Blues name Centenary team
May 19, 2008

IMMORTALS Reg Gasnier and Graeme Langlands have been named the 'starting' centre combination in the New South Wales Rugby League Team of the Century.

NSW Rugby League Chairman, Mr Colin Love AM, announced the team with all living members of the side to provide a special moment for the current NSW Wizard Blues team when they present them with their match jerseys.

Gasnier, the Australian Team of the Century centre, and Langlands who was chosen on the Australian bench, were selected to wear the No. 3 and No. 4 jerseys.

The legendary Bobby Fulton has been named at five-eighth with the game’s first superstar, Dally Messenger, recognised on the wing.

The NSW Team of the Century was based on voting for the Australian Team of the Century and includes 11 players from that side.

Importantly, it also finds room for some legendary Blues who deserve to be honoured in the game’s Centenary year.

Eastern Suburbs points-scoring wizard of the 1930s, Dave Brown - ‘The Bradman of Rugby League’ - and Cronulla’s greatest ever player, Steve Rogers, are fellow centres who take up two of the four reserves positions.

Those added to the Australian Team of the Century representatives are Rogers and Brown plus six times grand final-winning prop Glenn Lazarus, the first ever Kangaroo hooker Sid “Sandy’ Pearce, the first man to make three Kangaroo tours in Newcastle lock Wally Prigg and legendary Manly front-rower Roy Bull.

The NSW Team of the Century will be announced to the crowd before Game 1 of the State of Origin Series at ANZ Stadium on Wednesday night.
The identity of the side was to be kept until then but NSW coach Craig Bellamy especially asked for the living members of the side to hand his players their jerseys in a special presentation.

“We are celebrating 100 years of interstate Rugby League as part of the game’s Centenary and it is fitting that both states will anoint their own teams of the century at a time when State of Origin takes centre stage,” said NSW Rugby League General Manager, Mr Geoff Carr.

“It is a magnificent line-up which shows the extraordinary depth of talent NSW has been blessed to have.

“It is fitting, too, that the careers of the 17 players covers the period from when the first NSW team played against the All Golds in 1907, in which Dally Messenger and Sandy Pearce played, to Andrew Johns who played until 2007.

“It will be a great honour to present the players or the descendants of those who have passed away to the crowd on Wednesday night and I am sure they will get an appropriate reception.

“It is wonderful recognition to their contributions to Rugby League.”

The team was calculated from the votes of the 28-man panel that last December chose the Australian Team of the Century. Those who received the most votes, using the same selection criteria, were formed into the NSW side.

To be eligible, players must have played junior Rugby League in NSW as well as having played for the state.

The Queensland Team of the Century will be announced at a special function in Brisbane on June 10.