NRL 2011 - Twitter Poll: Your 3 Favourite Indigenous Footy Legends | 05/08/2011

TWITTER POLL:

Your 3 Favourite Indigenous Footy Legends 

By W D Nicolson Friday August 5, 2011

The @NRLTweet's Twitter Poll Friday continued with the following question: 

Who are your three favourite Indigenous Footy Legends?

It is topical due to today's announcement that Preston Campbell would be retiring at the end of 2011 season with the Gold Coast Titans and given the NRL is promoting the 'Close the Gap Round' this weekend (which has been in place since 2009) - "is Australia’s largest ever campaign to improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. The aim of the campaign is to help tackle the life expectancy gap that exists between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians."

Preston Campbell will retire from Rugby League at the end of 2011

The idea to ask Twitter this particular question was inspired by Triple M's Friday Footy Panel who themselves asked - who are your favourite Indigenous players? 

So we headed to the people via Twitter and asked them for their Favourite Three - not the Best Three Ever but the ones that they either loved as a kid or love now.

Current Manly-Warringah prop forward George Rose openly admitted his favourites were tied to the team he supported growing up. Follow George on Twitter.
"As a kid I was a #RedV Dragons supporter so Ricky Walford, Anthony Mundine and Nathan Blacklock! So many names I could also add though"

The question was put to Twitter with the hashtag #IndigenousFootyLegends and it had 20 respondents in in four hours and they mentioned at least 30 ex and current players.

In no particular order - the Twitter Poll produced the following list of Indigenous Footy Legends.

Nathan Blacklock
Cliff Lyons
Matthew Bowen
Laurie Daley
Jamie Soward
Johnathan Thurston
Ricky Walford
Steve Renouf
Preston Campbell
John 'Chicka' Ferguson
Ewan McGrady
Rod Silva
Arthur Beetson
Larry Corowa
Sam Backo
Greg Inglis
Wendell Sailor
Anthony Mundine
Tony Currie
George Rose
Joe Kilroy
Dale Shearer
Scott Prince
Joel Romelo
Sam Thaiday
Justin Hodges
Nathan Merritt
David Peachey
Corey Stewart
Jamie Sandy
Mal Meninga

There are obviously a lot lot more great players that fit the bill here but this list was always going to be limited by the cross section and time frame of when the question was asked.

If you want to put a name forward - do so in the comments.

In terms of popularity this was the Top 5.

Nathan Blacklock, Ricky Walford, Steve Renouf, Preston Campbell and Scott Prince.

For the record my Favourite 3 Indigenous Footy Legends are:

1. John Ferguson - Absolute genius - despite being a winger. Played until he was 44 and still had better footwork and acceleration than kids half his age... clutch tryscorer as well - check out his performances in the 1989 and 1990 Grand Finals for proof of this.

2. Laurie Daley -  My favourite player growing up. His game was built on excellence in a number of areas - not just one. One of the finest defenders the game has ever seen. Always had time with the ball.

3. Cliff Lyons - The best natural playmaker I've ever seen. While the truly great players can create time and space with the ball... Lyons probably created of both for himself than all of them combined. THE reason Steven Menzies became the player he was - as they formed one of the ten best attacking combinations I've witnessed in Rugby League.

Time for some highlights - post your YouTube Videos in the comments.

Here is Nathan Blacklock scoring a last minute try to sink the Tigers

Here are some highlights of Larry Corowa for the Balmain Tigers

Watch Chicka Ferguson set up one and then score the match-tying try for the Raiders in the 1989 GF

Watch Matty Bowen Magic in this compilation of highlights

And finally some magical moments from the 1990 Kangaroo Tour featuring some of the stars on this list

So who are your 3 Favourite Indigenous Footy Legends?

Comment below.

Ok one more video... Laurie Daley's finest moment alongside his 1994 Grand Final try?

]-[ ]-[ ]-[

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