April 10, 2007 will go down in the history of rugby league as the day the game lost one of its greatest ever players when Newcastle Knights halfback Andrew 'Joey' Johns was forced into an early retirement.
A training incident last week revealed Johns had a disc injury in his neck and if the champion No.7 continued to play in the high-impact rigours of the NRL he risked serious spinal injury and therefore he had little choice but to announce his emotional farewell to the game on Tuesday.
Debate will rage as to whether he was the greatest player to ever pull on a jersey but one thing that doesn't lie is statistics.
He won nearly every individual and team accolade in the game in a glittering 14-year career that began with his NRL debut against the Gold Coast at Seagulls Stadium in 1993.
He played for his country in 21 Test matches during a 10-year representative career, including the 1995 World Cup and the 2001 Kangaroo tour and starred in 23 State of Origin games for NSW.
Queenslanders may disagree, but Johns' majestic performance in the 2005 interstate series was the stuff of legends.
That year, he came back to arguably the toughest contest in the code anywhere in the world after a broken jaw and just a couple of club games to take the game by the scruff of the neck like only Maroons great Wally Lewis had done before, and totally dominate the Origin series.
In all, Johns won 13 of his 22 Origins and four man-of-the-match awards in the classic interstate series.
The 32-year-old also collected three Dally M awards and two Golden Boots as International Player of the Year and is the highest point-scorer in NRL history with 2176 points from 249 first-grade games with the Knights.
But he lists his two premierships with his beloved Newcastle Knights in 1997 and 2001 as the highlights of his career.
There is little doubt then that the last remaining gong he can pick up in the game will be coming his way soon - to be named an Immortal.
In 100 years of the game only seven players - Clive Churchill, Graeme Langlands, Johnny Raper, Reg Gasnier, Bob Fulton, Wally Lewis and Arthur Beetson - have been bestowed the honour of being known as an Immortal of the game.
Johns now leads the list of current candidates, including Brad Fittler, Allan Langer, Peter Sterling and Mal Meninga, to be named as the next Immortal.
And even these peers list Johns as one of the true greats of the game. Fittler said he had it all - 'kicking, passing, defence, a great rugby league mind'. Langer rates him as his greatest opponent.
Parramatta legend Brett Kenny reminds rugby league fans that Johns also created a whole new style to the modern game by developing an amazing kicking game that included banana kicks and deliberately grubbing the ball at the goal-posts.
There is little doubt that the tributes will continue to flow for many days and weeks to come. And Andrew 'Joey' Johns is deserving of every one that comes his way.
Current Knights coach Brian Smith, who admitted one of the biggest attractions for him to be lured to the coaching role at Newcastle was to have the chance to coach Johns, said this of the great man at his retirement announcement on Tuesday.
"We