www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/oc ... per-league

www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/oc ... per-league

T'aww they all gave him a love.

The picture that accompanies the article in the paper is a different one from the online version.
You might not believe it but he looks even more of a d!ckhead in the one in the paper.

Interesting bit from the article



Hope Leon doesn't practise his tackling 'technique' on him in training

ouchie.

He needs to grow up.

Rugby is a game of inches, an inch here or there is a missed tackle, or not making a break. From the excerpts I've seen I now understand why he failed so miserably at international level time and time again. If he'd approached his fitness as a way to play better rather than as a way of being able to drink 15 pints of lager and still make it through training the next day he might have been the real world beater half-back we badly needed to get the likes of Farrell, Sculthorpe, Peacock and Fielden to dominate the Australians.

A top class player who could have been thought of in the same breath as Langer, Johns etc.

Interesting article. I didn't like Sean Long, but the more I read about his book, and extracts from it, the more I am warming to him as it just seems that he is a big kid and has/had gone off the rails a bit.

I am looking forward to reading it

that would sum up most players pretty well

Disagree

Long has always seemed an interesting bloke. A bit of a prat as an opposition player but interesting nonetheless.

One of the games characters

It'll be one of the few RL autobiogs that I'd buy – I'm guessing it has one or two interesting stories and not one of these "went to *, played * and we won then we went to *, played * and lost" type books.

The more I hear about it the more I consider him to be a lucky recipient of athletic ability in the lottery that is the gene pool who could've done and acheived so much more with a far better attitude.

Why the British public idolise these kind of t0ssp0ts as opposed to dedicated professionals who apply themselves 150% to getting the best of their gifts is beyind me.

We'll never acheive sporting success as a a nation whilst we warm to "characters" like Long and Gazza.

Personally, I consider them wasters.

Like Garry Schofield?

Schofields could have been so much better. It could have been "Went here, went there, got pi55ed". "Went there, lost in another final, got pi55ed".

Valid points, but on the flip side can you warm to the Andy Murray, Lewis Hamilton dull as dishwater types either? I can't.

That's kind, I was expecting Leeds' greatest ever captain to get a mention there.

I prefer sportsmen to be dedicated.

I find Sinni riveting. And well fit obviously.


FWIW I agree, but I'd like a bit of personality thrown in aswell, Someone like Ali or Webb.

Don't want to warm to them dude. Don'need to like them. Don't know them personally and don't want to stalk them.

I want them desperately to be succesful especially if they play for the team I support. If that means they don't get p1ssed and embarrass themselves whilst under contract for the team I adore and they give stock answers in media interviews and conuct themselves quietly with dignity I can handle that.

That's why Sinny (who is well fit) and just about every member of this Leeds set up over the last few years will have my utmost respect for what they have done as opposed to some clown like Schofield who was possibly more gifted than anyone we currently have but was ultimately a failure and a failure because his own shortcomings.

BTW, I can't stand Murray. He's a jock who said he supports whoever is playing against England in football so why any self respecting Englishman would root for him is beyond me.

The Aussies genuinely feared him though and he didn't let GB down.

I don't need "characters" who have no real character.

As an example of someone who has my respect as a player AND brought out a book worth reading AND is light years away from being a prat AND has true character ... gentlemen, I suggest Jamie Peacock.

Like his Leeds contemporaries today he failed to win an ashes series against the Aussies, won a series against the Kiwis and didn't win a world cup. He acheived no more than Sinfield, McGuire or Burrow at international level.

He did play in a World Cup Final Loss. However, he got dropped from his club position at stand off for dedicated, hard working pro from the Sheffield club, Darryl Powell. Tell you something?

I reckon Ellery Hanley would agree with you.

1992 or 1995?

He would. The coach of the World Cup Final who dropped Schoey from Stand off was Reilly.

When Hanley succeeded him he dropped Schoey all together from te GB tem that beat Australa then brought him back onto the bench for two defeats.

Tell you something?

All of this when Schoey should've been at the peak of his powers as Leeds and GB stand off. Schoey should inidividually hold the record for GB caps. That he doesn't is down to him.

I was thinking of Hanley's comments about Powell...about who he'd want in the trenches with him.