It took 15 minutes to write this first line.

In the wake of Greg Inglis' retirement, trying to find the words to describe the best athlete rugby league has ever seen turns the mind into a mental pretzel.

Destructive isn't enough on its own - not when Inglis was always in unwavering control of the devastation he inflicted on a defence.

Maybe powerful is better, but that ignores his acceleration and top speed a human of his size shouldn't possess.

"A gifted athlete" while undoubtedly true, somewhat discredits all of the hard work he put in to become the best player and a leading voice in the game.

No one word does Inglis and his career justice, but 'unique' might be the closest.

Sculpted by the footy gods themselves to run riot on a football field, there's never been an athlete like Inglis in the game. 

He's one-of-a-kind, but after 15 years playing first-grade rugby league, everybody has a story.

Current and former players on social media that have run up against Inglis are recalling the time he manhandled them. Meanwhile, fans are using videos to portray the ineffable feeling around his retirement and impact on the game.

You can't truly describe the velocity in which Inglis sent Jamie Soward into the first row of Olympic Park. That's a man who had been fielding questions about his sudden weight-gain throwing another professional athlete around like he's a paper plate.

You need a calculator to count the number of Broncos players Inglis beat in arguably the best try of his career. The speed from a person that size and the ease in which he skips past and brushes off would-be tacklers needs to be seen to be believed.

Inglis spent time on the wing, in the centres, at fullback and at five-eighth throughout his career. No matter the position, his athleticism made him a threat to the opposition defence.

He won a Clive Churchill Medal as a five-eighth in 2007 and a Dally M Five-eighth of the Year award in 2008. In 2009, he won the Wally Lewis Medal and Golden Boot playing in the centres. By 2013, Inglis had won the Dally M Fullback of the Year Award.

Wherever Inglis played, he was the best in the game at some point.

As far as the numbers go, there are some big ones.

Around the 263 first-grade games and 149 tries he scored between the Storm and Rabbitohs, Inglis played 39 games for the Kangaroos scoring 31 tries for an 84% winning percentage. There isn't a player in rugby league that has triggered more nightmares for Australia's rivals across the ditch than Inglis.

The worst is one of the most memorable try assists you'll ever see.

He donned the Maroon jersey 32 times while scoring 18 tries - the most in Origin history. A crucial part of Queensland's historic eight-consecutive series wins, the Blues never had an answer for Inglis. Every year New South Wales searched the state for somebody whose only job was to restrict Inglis and his influence on a series.

The position went largely unfilled.

Inglis' 2012 season doesn't get recognised for what it could have become. Everyone remembers Roger Tuivasa-Sheck bursting onto the scene to become the first player to run for over 5,000 metres in a season in 2015. However, had injuries not limited him to just 22 of a possible 27 games, it would have been Inglis setting the record.

Even with two games at centre to start the year before moving to fullback, Inglis ran for 4,626 metres at 210 metres per game.

The following year, Inglis lead the league in tackle breaks with 109. Tuivasa-Sheck was the next best with 95, but the then-Rooster played an extra five games.

But again, numbers and words do little justice in describing Inglis' career. Not when you can't measure the g-force of a classic GI palm to the chest.

It makes assessing South Sydney's outlook for the rest of 2019 without him especially tricky.

You can't replace the irreplaceable

Wayne Bennett said all there really is to say on how the Rabbitohs will adjust to life without Inglis:

"You don’t replace him, so we’re not going to try to do that. We’ll just get someone to put number four and play in that position. We’re not going to replace him, he’s unique.

You’ve never found another Allan Langer, we’ve never found another Andrew Johns. They are all different but we will get on with it."

The best the Rabbitohs can do is get the most out of what they've got.

So far, it's been enough for the Rabbitohs to win four of their first five games to sit 4th on the ladder.

Souths lead the NRL in running metres with 1,685 metres per game. Their 25.6 points and 4.4 tries per game is good for second in the competition while Cody Walker leads all players with six tries for the season.

No side engages the line more than South Sydney's 23 times per game with Damien Cook leading all players with 8.6 per game himself.

Even with Inglis spending most of the season so far on the sidelines, the Rabbitohs are still a top three or four team in the competition. Although, his retirement has established an undeniable lack of depth in the centres.

Braidon Burns is no GI, but he's displayed some of the destructive attributes of his predecessor. In his two games before going down with a hamstring injury, Burns averaged 6.5 tackle breaks and 164.5 running metres. Out of nowhere, the 22-year old is the best centre at the club and will be tasked with filling as much of the void as he can.

In an ideal world, Dane Gagai plays on the wing for this side. However, with 128 games in the centres, he's their most experienced player in the position.

There is little else in the centre's stocks after Burns and Gagai.

Jacob Gagan was too quiet in his first career game in the centres a fortnight ago while Kyle Turner is ultimately a backrower filling in when he's needed.

As well as the obvious depth that was retired this week, the Rabbitohs have lost their influencer.

While Inglis hadn't looked like himself to start this season, he could always be relied upon in big games. Highlights of his career revolve around making the game-defining play when it mattered most.

Even if Inglis had limped through this whole season without coming close to the peaks he's previously been capable of reaching, it's in the finals that he would have risen.

He always had done.

It's painful to see him leave the game now. It's not how he or anybody else wanted his career to end. But Inglis' impact on this 2019 Rabbitohs team won't be realised for a little while yet.

When Souths need that moment only Inglis can provide, that's when it will really hit.

There is nobody else like him.