KEY POINTS:
The Kiwi great Ruben Wiki carves out another line in the book of legends when he takes the field against Wests Tigers on Sunday, just the tenth player to reach the 300-game mark in 100 years of rugby league in the Australian premiership.
This is, arguably, the toughest
ask in world sport.
Basketballers and soccer players make more appearances but don't have anywhere near the level of physical contact, NFL and ice hockey players face less than half the games and are padded for protection, in rugby union there are far fewer tackles and three-on-one tackles made.
Only 10 people have achieved the feat and of those only Wiki and Manly's Steve Menzies are still playing and there are few other current players who look like getting anywhere near the mark.
Wiki's Warriors frontrow teammate Steve Price, who sits on 287, might make it in what is likely to be his last season in 2009.
The list of 10 is pretty well evenly split between superstars and journeymen. Every great team needs flashy line-breakers and off-loaders.
Every team also needs regular and reliable players, those who don't do too much that's flashy but don't too much wrong, ever, guys who suffer few injuries and play through the pain.
Wiki falls into the top group. From early on, he was a line-breaker and off-loader who could change a game as well as a tough defender whose stapling tackles were of the type that lift teammates and inspire them to better effort.
His consistency in performance has seen him a first-choice player for both club and country. His all-time test record of 55 appearances for the Kiwis may never be bettered.
Wiki is undoubtedly one of the greatest rugby league players ever produced by this country or any other.
So where does he sit against the other nine who have achieved the 300-game feat?
Top of the list has to be Brad Fittler, his game-running ability above all others, including Terry Lamb who holds the all-up appearances record for the Sydney-based premiership.
Fittler has most games at Origin and test level and captained both those teams for extended periods. He has played more first-class games than any other player, 401. He was the youngest-ever Origin player until Israel Folau made his interstate debut this year, also 18 but a few days younger.
But Fittler was at five-eighth, Folau on the wing.
Fittler's ability to score himself or set others up was unsurpassed, his reading of the game and ability to manipulate it at the pinnacle, as evidenced by his longevity in all forms of the game. They would have kept picking him if he had not retired from representative football.
Lamb was next best at this, but rated more for his support play, picking up on the breaks of others rather than engineering the break himself. Both provided pin-point kicking accuracy, a good pass for outsides.
Lamb is the only player ever to appear in every game on a Kangaroos tour to England, 15 club matches and five tests in 1986. He was twice the premiership's leading try-scorer.
Wiki rates third because of his consistent personal performance and leadership qualities plus that test record. He would be much further up the 300-plus list bar his suspension record, with repeat tackle offences early on meaning he spent plenty of time watching. Taming that ill-discipline is another measure of his value. His mana at the Warriors and with the Kiwis is immeasurable. He has handled the transition from blockbusting centre to off-loading second rower to ground-gaining prop with ease. There is never any question over his input, it is never less than 100 per cent.
Andrew Ettingshausen and Steve Menzies are the only one-club players on the list, that itself a testament to the way their clubs value their input.
Menzies is second on the all-time try-scoring list, his 170 touchdowns second to the Bears' Ken Irvine (201) while ET is third on 165 tries. ET had 27 Origins and 29 tests, Menzies 20 Origins and 15 tests, so I rate them four and five.
Menzies started in the same year as Wiki and has more games because he hasn't been suspended as much. Both have steered relatively clear of injury, both have played through injury as Wiki has done this season with rib cartilage problems.
Another Manly stalwart in Cliff Lyons is next on my list, his darts and line-breaks around the ruck and scrum never handled well by opponents, even as he hit mid-30s. Lyons was man-of-the-match in Manly's 1987 grandfinal win, won the 1990 Dally M medal, played six Origins and nine tests.
Then come the journeymen.
Jason Croker, Luke Ricketson, Geoff Gerard and Paul Langmack, in that order.
Croker scored 120 tries for the Raiders, played five Origins and four tests and was a solid and reliable lock/five-eighth fill-in. Ricketson was largely known for his defence as a lock but scored 40 tries for the Roosters, played 10 Origins and four tests for Australia. Geoff Gerard was the first man to break the 300 mark, a solid centre/second rower for the Eels then Manly, reliable but not flashy in any way. Langmack likewise with the Dogs and Wests before he was signed by Phil Gould for the Roosters where he managed just three games in his final season.
The top five remained, and in Menzies and Wiki's case remain, first-choice starters for their clubs. The bottom four did not.
This is not a feat likely to be repeated often. There are no other New Zealanders looking remotely likely to get there in coming seasons. Next might be Warriors prop Sam Rapira who at 21 already has 50 NRL games behind him. He needs 10 years of consistent performance with no long-term injuries and few suspensions in order to push on. It's a big ask.
* THE NRL 300 CLUB
Terry Lamb: 349 games
Brad Fittler: 336 games
Steve Menzies: 335 games
Cliff Lyons: 332 games
Andrew Ettingshausen 328
Geoff Gerard: 320 games
Jason Croker: 318 games
Paul Langmack: 315 games
Luke Ricketson: 301 games
Ruben Wiki: 299 games
