A Name for the Game part 1

Names are a big deal in rugby league. Have a famous name and not only will it look great on your Origin jersey (somewhere under the VB logo) but it can also open up a number of doors opportunity wise. This is commonly known in footy circles as the Scot Fulton phenomenon and has nothing to do with lobsters.

Akin to this is the player who just plain has a ‘cool’ name. Rugby league is a sport built on intimidation and whilst having a name like Clive Lemon (Parramatta, 9 games) or Damon Booby (Canberra, 2 games) might not have any effect on your performance it is going to put a bloody big target on your head when you cross the touch line. Hence, here are 5 of rugby league’s coolest names and whether or not the players were able to live up to them.

Old Royston never struck twice in the same game

Royston Lightning                                                                                             

Old ‘Thunderin’ was a winger for the Green Machine during a period of their history when they were mostly rubbish. After Nadruku  and Nagas had made Canberra the competitions entertainers big things were expected of Royston however he failed to live up to the early hype and was more passing shower than category 5 storm. Retired to be the bloke in the Storm man mascot outfit...or playing park footy in Cairns, whatever you want to believe.

Name Rating: ****

Player rating: **

The mullet was a hit-ro too!

Hitro Okesene                                                                                                     

Rugby league is all about big hits and hits were this bloke’s, err..first name! Big Hitro had a long career playing in NZ then England as well representing both Samoa and NZ at International level and can these days can be found working in construction (i.e. scaffolding) in the North of England

Name Rating: *****

Player Rating: ****

Carlo Napolitano, Italian RL Coach doing his best Aldo Ferrari impersonation

Aldo Ferrari                                                                                       

Smokey who played 6 games for the University club back in the day. Not much is known about old ‘Sports car’ however considering he only played half a dozen games for eternal strugglers uni I’m guessing he was more Datsun 180B than Ferrari! Is assumed to have played on the wing.

Name Rating: ****1/2

Player Rating; *

The Paddle Pop Lion had a brief foray into professional sport

Brett Le Man                                                                                     

With a name like this you could only ever be three things;  a heavily moustached adult film star, WWE Wrestler or hard hitting back rower Gordon Tallis lookalike. Brett Le Man was the latter and carved out an impressive BRL career before running around in the Broncos formative years, scoring their first ever try in competition. Also rumoured to have knocked back an offer to play for the French National side. Who da man? Le Man Da Man!

Name rating: *****

Player Rating: ***1/2

"Ice to see you"

Sam Isemonger                                                                                               

The ‘Iceman’ was a freakishly tall almost albino forward who gave good service to both the Sharks and Dragons...imagine him and Kade ‘Abominable’ Snowden packing down together! Cruelled by a series of knee injuries Frosty retired to a lifetime of applying sunscreen at Cronulla beach and bad ice related puns.

Name rating: ****

Player rating:***