In the early 30's, Australia was gripped by depression, the country was suffering and it needed a hero. That hero came in the form of a horse from across the ditch named Phar Lap. Years on and many say that Phar Lap was the greatest of all time but that is very debatable and realistically not the case.
Now in the mid 80's a poor excuse for a Australian state called 'Queensland' needed a hero as NSW was the powerhouse of the country and the Rugby LEague world. Lewis broke into origin and the rest as they say wrote itself.
Now i ask everyone that follows this esteemed website, is Wally the Wanker that good and if not the best of all time to wear the number 6 or in fact is he more like Phar Lap, the result of the two heads needing a hero?
My take, is that if he wasn't a Qld'er, and Origin wasn't in its infancy the greatest number 6 of all time would be heralded as the great Brett 'Bert' Kenny!
Today, Dean Ritchie writes an article that states that Bert was the greatest he had seen and the 'King' (old King not the new owner of the crown the one and only 'Gutho') even said that Bert was he most feared rival.
So in closing am i biased or was Kenny the greatest 6 of all time?
Replies
No that is what I am saying that Lewis only gets the recognition as he is a qld'er. Kenny is 10x the player that Lewis was
Bert was my favourite player. Whether it was for Parra, Nsw, or the Kangaroos. But ive always said Wally Lewis was the best player i have seen. No one influenced a game like Wally. Wally didnt have Berts speed, swerve (the best swerve ever), attacking flare, or sidestep but Wally was the best complete package ive ever seen. Both Bert and Wally were very very special players. The fact Bert was picked for Australia in the centres when he was a genuine 5/8 is a testament to the great man's ability.
Wally and Brett or vice-versa were 2 great but very different players.
Wally was an inspiring captain, who was an excellent kicker of the ball and was really strong and hard to bring down often flicking impossible passes to keep the attack moving. Even forwards would struggle to bring him down. He single- handedly carried QLD in origin. NSW had better players but not a better and inspiring captain until Steve Mortimer came about in 1985.
Brett was very fast, evasive, amazing side-stepping skills, would not lose much pace when changing direction, could sell a dummy to anyone, had excellent handling skills rarely dropping a ball even in wet conditions and if the old generation remembers, it was hard to hold onto the old leather balls. Players have it too easy these days with the synthetic ones that have nipple grips on them.
Where they were equal was reading the opposition's defensive lapses or loss of concentration. I don't think that anyone in the game has scored more intercept tries than Brett. The difference was that Wally would put team mates in those gaps, where Brett would run through them like a hot knife does butter. Kenny was the master though at broken play. When he picked up the ball with no one in front of him you were f*cked.
I rank them as equal. Each their own.The only difference being that Wally was promoted constantly by QLD Rugby League whilst Brett wasnt. Both immortals in my opinion.
Excellent summation pfoth. How good was Bert in broken play!
Wally Lewis was the best SOO player of all time, it wasn't so much what he did himself but what he got out of the players around him, he was the greatest leader of men I have seen on the footy field. At club level Kenny was king, he was also the only player that Wally felt got the better of him at SOO level and said he would rub his hands together every time nsw picked Kenny in the centre instead of 5/8. If my memory serves me correctly Kenny played 10 origin games at 5/8 with nsw winning 8 of them, these figures may be incorrect but it was something like that.
True that. Lewis feared Kenny's pace and unpredictability. He was by far the fastest 5/8 in the game and would simply run around Wally after a quick shimmy flat footing him in the process. Brett made many players look fools when they tried to mark him with space.
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