The NRL have confirmed they will name another Immortal in August, and reports have already jumped to the conclusion that Cameron Smith and Johnathan Thurston are in the mix.
That comes with the NRL altering the rules, allowing players to be addmitted to the Hall of Fame just three years after their retirement.
There is little doubt that Smith and Thurston will be among the group of players added to the Hall of Fame at the ceremony, with a fair chance Billy Slater and Cooper Cronk will join them.
But the NRL simply can not admit any of those players as Immortals yet. The Immortals concept is supposed to recognise the greatest players in the history of the game, and while there is little doubt those players are going to be there one day, now would be too soon.
They were widely panned for adding Andrew Johns too early back in 2012, and can't afford to make the same mistake here, particularly given the number of other candidates who should be considered from previous generations, including one of Johns' great rivals.
Here are ten players the NRL should be considering for the next Immortal spot.
This story was originally published in July.
10. Ken Irvine
Ken Irvine has, for 50 years, been the only player to have scored 200 top-flight tries.
The 212 tries he finished with is likely to be a record challenged by Alex Johnston in the coming years, but his career wasn't just about scoring tries.
The winger, who played 236 top-flight games across his time with the North Sydney Bears and Manly Sea Eagles, played 24 State of Origins (or Interstate Challenge matches as they were known at that point) for the New South Wales Blues, scoring 30 tries and 31 Tests for Australia, scoring 33 tries.
No one has come close to his exploits in finding the try line for the last five decades, with Irvine being named in the NRL's Team of the Century, Australian Rugby League's Team of the Century, and the New South Wales Rugby League Team of the century in 2008. He was also part of the NRL's Team ofย the 1950s and 1960s.
He was also named number 15 in Rugby League Week's Top 100 players in 1992 and won two premierships during his career.
