Illawarra Rugby League Team of the decade: who makes the cut?

Why do it now? Well, this correspondent is coming up on 10 years with this fine publication.

It started in 2014, with the looming grand final this year set to be the 10^th decider attended with pad and pen in hand.

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The greatest joy of this working life in that time has come on the hills - and dare we say beer tents - at footy grounds around the Illawarra.

It is with that experience that this team has been put together.

Some disclaimers from the jump. It is purely this reporter's opinion. No others have been sought, no extra research conducted, no statistical analysis carried out.

Some members are absolute no-brainers, others snuck home in a very tight race, but total agreement is a rugby league unicorn. It's not what this column sets out to achieve.

Perhaps the most interesting fact is how heavily the Helensburgh footy club is represented in the side despite the fact the Tigers have spent two of the last three years out of the top grade.

In total, six of the 13 players were part of the Burgh's 2015 triumph - albeit four have built substantial parts of the resume elsewhere.

It's enough for this column to dub the 2015 Tigers the best side of the decade.

To the 13 individuals listed below, and the many others who've made a case along the way, my most heartfelt gratitude for 10 years that have been an unmitigated pleasure.

Two-time premiership-winner with two different clubs. Was a key man in Helensburgh's 2015 title, grabbing two grand final tries, and perhaps even more so in Dapto's triumph a year later.

Game awareness and pure football sense were his primary strength, with his sense anticipation off the charts. The best support player in the game, he would be on the spot 99 times just get the ball on the 100^th occasion.

Perhaps his most underrated quality was toughness, carrying injuries through seasons and key games that would have stopped other players.

Few have matched his record of consistent excellence despite featuring in limited seasons in the decade with which this line-up is concerned.

A Paul McGregor Medalist as a fullback, Brem earns his spot in this side on the wing for a finishing ability on the flank the equal of which this columnist has not seen.

With a build most back-rowers would envy, Bremner's work out of the back field inevitably put the 2015 Tigers on the front foot.

Wore the No. 1 jumper in 2015 grand final as Raper nursed injuries trough the finals and made the jersey his own after hanging around at Rex Jackson Oval following the break-up of that champion Tigers side.

Shifted to the No. 1 jumper full-time in 2016 and claimed the competition's top individual honour the following season in which he was the shining light for a club on the rebuild.

After a brief hiatus in which he ran around in the Shire competition, has returned with Thirroul over the past two seasons where he's well within reach of a second premiership this year.

Current Wests captain notched his 100^th first grade game for the club this season. As he was the first to point out, it didn't seem likely when he made his first trip to Parrish Park ahead of the 2014 season when good mate Brad Scott mentioned to then coach Jason Ryles that his Australian OzTag teammate went all right and was looking for a game.

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Went within a bee's appendage of the Paul McGregor Medal in 2015 as a fullback and, while he's running around at five-eighth this year, has done his best work in the Illawarra in the centres.

It's where he skippered the Devils to the 2018 premiership from, grabbing two tries in that decider.

The goal-kicking whiz has to gone to three other deciders without getting the chocolates and will be looking to peg back that ledger in the post-season this year, with the Devils right in the hunt for the crown.

The decade's seen some uber classy centres go around.

On that score, the likes of Lulia and Keith Lulia (Dapto), Saxon Onur (Collegians) and Steve Marsters (Thirrol) get honorable mentions, but Pellow's longevity through multiple seasons with the Devils earns him a place.

Equally sharp with and without the ball, the Dubbo product's true strength lies in a competitive streak he inevitably wears all over his sleeve.

On the overall resume stakes, he's been done no favours by the timing of his career in the Illawarra given it's coincided with COVID.

Could easily have featured in, and won, more grand finals, but does have the 2018 title to his name alongside little brother Tony Pellow. Still among the best plying his trade in the competition this season.

Call him the Magic Man.

If the Illawarra league had a bunker, Turoa would have ended up with even more tries given the finishes he could produce often defied logic.

No player on this list possesses greater X Factor, but he had no drama doing that hard stuff out of his own end and, despite a skinnier build in his prime years in the competition, had an uncanny knack of pulling through collisions that looked certain to bury him.

Played in two grand finals this decade and, with the exception of Steve McCallum, no player has given better continuous service to the Tigers over the last 10 years.

While that 2015 side boasts the highest representation on this list, only Turoa and McCallum have plied their trade exclusively at Rex Jackson Oval.

The classiest playmaker outside the the NRL that this columnist has seen, and certainly the Illawarra's most influential.

Spearheaded the Tigers 2015 premiership triumph and tasted the ultimate success twice more with Collegians (2017, 2019), making keys play to get his side home on both occasions.

A perennially clutch performer with the game on the line, Boyley also has a happy knack of producing big defensive plays when his side needs a circuit-breaker.

If a game's tight down the stretch, you just know he's going to get you home. He picked up man of the match honours in the 2019 grand final for doing just that.

A masterful game manager, Boyle has the ball on a string with the most complete kicking game the competition's seen this decade, and no doubt several others had he featured in any era.

That he's now chasing a fourth premiership with a third club in Thirroul this season speaks to the influence he has on a footy side.

Most people will tell you the 'Sugar Man' didn't have the look of a player who'd feature on a list such as this when he first rocked up at Parrish Park a decade ago, but there hasn't been a more consistent, bankable performer over the last 10 years.

Was stuck behind some fair halves at the Devils coming through, but has carved out his niche through sheer graft and grind, fashioning himself into the complete package as a halfback.

The only player in this line-up to have featured in every season with which its concerned, Rodrigues has featured in five grand finals and has been the glue in the side that's reached the last three straight.

Notched his 100^th first grade game this year and, while the likes of Beau Henry (Dapto) and Jake Walsh (Thirroul) are well in the conversation, J-Rod's longevity and consistency gets him the nod.

Devils coach Pete McLeod put it best when Rodrigues brought up the century game earlier this year: "good halfbacks own results and J-Rod always owns the result."

A workhorse with a bottomless capacity for the hard stuff, Thompson skippered Collegians to the 2013 premiership the year before selection for this team begins.

He been part of a subsequent three titles with the Dogs and has been a common denominator in each victory, grabbing two tries in the 2019 grand final.

Has also skippered the all-conquering Illawarra Division side to multiple Country Championship crowns, and captained touring Country sides.

'Leading by example' is one of the over-wrought rugby league idioms, but it's something Thompson epitomises.

Having briefly flirted with retirement, he's now in reach of a fourth premiership with the league-leading Dogs this season.

If the Butchers were going forward, the crafty running rake could improvise like a saloon jazz musician.

'Eyes-up footy' is a rapidly tiring rugby league cliche, but it was Johnson's specialty though his time in blue and white. Few hookers boast the vision Johnson possessed at dummy-half, not just through the middle but sideline to sideline.

The ball never went anywhere it wasn't meant to go when he was picking it up off the deck, while timing when to run and when to let the ball go was impeccable.

Tasted premiership success with the Butchers in 2012, beyond this side's purview, and went desperately close to another in 2018.

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One has to think without the arrival of COVID he would have got the Butchers over the line at least one more time before hanging them up.

Is a three-time Paul McGregor Medalist and was the first to win the top individual honour in consecutive years since 1984 when he claimed the 2018-19.

His impact on the competition, in particular the Helensburgh club, does justice to his 'Tower' moniker.

Plenty around the Burgh will tell you he's the best Helensburgh Tiger of all time, which is no small rap given it's a foundation Illawarra club.

Skippered the Tigers to a breakthrough crown in 2015 and was the heart and soul of a side that played three of four grand finals before getting over the hump.

In an honourary team of wall-to-wall leaders, none have lead from the front better than McCallum who notched his 200^th first grade game for the club prior to hanging them up at the end of 2018.

It's been a rough trot for the Burgh in recent years, with the club currently looking to build its way back to first grade through the first division competition this season.

With numbers down, McCallum's pulled the boots back on to help out. It says everything about the bloke.

Was a victim of circumstance perhaps more than any other player on this list.

Fell at the prelim stage with the Butchers in 2019 before skippering the club to a Presidents Cup finals appearance in 2020.

It was a side that would have been title favourites had an Illawarra competition gone ahead that season, while he was also skipper in 2021 when the campaign was abruptly halted again by the pandemic.

At the time, a stacked Butchers outfit was well clear at the top of the premiership ladder and odds-on favourites for the title.

Last season proved his final one at Gibson Park, with the Butchers bowing out underwhelmingly in the grand final qualifier, despite the exhaustive best efforts of a patched up skipper.

Certainly a 'what could have been' element to his Illawarra stint through the decade, but thoroughly deserving of a spot on this list.

Quite simply the player of the decade.

In the fair dinkum stakes, no other player can hold a candle to 'Boofa's' resume in the 10 seasons since 2014, and it's not even close.

Became a second generation premiership-winner for Helensburgh in 2015, after father Mark, and claimed the Paul McGregor Medal the same year.

Shifted to Collegians and has skippered the Dogs to three premierships. The definition of a big-game player, scored the match-winning try in the 2017 grand final, collecting the first of two grand final-day man of the match awards.

Given there may well be more to come this season and beyond, could have a list of achievements that would put him in the conversation as one of Collies' best ever by the time he's done.

It sounds hyperbolic, but no player at any level has been a greater joy to watch play rugby league than the former Dapto skipper. Bar none.

Not big, not particularly fast, but inevitably the quickest man on the park where it mattered most - between the ears.

With ball-playing as smooth as the head of a well-poured Guinness, Murph would leave defensive lines mesmerised before either slipping through himself or sending a teammate through untouched; with neither knowing quite how he'd done it.

Relentlessly involved from the first touch to his last, always knew precisely what his opposition least wanted him to do, and how to do just that.

His return to his junior club under Chris Leikvoll in 2014 was the beginning of the tide turning for the then struggling Canaries.

He skippered the club as it broke a decade-long premiership drought in 2016, claiming man of the match on grand final day 10 years after claiming the same honour in the club's 2006 triumph.

Spearheaded an ultimately unsuccessful trip to the 2017 big dance before retiring, only to return in 2018 and reboot the Canaries floundering title hopes that ended in a tight loss to Thirroul in the 2018 prelim.

A throwback to a bygone era, who'd have been brilliant in any before or since.

This column required plenty of tough decisions, but this wasn't one of them. A no-brainer with four premierships won in five seasons coached - the first as captain-coach of Thirroul in 2014.

Shifted to Collegians in 2016 after hanging up the boots and won the first of three titles with the Dogs the following year. Backed it up with grand final victories in 2019 and last season.

More remarkably, with the possible exception of 2014, never boasted the best on-paper footy side or carried favouritism through a comp.

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His sides were defensively sound and relentlessly competitive, while also being largely youthful. His ability to get the best out of veterans and rookies alike set him apart from his rivals.

Had the pandemic not arrived when it had, could well have had more titles to his name.

Has since linked with the Dolphins under his 2010 NRL premiership-winning mentor Wayne Bennett and appears certain to join an illustrious list of Illawarra League coaching alumni to progress to the highest level.

Had their fair share of heartbreak in the lead-up, including consecutive grand final defeats in 2013-14, the Tigers broke a 22-year premiership drought under Ryan Powell.

Beyond the quality of the side, it was full of young local juniors whose promise in the preceding years had been enough to sustain the club through the prospect of folding a handful of years earlier.

There's a tinge of sadness in the fact that the breakthrough title was also a last hurrah, with the likes of Raper, Phillips and Boyle moving on in the immediate aftermath.

Time at the top was all to brief, but the quality of that side makes them the premiers of the decade on this list.

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