Bennett lobbies for NRL legend

BRONCOS coach Wayne Bennett says Dragons legend Norm Provan should be named the NRL’s next Immortal ahead of Maroons’ legends Mal Meninga and Darren Lockyer.

On a landmark day for the code, NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg used a gala NRL season launch yesterday to reveal plans to name the ninth Immortal this year.

It will be the first time an Immortal has been crowned since Andrew Johns in 2012 — and the first coronation since the NRL purchased the intellectual-property rights to the award from Rugby League Week magazine last year.

Test icon Meninga is considered a major frontrunner, while Lockyer now qualifies for consideration, having been retired from the game as a player for more than five years.

But Bennett, a former Immortals judge, believes the NRL cannot ignore Provan, the legendary forward who skippered St George to a record 10 premierships between 1956-65.

“I have thought about it often,” Bennett said yesterday at the NRL launch at Suncorp Stadium. “I don’t know anybody in the game who did more than Norm Provan.

“He was part of 10 premierships — we all fight hard to win one and he won 10.

“Our NRL premiership [the Provan-Summons Trophy] is named after him.

“He played for Australia and went on to coach and he is an outstanding man. He was a superstar of his era. He epitomises what the game is about.

“I don’t know what more he has to do.”

Now 85, Provan presided over the most dominant team in rugby league history. Nicknamed Sticks, he played 256 first-grade games for the Dragons between 1951-65, but has been overlooked as an Immortal twice in the past 15 years in favour of Johns and Arthur Beetson (2003).

Greenberg yesterday confirmed a new name will be added to the code’s most exalted group in the coming months. Current members are Clive Churchill, Bob Fulton, Reg Gasnier, Johnny Raper, Graeme Langlands, Wally Lewis, Beetson and Johns.