The kids are killing it in the NRL this year. It would be easier to stop Payne Haas on a surge towards the try-line than stop him from winning Rookie of the Year. He was joined in Origin by another babyface, David Fifita.
Bronson Xerri is still 18 but already a jet. You can’t have missed the spectacular efforts by flying teenage backs Jason Saab and Dylan Brown, and the Storm’s Tino Fa'asuamaleaui has only needed one outing to become hot property.
But the glow of these shiny new stars should not distract us from appreciating a vintage crop of veterans. The 10 oldest players in the league will not be around forever (with the obvious exception of Cameron Smith, likely to still be playing when Halley’s Comet next puts in an appearance) and we should enjoy this bunch of quirky individuals while we can.
James Graham
The madcap Englishman has made the transition from cult hero to media megastar in 2019, an unlikely development for a player who once regarded journalists the way haemophiliacs regard leeches. A fractured fibula crippled the middle stages of his season, and the Dragons badly missed his leadership and will to win. Hard to pick a favourite off-field moment from Jammer this year between his bizarre concoction of a story about Sam Burgess’s mischief in front of a bathroom mirror, and his assertion that he will call female referees ‘Sir’. Enjoy this British gem while we’ve got him. He might look a little like Boris Johnson, but he makes a lot more sense.
“This year the Cronulla captain became the player with the most losses in history”
Priceless, where is Ronnie when you need him ?