Kiwis among NRL’s hard-luck stories
Warriors legends Stacey Jones and Simon Mannering head a list of five Kiwis ranked by a British rugby league website as among the greatest players never to win a National Rugby League title.
Nathan Cayless, who captained the Kiwis to the 2008 Rugby League World Cup crown, wing Manu Vatuvei and centre Nigel Vagana were the other New Zealanders in the Love Rugby League website’s Dream XIII.
The Kiwis quintet were joined by six Australian internationals – Andrew Ettingshausen, Matt Sing, Mat Rogers,Trent Barrett, Luke Bailey, Nathan Hindmarsh and the just-retired Matt Gillett.
Former North Queensland Cowboys hooker Aaron Payne was the only non-test player named.
The Love Rugby League website’s tribute to Jones noted the loyal Warriors scrumhalf was ‘‘a joy to watch despite his small stature and he will go down as the greatest Kiwi to never achieve title success in the NRL’’.
Of Vatuvei – the tryscoring giant wing known as The Beast – it noted: ‘‘During the early 2000s, there wasn’t a more ferocious and prolific winger in the league’’.
The hard-running Vagana was ‘‘one of the best centres in the league, winning Dally M Centre of The Year in 2001 and 2002’’.
Cayless’ leadership qualities were complimented by Love Rugby League writer Zachary Holland, who noted the Eels enforcer was ‘‘as tough and rugged as they came in the front-row’’.
Mannering, who retired in 2018, would, along with Jones, ‘‘go down as one of the best Kiwi internationals to never see grand final glory’’. The durable Nelsonian, who played 301 games in the centres and in key roles in the pack, ‘‘stayed true to the New Zealand Warriors in his 14-year career and proved to be an influential leader’’.
Of the five Kiwis named in the Dream XIII, only Vagana never played in a NRL grand final.
Jones captained the Warriors to a 30-8 defeat to the Roosters in the 2001 grand final, scoring a sensational solo try.
Mannering led them to their 24-10 loss to Manly in 2011, when Vatuvei scored the Auckland-based club’s only try.
Cayless captained the Eels’ silver medal teams in 2001 and 2009, playing alongside Hindmarsh, the teak-tough second rower rated by Love Rugby League as ‘‘probably one of the most deserving players to at least have one grand final win to his name’’.
The five-time Dally M second rower of the year and world forward of the year in 2004 is now a television pundit who often makes jokes about his lack of a NRL title on Fox Sports rugby league shows.
Ettingshausen played 328 first grade games for the Sharks in a career stretching from 1983 to 2000, but never played in a first-grade final, with Cronulla ousted in the playoffs in 1999 after they had won the JJ Giltinan Shield as regular season minor premiers.