Rabbitohs Top Four Decided for NRL All Stars Team

South Sydney backs Adam Reynolds and Andrew Everingham were joined by forwards Ben Te'o and Issac Luke as the top four Rabbitohs in NRL All Stars stage one voting which finished this week.

Reynolds was the seventh most voted for player in the whole NRL at the end of stage one, with results released today showing exciting backs Billy Slater and Jarryd Hayne, dynamic wingers Akuila Uate and Brett Morris and powerhouses James Tamou and Fuifui Moimoi were the most popular players among the 15,723 fans who took part in the first stage of online voting for Wayne Bennett’s 2013 NRL All Stars.

Hayne (Eels) was the overall favourite with 9491 votes, 208 ahead of Uate (Knights) after six weeks of voting at www.nrl.com/allstars where fans chose their favourite two backs and two forwards from all 16 NRL Clubs to be considered for Bennett’s team for the 2013 All Stars game to be played in February.

The top 10 fan favourites also included Reynolds, Josh Morris (Bulldogs), Paul Gallen (Sharks) and Cooper Cronk (Storm).

Cronk finished just one vote ahead of Michael Jennings (Panthers).

Bennett now has a 64-man ‘shortlist’ from which the public will get a second chance to pick 16 players (one only from each club) to join automatic selections Benji Marshall and Cameron Smith for the fourth annual All Stars match at Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium on 9 February.

The top 10 players for the 2013 NRL All Stars in Stage One voting are:

1) Jarryd Hayne (Eels)
2) Akuila Uate (Knights)
3) Brett Morris (Dragons)
4) James Tamou (Cowboys)
5) Billy Slater (Storm)
6) Fuifui Moimoi (Eels)
7) Adam Reynolds (Rabbitohs)
8) Josh Morris (Bulldogs)
9) Paul Gallen (Sharks)
10) Cooper Cronk (Storm)

The publicly-chosen 64-man ‘shortlist’ for the 2013 NRL All Stars is:

Broncos: Peter Wallace, Ben Hannant, Corey Norman, Corey Parker
Bulldogs: Josh Morris, Sam Kasiano, Krisnan Inu, Tony Williams
Cowboys: Ashley Graham, James Tamou, Kane Linnett, Matthew Scott
Dragons: Brett Morris, Ben Creagh, Jason Nightingale, Trent Merrin
Eels: Jarryd Hayne, Fuifui Moimoi, Ken Sio, Tim Mannah
Knights: Akuila Uate, Danny Buderus, Darius Boyd, Kade Snowden
Panthers: Michael Jennings, Tim Grant, Lachlan Coote, Sika Manu
Rabbitohs: Adam Reynolds, Ben Te’o, Andrew Everingham, Issac Luke
Raiders: Josh Dugan, David Shillington, Jarrod Croker, Josh Papalii
Roosters: James Maloney, Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, Shaun Kenny-Dowall, Frank-Paul Nuuausala
Sea Eagles: Brett Stewart, Glenn Stewart, Jamie Lyon, Anthony Watmough
Sharks: Beau Ryan, Paul Gallen, Michael Gordon, Luke Lewis
Storm: Billy Slater, Ryan Hoffman, Cooper Cronk, Kevin Proctor
Titans: Will Zillman, David Taylor, Kevin Gordon, Nate Myles
Warriors: Shaun Johnson, Feleti Mateo, Konrad Hurrell, Ben Matulino
Tigers: Chris Lawrence, Robbie Farah, Tim Moltzen, Aaron Woods

NB - Brent Tate (Cowboys), Todd Carney (Sharks) and Jack Reed (Broncos) were removed from voting because of injuries.

Bennett will now have two weeks to review the list and place the players into preferred positions, including how he would like to see the make-up of the interchange bench, ahead of Stage Two voting opening on 10 December.

The public will have until 14 January to select just one player from each of the 16 NRL Clubs to join Marshall and Smith in the final 20-man squad, which will also feature two players chosen by Bennett and the NRL All Stars coaching staff.

Voting for the Indigenous All Stars team will also open on 10 December with both teams announced on 16 January.

Overview of NRL All Stars voting:

• The first player to be chosen in the NRL All Stars team will be the player who scores the highest number of overall votes in a position.
• Once a player from one club is placed in the team, no other player from that club can be selected.
• If a player withdraws from the team due to injury, he will be replaced by someone from the bench.
• The open bench spot will then be replaced by someone from the injured player’s club, depending on the position needed for the bench.