The Maitland Pickers have a long and proud history in this city.
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They played during the Depression, after the 1955 flood and more recently recorded the club’s
12th Newcastle Rugby League premiership.
For the better part of a century, many great players have donned the famous black and white jersey.
Now Glen Whaler wants to celebrate the best of the best.
The Maitland Leagues Club general manager and former player will hold a dinner on August 15 to announce the pick of the Pickers – a top 20 of all time.
“I’ve thought about doing this for a while and, now I’m back at the leagues club, I wanted to make the most of it,” Whaler said.
“I wanted to do it properly and celebrate some of the great players who have worn the big white M.
Whaler was joined on the selection panel by 1983 Pickers premiership winner Mick Finch, Old Boys president Pat Warby as well as Legends of League author and former sports journalist Ben Quinn.
To help with their decisions, the group also sought advice from former players of various eras and used archives from the Mercury and online.
To avoid subjectivity, they used a scale of points based on Australian, NSW, Country and Newcastle representation, as well as achievements like 200 grade games for Maitland.
“We didn’t just want it to be opinion, because everyone has an opinion,” Whaler said.
“That’s why we used the scale, to make it more objective.”
A criteria was set and to be eligible individuals had to have played first grade for Maitland and either been a local junior or notched up 50 top grade games, the equivalent of about three seasons.
This ruled out arguably Maitland’s best product – Country, NSW and Australian representative Greg Bird – because he didn’t play first grade for the Pickers.
“We wanted to make it a Pickers top 20, not a Maitland top 20,” Whaler said.
“But even that has been tough because a lot of blokes have played rep footy from here.”
A short list of about 40 players has been complied.
Over the coming month, starting next Thursday (July 9), the short list will be revealed in the Mercury sports pages.
There will also be an opportunity to win tickets to the dinner, which will be held at Maitland Leagues Club on Saturday, August 15.
Tickets are $35 and will be available from the club on Monday.
1933, 1934, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1965, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1983, 2010, 2011
