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How Ron Coote's selection as 14th Immortal saved the NRL concept from complete embarrassment

The selection committee resisted the urge to rush in Cameron Smith like what occurred with Andrew Johns in 2012.

adam lucius
Contributor
·3-min read

The long overdue induction of Ron Coote as rugby league's 14th Immortal has saved the concept from ridicule. To again overlook a player who won six grand finals for players who weren't even born when he finished playing would have made a mockery of what is held up to be the game's highest individual accolade.

Coote, a brilliant attacking player combined with grass-cutting defence, should not have been made to wait this long. Coote not only played in nine grand finals in 11 years for Souths and Eastern Suburbs, winning six titles, he was also part of three winning Australian World Cup teams, played 24 Tests and is a Clive Churchill medallist.

Ron Coote, Cameron Smith and Andrew Johns.
Ron Coote (L) became the 14th Immortal as the NRL resisted rushing in Cameron Smith (centre) like it did with Andrew Johns (R). Image: AAP/Getty

He went on to forge a successful business career after football and founded the Men of League organisation to help players who fell on hard times. Continuously overlooked in previous inductions, the record should have been corrected before now.

Instead, Andrew Johns was controversially – in some eyes – elevated as an Immortal ahead of Coote. I've got no truck with Joey being an Immortal. He's up there with the best two or three players I've seen in my lifetime and is deserving of the honour.

But he has time on his side. Ron Coote doesn't. The champion back-rower turns 80 in October. This was his last shot at football immortality. If he was brushed for a sixth time, then that was it.

Ron Coote, pictured here after becoming the 14th Immortal.
Ron Coote was finally made an Immortal after 43 years. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

There would be no tomorrow and the Immortal concept would be forever flawed without his name featuring. If hot favourite Cameron Smith had been chosen instead, those trusted with future Immortal selections faced a dilemma. Could they go further back than the Smith era if a line had been put through Coote?

Presumably, the likes of Laurie Daley, Brad Clyde, Peter Sterling, Allan Langer and Brett Kenny would risk being denied access. And that would have been a travesty.

Smith's time will come but the concept would have lost some of its gravitas had he been fast-tracked so soon after retiring. Players from any era now remain in contention – and that's the way it should be.

Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater.
Cooper Cronk, Cameron Smith and Billy Slater at the NRL Hall of Fame ceremony. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

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Coote's emotional reaction to becoming the 14th Immortal showed just how much it meant. "I'm a bit taken for words at the moment... Jesus," Coote said through the tears. "I never thought I’d be crying when I’m 80, but I am. It’s just sensational. I never thought it would happen."

It was wrong to ignore Coote's claims for so long. Now the record has been set straight, the game is better for it.

  • Clive Churchill (1981)

  • Bob Fulton (1981)

  • Reg Gasnier (1981)

  • Johnny Raper (1981)

  • Graeme Langlands (1999)

  • Wally Lewis (1999)

  • Arthur Beetson (2003)

  • Andrew Johns (2012)

  • Dally Messenger (2018)

  • Dave Brown (2018)

  • Frank Burge (2018)

  • Norm Provan (2018)

  • Mal Meninga (2018)

  • Ron Coote (2024)