Last night in a gala ceremony in Sydney THE NRL has announced five new members have joined rugby league royalty inthe Immortals club. Dally Messenger, Frank Burge, Dave Brown, Norm Provan and Mal Meninga were added to the list of eight previous Immortals. It was some what as a shock to everyone that 5 were named with only 2 to expected to be added this time. I believe the NRL did the right thing in looking to the past and adding 3 players from the pre war error that were left out when the original concept started in 1981. The list of immortals is now 13 with the current inductees joining the previous 8 named since 1981, Clive Churchill, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands, Bob Fulton, Wally Lewis, Arthur Beetson, Andrew Johns.
Darren Lockyer was perhaps the most unlikely to miss out on the night and now that all the past eras have been addressed he would appear to be a certainty to be inducted in 4 years time when 4 more will come in. All in all i think they have now got the concept right and i look forward to the induction of future immortals and continuation of hall of fame inductees.