Quote dally messenger="dally messenger"as i was saying to a mate yesterday the nswrl / ARL was the best club competition in the world
sadly lewis didnt perform in this arena. whether it was age or struggling with a much tougher league he didnt excel
johns was the star player in australian RL for at least 5 years, week in, week out over 26 rounds
he played with an average club in newcastle not the broncos like lewis
the mark of johns was how quickly the club fell away when he retired
the broncos won the title after lewis left
had lewis come to manly in 86 my opinion could be different
johns won a grand final with a punctured lung against the club with the best defence in the history of the game and then johns won another grand final with a busted groin against the best attacking team in the game'"
Unfortunately, DM, you show the same bias Lewis confronted from Sydney during his entire career. The man was booed by the Sydney crowd as Australian captain in 1984...
It is only with some hindsight - and the lack of fear now that he is long finished playing - that he began to receive the accolades from Sydney. An immortal (which Johns is still not); 5/8th in the Australian Team of the Century etc.
During Lewis's career, Sydney scribes opined that Sterling was a better player. This analysis was shown to be wrong by the celebratory events during the 2008 Centenary in Australia. Again, a long time after the fact...
Johns - 5 years! Lewis was the dominant player in the world for over a decade.
Lewis was still the best player in the world circa 1988-1989, in the Sydney competition: the heavy rep seasons took their toll on the Broncos in this period (1988 Lions tour + Centenary games; 1989 full Kangaroo Tour to NZ mid-year).
He was heavily injured (numerous things including breaks) during 1990.
And he was at the end of a long career that began in First Grade in 1978.
As for competing with injury, Lewis nearly playing out the RLWC Final of 1988 before nearly 50,000 Kiwis in Auckland, with a broken arm, rates fairly highly.
