Add Category
On Tuesday, Roosters warhorse Jared Waerea-Hargreaves announced that 2024 will be his final season in the NRL, drawing a long and storied career to a close and beginning a closing of the door on a whole era of the sport.
Waerea-Hargreaves debuted for Manly back in 2009 and is one of just a handful of NRL players who debuted in the first decade of the 2000s still in the league.
As the oldest player in the NRL in 2024, this season was always looking to be Waerea-Hargreaves's swansong and it seems likely the race to be the last man standing from the 00s is between three players.
Canberra's ageless wonder Jordan Rapana, who debuted in 2008 before taking six years away from the sport due to a Mormon mission, is the current player with the longest career span.
The 34-year old is off-contract at season's end and hasn't made a call on his future yet, but coach Ricky Stuart has said he expects him to retire.
That would leave us with Kieran Foran, who is also coming off contract, and Ben Hunt, who has one more year on his deal with St George Illawarra.
The fact Foran is even in with a chance is remarkable given the injuries and off-field issues he's struggled with over the years.
He's coming off a fine season with Gold Coast and should he put together another campaign there's no reason he couldn't go around again.
But Hunt must be the prohibitive favourite — he's played some of the best football of his career in recent seasons and is still an automatic selection for Queensland and Australia.
Playing beyond his current contract seems well within Hunt's capabilities, even if he'll be turning 34 next month.
With 312 games to his credit, there's every chance he joins Terry Lamb, Darren Lockyer, Cooper Cronk and Cameron Smith as the only players to appear in 350 matches or more.
There's two absolute long shots who could up-end the whole thing, although neither are a guarantee to play in the NRL this season.
Michael Jennings, who debuted all the way back in 2007, is currently at the Roosters on a train-and-trial deal after serving a four-year ban for performance enhancing drugs. He last played in the NRL in 2019 and at age 35, his chances of playing first grade again seem remote.
Former Wallaby Joseph Tomane made his return to rugby league with Queensland Cup side Souths Logan last year after almost a decade playing rugby union. He debuted with the Storm in 2008 and will play for Brisbane in their trial game against Manly this weekend.
If Hunt, Foran and Rapana all decide to hang up the boots this season it'll create a nice piece of symmetry with their counterparts from earlier decades.
Four seems to be the magic number when it comes to last survivors. Mal Meninga, the last active player from the 1970s, retired in 1994. Brad Fittler, the last man standing from the 1980s, gave it up in 2004 and Lote Tuqiri, the final player from the 1990s, called time after 2014.
Each of them also farewelled the sport in a grand final, with Meninga and Tuqiri retiring as winners.
By that schedule, we're about a decade away from the last player who debuted in the 2010s to retire, but there's some long-range forecasts available already.
Barring injury and unforeseen circumstances, there's a group of three players who all debuted in 2019 as 18-year olds who seem the likely choices — Bradman Best, Tom Dearden and Xavier Coates.
Best is the youngest of the trio by a few months, so let's give him slight favouritism to be the final player from the 2010s.