

2. Jonathan Thurston

JT will go down as one of the greatest players of all time, some consider him to have overtaken Andrew Johns as the greatest half back of all time. A fierce competitor, unbelievable short passing and running game as well as one of the best goal kickers ever there is nothing he can’t do. He has been the mainstay of Queensland’s 12 year dominance of Origin, the bloke is a genius on the field and has done so much to better Indigenous children's lives off the field.

3. Wendell Sailor

Not many players in the history of the game brought the size, power and flare that big Dell did from the wing, in his days with the Broncos he was a true rock star of the game. Sailor was always a fan favourite and brought the people through the gates, as a kid he was on my favourite players. Dell switched to Rugby in 2002 and became a dual international representing the Wallabies for a number of years and was most notably the starting winger at the 2003 World Cup final!

4. Laurie Daley

Daley hailing from Junee in country NSW was one of the greatest five-eights to play the game, starting off as a Centre for the Canberra Raiders as an 18 year old he slowly moved in to the number 6 jersey which he made famous playing in the great Green Machine teams of the late 80s and early 90s. Daleys running game was his greatest strength and he formed a lethal partnership with the likes of Brad Fitler for NSW in what was a golden era.

5. Greg Inglis

Big GI burst on to the scene as a big and tall wiry fullback playing for Brisbane Norths as a 17 year and straight away he was destined for stardom. He has turned in to the most devasting outside back of his generation, comfortable playing centre, fullback or wing GI could do it all. He had amazing acceleration and was such a balance runner and also a lethal fend of both hands, a great passing game, good defender, just the all round package. Origins all time leading try scorer big GI may one day become an immortal.

I hope you all enjoyed my post, please go ahead and throw and upvote and comment my way, would love to hear from you all.

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That's a pretty good Top 5. For me Cliffy Lyons was just amazing to watch. Probably the best eyes-up instinctive player of his generation.
Chicka Ferguson, Ricky Walford, Nathan Blacklock were all pretty exciting in action, but no winger is ever going to make a Top 5 list :)

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