By scoring a try in the upset win against Penrith, North Queensland Cowboys winger Kyle Feldt is the third player in First Grade rugby league history to score at least 10 tries in 9 consecutive seasons, joining Warriors great Manu Vatuvei and the greatest tryscorer of them all, Ken Irvine.
Vatuvei has the longest run, being the only player in history to score 10+ tries in 10 consecutive seasons, achieved from 2006 to 2015 with the New Zealand Warriors, in which 'The Beast' also became the only New Zealander to score 150 NRL tries, while Irvine scored at least 10 tries every year between 1959 and 1967...
A streak that could easily have spanned 15 years, had Mongo not had his 1968 season wiped out due to a broken leg in the Australia vs France test in Marseille in December 1967, as he then returned in 1969 and scored at least 10 tries in the last 5 seasons of his career across Norths and Manly, with the consolation that his 14 seasons of scoring 10 tries+ are an all-time record.
This peaked my interest, because Feldt is the only one of the 3 who hasn't scored at least 150 tries (He's scored 138 to be exact), which means here's the best streaks and near misses from the 150 Club:
Alex Johnston (191 tries) scored 10+ tries in 8 of his first 10 seasons, although he never had a 10-try streak longer than 4 seasons due to scoring 8 tries in 2018 and just 4 in 2019 while playing at fullback, prior to his run of 104 tries between 2020 and 2023.
Billy Slater (190 tries) scored 10+ tries 11 times in his first 12 seasons (2003-14) with a best run of 8 consecutive seasons with 10+ tries between 2007 and 2014, broken up by scoring 5 tries in 15 games in 2006, a season in which Slater missed 11 games due to suspension (7 of them for kicking Wests Tigers prop John Skandalis),
Steve Menzies (180 tries), who has the most tries for a forward in league history, scored 10+ tries 8 times in 9 seasons between 1994 and 2002, with a best of 6 in a row between '94 and 1999, ended in 2000 when Beaver scored just 6 tries in the first season of the Northern Eagles.
Brett Morris (176 tries) never had a 10+ try run longer than 4 seasons (2009 to 2012), although after that he was a combined total of 2 tries away from having a run of 8+ seasons with double digits, as he scored 9 tries in both 2013 and 2015.
Noted trawler Andrew Ettinghausen (166 tries) never had a run longer than 4 consecutive seasons of 10+ tries (1988 to 1991), a run brought to an end as ET missed chunks of 1992 and 1993, including having a bout of malaria while filming a fishing trip in Papua New Guinea.
Terry Lamb (164 tries) scored 10+ tries in 6 consecutive seasons from 1982 to 1987 (Which included his last 2 years at Wests), then never scored more than 9 in a season for the rest of his career, in which he retired as the first player to reach 350 First Grade games.
Nathan Merritt (154 tries) scored at least 10 tries in his first 8 seasons at Souths, a run brought to an end in 2014 when he scored just 2 tries in 12 games and finished off his NRL career, having lost his spot on the wing to Alex Johnston.
Daniel Tupou (154 tries) has now scored 10+ tries in 11 of the last 12 seasons for the Roosters, a streak broken up by his 8 tries in 17 games in 2018, the last of which was the opening try of the Grand Final.
Some other noteworthy runs, despite neither player reaching 150 career tries:
- 'The Pearl' Steve Renouf (142 tries), who scored 10+ tries in 8 consecutive seasons for the Brisbane Broncos between 1991 to 1998, before he suffered a broken foot in 1999 and scored only 6 tries in his last season in Australia
- Nigel Vagana (140 tries), who scored 10+ tries from 1998 to 2005 while playing for the Auckland Warriors, Canterbury and Cronulla.... if you include 'Chiko's 17 tries for Warrington in the 1997 Super League, he did have 9 consecutive seasons scoring 10+ tries.
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