The Broncos came into the competition in 1988 and immediately set about assembling a very strong squad, but most of them were young blokes, and they didn't peak until about 1992-1993 (both premiership years) by which time Lewis was gone. The fairest way to assess his contribution is to examine his performances in Origin. He was man of the match a staggering eight times in origin games, and, because MOM always goes to a member of the winning team, he was arguably the best player on the field in another half dozen games that Queensland lost. Origin is the pinnacle of our game, and no other player even goes close to these numbers.
>"He was man of the match a staggering
eight times in origin game"
It has minimal meaning when the media cherry picks its favourites, puts them on a pedestal and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy in terms of MOM and reputation. I watched all the Origin matches in the 80's and sure he was good at Origin but it was grossly exaggerated. For eg Lewis would pass the ball and 10 passes later someone scores and the commentator big Darrell Eastlake goes "it was WALLY LEWIS magic again". Never mind it was someone else who threw the money ball or someone else who did the big fend and ran through several players the try was all because of Wally.
>"most of them were young blokes, and they didn't peak until about 1992-1993 (both premiership years) by which time Lewis was gone."
this is a sample of players who were the Broncos when Wally was there between 88 to 91. Are you seriously saying the majority of them were rookies then?
Colin Scott, Joe Kilroy, Chris Johns, Gene Miles, Michael Hancock, Allan Langer, Terry Matterson, Greg Dowling, Greg Conescu,
Bryan Niebling, Billy Noke, Kerrod Walters, Sam Backo, Tony Currie, Andrew Gee, Steve Renouf, Peter Jackson, Scott Tronc, Dale Shearer, Kevin Walters, Alan Cann, Willie Carne ,Trevor Gillmeister ,Julian O'Neill