The NRL is set to name the first Immortal since 2018 on Wednesday night, so who are the frontrunners to join rugby league’s most prestigious ranks?

Following the latest 11 Hall of Fame inductees, 121 players are eligible to be named the 14th Immortal. Changes to eligibility rules mean players who retired as little as three years ago can be inducted.

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LIVE: The 13-player Immortal shortlist as ‘red-hot favourite’ emerges

It means the likes of Cameron Smith are now eligible for Immortal honours and the Storm superstar has ticked off every box in the game of rugby league.

Meanwhile, legends of the game like Allan Langer, Brett Kenny and Ron Coote are also in the running to have their named called out on Wednesday night but fans have gone another way in an online poll run by foxsports.com.au.

More than 3000 votes were cast with record-breaking Brisbane, Queensland and Kangaroos legend Darren Lockyer coming out clearly on top with 23 per cent of the vote.

Smith (14.4%) was next, just ahead of Kenny (13.4%), Coote (11.7%) and Peter Sterling (7.7%). Langer (5.9%), Ken Irvine (5.4%) and Johnathan Thurston (4.4%) also received strong support.

Lockyer has reportedly been close to becoming an Immortal in the past and the public support is no surprise for a man who played for Australia a record 38 times, won four premierships, seven State of Origin series (six as captain), and the golden boot award playing in two different positions. However the margin of the vote is somewhat surprising considering the likes of Smith, Kenny and Coote seem to have dominated discussion.

You can make a strong case for so many of the names in the mix. Here, foxsports.com.au breaks down the potential contenders to be named the 14th Immortal.

BRETT KENNY

Games: 265 NSWRFL and NSWRL games for the Eels

Origins: 17 for NSW

Tests: 17 for Australia

Accolades: 1985 and 1986 State of Origin series wins, 1985/1988 World Cup winner, 1982 and 1983 Clive Churchill Medallist, 1985 Golden Boot Award, 1985 Lance Todd Trophy, 1980 and 1986 Midweek Cups, 1984/1985 Challenge Cup

Premierships: 1981, 1982, 1983 and 1986

Bio: Brett Kenny was one of the most talented players to grace a rugby league field, with speed to burn and an innate ability to beat defenders.

The 63-year-old largely featured at five-eighth, but also plied his trade in the centres and at lock in a glittering career for the Eels.

He played 265 games for his beloved Parramatta and 17 Tests and Origins for Australia and the Blues respectively.

Kenny was an integral figure in the Eels’ hattrick of premierships between 1981 and 1983, adding a further title to his resume in 1986.

He’s been in the Hall of Fame since 2008 and speaking in 2023, he explained it’s great to see people rallying behind him to be inducted as the game’s 14th Immortal.

“I often think if I ever do become an Immortal, the first thing I’m going to have to do is thank everyone on Facebook,” Kenny said on SEN.

“It seems to be on Facebook everyone saying, ‘Yeah he should be an Immortal’, now they’re saying Ron Coote which I can’t disagree with that.

“I guess it’s nice to have people think you’re at that level and that you’ve done enough in the game to be classed as an Immortal.

“I know people bring up the fact that I replaced Wally Lewis in the Test matches in England and he’s an Immortal and also Mal Meninga in 1986, so there’s an argument there.”

ULTIMATE GUIDE: Everything you need to know

CAMERON SMITH

Games: 430 NRL games for the Storm

Origins: 42 for Queensland

Tests: 56 Tests Australia

Accolades: 2006 and 2017 Dally M Medallist, 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2016 Dally M Representative Player of the Year winner, 2011, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2019 Dally M Captain of the Year winner, 2007 and 2017 Golden Boot Award winner, 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2016 Wally Lewis Medal winner, 2013 and 2017 World Cup winner, 2006 Tri-Nations winner, 11 State of Origin series wins, 2010, 2013 and 2018 World Club Challenge winner

Premierships: 2012, 2017 and 2020

Bio: Arguably rugby league’s best ever player. Cameron Smith did it all across a glittering career that included a staggering 430 NRL games, the most-capped player of all time and the only man to have reached the 400-game mark.

He is also the NRL’s top point scorer (2786 points) and was continually captain of every side he played in, leading the Storm, Australia and Queensland.

Smith featured a staggering 56 times for his nation and played for his state between 2003 and 2017, a ridiculous tenure.

The legendary hooker’s Immortal status is more of an issue of when, not if, with many pundits certain he will join the prestigious list in years to come if not in 2024.

For league legend Greg Alexander, Smith is the pick of the bunch due to his ridiculous list of career achievements.

“I was originally of the thought that Ron Coote, Brett Kenny – those that have retired for a long time – would be next in line,” he said on SEN.

“But if you had everyone who’s a chance of being the next Immortal lined up, then Cameron Smith wins because his record and what’s he’s done in the game can’t be matched.

“I reckon (he’s) a short-priced favourite to be announced the next Immortal.”

Smith himself also said: “If that was to happen it would be quite surreal given the people that are already in that category of legends of our game.

“There’s a lot of wonderful players yet to be announced as Immortals that I think in the future will be. If my name’s read out, it will be hard for it to sink in in that moment.”

RON COOTE

Games: 148 NSWRFL games for South Sydney, 109 NSWRFL games for Eastern Suburbs

Origin Games: 15 games for NSW Firsts between 1965 and 1975

Tests: 23 for Australia

Accolades: 1971 Clive Churchill Medallist, 1970 and 1972 Harry Sunderland Medallist, 1968, 1970 and 1975 World Cup Winner, 1967/68 and 1974 Ashes winner, 1966, 1969, 1974 and 1977 Pre-season Cup winner, 1975 and 1978 Midweek Cup winner

Premierships: 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1974 and 1975

Bio: Ron Coote is a true legend of the game and had glittering spells at the Rabbitohs and Roosters in the 60s and 70s.

A powerful lock, Coote’s defence was one of the hallmarks of his game and he was also knows as a genuine try-scoring forward.

Coote won an impressive six premierships and featured in nine grand finals, being the first player to tally 100 games for two separate clubs.

What goes against Coote is that he retired in 1978, and he missed out on induction when five players were named in 2018.

So with a new host of modern names joining him in the Hall of Fame, many may argue that time has passed for this legend of the game to be awarded Immortal status.

However, league icon Mark Geyer backed Coote to become the 14th Immortal.

“Blokes like (Darren) Lockyer, Cameron Smith, Alfie Langer, and Johnathan Thurston… I think they will all eventually be Immortalised, but for me, the next person sounds like Ron Coote,” he said on Triple M.

“He was a legendary player for South Sydney and the Roosters back in 1960s and 70s. An unmatched grand final record. He went on to found the Men of League.

“I think someone like Ron Coote cannot be forgotten.

“I think that his contribution to our game can never be forgotten and I think that it’s long overdue that he should be an Immortal. He deserves it.”

ALLAN LANGER

Games: 4 BRL games for Ipswich, 258 NSWRL, ARL, Super League and NRL games for Brisbane

Origin Games: 34 games for Queensland

Tests: 24 for Australia

Accolades: 1992 Rothmans Medallist, 1992 Clive Churchill Medallist, 1996 Dally M Player of the Year, 1992, 1996 and 1998 Ron McAuliffe Medallist, 1988, 1994 and 1996 Dally M Halfback of the Year, 1991 and 1998 Dally M Representative Player of the Year, 1992 World Club Challenge winner, 1991 and 1995 Challenge Cup winner, 1989 Midweek Cup winner, 7 State of Origin series wins, 1985/88 and 1989/92 World Cup Winner, 1990, 1992 and 1994 Ashes series winner

Premierships: 1992, 1993, 1997 and 1998

Bio: Allan ‘Alfie’ Langer is widely regarded as one of rugby league’s most gifted halfbacks and was a superstar for the Broncos, Maroons and Kangaroos. There’s already a statue of Langer outside Suncorp Stadium.

He won seven State of Origin series and crossed for 100 tries in his 258 games for Brisbane.

In terms of individual awards, he won it all, ticking off the Dally M Medal, Rothmans Medal, Clive Churchill Medal and more.

Many remember ‘Alfie’ as one of the smallest players to take the field, but what he lacked in size, he made up for in spirit.

For Broncos teammate Kevin Walters, who shared the spine with Langer for a lengthy period, he’s the obvious man to take the 14th Immortal position.

“It is pretty clear in my head that Allan Langer is very much underrated as far as elite players go and Immortal players,” Walters said.

“There is nothing he didn’t do on the field for the Broncos, whether it was captaining the club to four premierships or captaining Queensland to series wins or for Australia.

“He was the money man. That was a thing among all the players at the Broncos through that era.

“A lot of us would go to the bank and put our card in and there was no money coming out, but Alfie always has something, particularly late in games.

“When he went to the machine there was always something coming out which I can remember so clearly.

“They have got a statue of him (at Suncorp Stadium) … all they have got to do now is make him Immortal.”

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DARREN LOCKYER

Games: 355 ARL, Super League and NRL games for the Broncos

Origin Games: 36 for Queensland

Tests: 59 for Australia

Accolades: 1998, 2001, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2011 State of Origin series wins, 2000 World Cup winner, 2000 Clive Churchill Medallist, 2003 and 2006 Golden Boot Award, 1998, 2001 and 2002 Dally M Fullback of the Year, 2004, 2006 and 2007 Dally M Five-Eighth of the Year, 2001 and 2006 Dally M Representative Player of the Year, 2006 Wally Lewis Medal winner

Premierships: 1997, 1998, 2000, 2006

Bio: Widely regarded as one of the most clutch players in rugby league history, the career of Darren Lockyer is littered with records and highlights at both club and representative level.

Lockyer played 355 times for the Brisbane Broncos, the first of which came in 1995, and would win four premierships at the powerhouse club before retiring as the then-most capped player in NRL history in 2011.

An integral member of all four of those grand final wins, Lockyer also played a pivotal role in several series for Queensland, with his most famous moment coming in the dying moments of 2006’s Game III when he pounced on a loose Brett Hodgson pass to score the game winning try. He won seven series with the Maroons, six as captain.

Lockyer began his career as a fullback before transitioning into a five-eighth. Remarkably, he won two golden boot awards playing in different positions.

In 2004, when Lockyer transitioned into the halves, Phil Gould wrote; ‘the world’s greatest fullback is now the world’s greatest five-eighth.’

While in 2010 Wendell Sailor, a former teammate of Lockyer’s, described the Maroons great as “one of the best that the game has ever seen.”

In fact, before Lockyer had retired there were already calls for the legendary No.6 to become an NRL immortal, while the man himself has said the fact he’s “even mentioned in the conversation is humbling.”

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PETER STERLING

Games: 228 NSWRFL and NSWRL games for the Eels

Origin Games: 13 for NSW

Tests: 18 for Australia

Accolades: 1986 State of Origin Series winner, 1987 Golden Boot winner, 1986 and 1987 Dally M Player of the Year, 1986 Clive Churchill Medal, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1987 Dally M Halfback of the Year

Premierships: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1986

Bio: An immovable presence in Parramatta’s decade of dominance in the 1980s, Peter Sterling is one of the finest halfbacks to ever step on to a rugby league field.

During a tough era of rugby league there were few No.7’s tougher than Sterling, who is widely regarded as having one of the most tactically astute minds in rugby league history – one the Eels utilised to great success.

In 2020 Fox League’s Steve Roach, who played during Sterling’s era of dominance, heralded the halfback as someone who could “sum up situations and read numbers without actually counting.”

“He would just look up and go, ‘they are short there’ and invariably just go there straight away,” Roach said.

Sterling struck up a fine relationship with Brett Kenny – his halves partner in all four of the Eels’ 1980s premierships – with the pair so good together they often kept Wally Lewis out of the halves at international level.

In 2008, Sterling was recognised as one of the 100 greatest players in rugby league history, while in 2023 Phil Gould said the Eels great was a “natural” choice to be an immortal.

KEN IRVINE

Games: 236 NSWRFL games for North Sydney and the Sea Eagles

Origin Games: 24 games for NSW Firsts between 1959 and 1967

Tests: 31 for Australia

Accolades: 1959/60, 1963/64 and 1967/68 Ashes winner, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1966 Interstate series winner

Premierships: 1972 and 1973

Bio: As arguably the game’s greatest ever winger, and undoubtedly its greatest ever try scorer, Ken Irvine’s name is revered in rugby league history.

A stalwart of the game during the late 1950s right through to his retirement in 1973, Irvine scored 212 tries in 236 first grade games, and added another 33 in test matches for Australia.

So great were his try scoring feats that the NRL’s top try scorer award was renamed the Ken Irvine Medal in his honour back in 2018.

In 2008, the year Irvine was named one of Australia’s 100 greatest players, he was also voted on the wing in Australian rugby league’s Team of the Century.

Irvine would finish his career on an extreme high, winning back-to-back NSWRFL premierships with the Manly Sea Eagles.

Current Immortal John Raper once said “I’ve never seen a better winger in an Australian jumper.”

JOHNATHAN THURSTON

Games: 323 NRL games for the Bulldogs and Cowboys

Origin Games: 37 for QLD

Tests: 38 for Australia

Accolades: 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017 State of Origin series wins, 2013 World Cup winner, 2005, 2007, 2014 and 2015 Dally M Medal winner, 2015 Clive Churchill Medallist, 2011, 2013 and 2015 Gold Boot Award, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2015 Dally M Halfback of the Year, 2012, 2013 and 2014 Dally M Five-Eighth of the Year, 2015 Dally M Captain of the Year, 2008 Wally Lewis Medal winner

Premierships: 2004 and 2015

Bio: Put simply, there are few players in rugby league as decorated and respected as Johnathan Thurston.

The Maroons legend holds the record for the most Dally M Medals (four), most Golden Boot Awards (three), most points for the Australian Kangaroos, most points in State of Origin history and the most consecutive Origin games.

In his younger years, Thurston was knocked for being too small, too skinny and unable to tackle, yet the half overcame such intense critique of his game to dominate every level he played at.

A wonderful halfback capable of controlling a game single-handedly, Thurston owns one of the greatest kicking games of all time and was able to put teams on his back and drag them to victory.

Back in 2014, Peter Sterling, himself one of the game’s greatest players, expressed great admiration for Thurston, singling out the Cowboys legends “vision, his effort (and) his toughness.”

“He is the whole package… when the opposition knows what to expect and still can’t stop it, you know a player is special,” Sterling said.

A premiership winner with the Bulldogs in 2004, Thurston’s crowning career moment arguably came 11 years later when he led the Cowboys to their inaugural premiership crown – kicking the game winning field goal in golden point to seal an epic win.

Arguably the greatest compliment Thurston has ever been paid came from his great mate and teammate Cameron Smith.

“I reckon you’re the greatest person or player that’s ever pulled on that Maroons jersey,” Smith said after QLD won the 2017 State of Origin series – Thurston’s last.