Well, where players are comparable, then yes you will get that argument. Of course you will.

But in the case of Edwards/Gregory v Long/Martyn, it's blindingly obvious that Edwards/Gregory are far superior. Only someone biased towards Saints would disagree. Either that,or someone who never saw Edwards/Gregory, which I suspect you haven't. YOu can't possibly have if you think Long and Martyn are better.

If you want to compare, say, Van Vollenhoven and Boston, or Farrell and Sculthorpe, then yes we can argue all day long. That's fine.

But in the case of the thread subject here, then there is no argument. You may as well compare fillet steak with rump roast.

For Long and Martyn to do what they with such "heavyweights" as Atcheson, Haigh, Smith, Goldspink, Hammond, Davidson, Pickavance, Edmondson, Jonkers, Stewart, Stankevitch, Hall, Henare, West and Ward around them, made their achievements as a half-back partnership all the more remarkable.

Shall we compare that to the Wigan teams who surrounded Gregory and Edwards?

Pryce is good but not in same league as tommy

Harris was best 6 to play super league.

Harris as a young gun was un-stoppable, hated him at Leeds as you couldnt stop the mucker....we did right not takign him though and getting Scully.

You can if you want. Edwards and Gregory played together in the late 80s, when the only superstars we had were Hanley and possibly Joe Lydon. The other players were people we brought through the ranks, like Brian Case, Shaun Wane and what have you, or people who were playing at lower clubs (or union clubs) and had potential, like David Stephenson, Steve Hampson and Andy Goodway. People like Offiah, Miles etc came a lot later.

It further blows your argument out of the water when you exclude players from your list like Sculthorpe, Martin Gleeson, Shiels, Chris Joynt, Darren Albert. There were many more superstars in Long/Martyn's team than there were Edwards/Gregory's.

Yes doesn't it. Akin to leaving out Kevin Iro, Dean Bell, Graeme West, Phil Clarke as well as decent money paid for the like of Platt and Shelford. And people like Offiah and Miles did not come 'a lot later' by any stretch of the imagination.

You usually type sense, but to describe Tony Myler in this way is absolute rubbish.

Yes they did. Offiah, Miles, Shelford, Iro and Clarke played at Wigan in the 1990s. Edwards and Gregory played at Wigan in the 1980s.

Graeme West was not a big money signing - he was an amateur in New Zealand when he came to Wigan; Phil Clarke was home grown; Kevin Iro was an unknown 19 year old when he came to Wigan, unlike the seasoned, big money international he was when he played for you.

So, basically, you're taking rubbish.

Ok to describe Myler as shiit was an overreaction, but he was nothing like as good as people make out, and certainly in no way is he the third best stand off ever, definitely not in front of Edwards in any case.

Quite how he was selected for GB in the 1986 test series is beyond me. But then again, Maurice Bamford was in charge, who also selected his mate, Deryck Fox at scrum half instead of Andy Gregory, played Joe Lydon (a winger/centre) at full back, and selected Castleford centre Tony Marchant on the wing, solely because he scored at Wembley the a few months prior, so no surprises there.

Myler? Nah.

Its a long time ago, but i recall in 1986 that Gregory was injured and therefore unavailable for selection in the first test.
At the time many fans favoured Neil Holding for the half back spot, ahead of the uninspiring Derek Fox. (The Paul Deacon of his era)
Lydon at fullback proved a good ploy as evidenced by the sensational try Lydon scored against the Roos. The alternatives were Keith Mumby or Mick Burke which dont bear thinking about.

Tony myler was world class!!

Did you see him play? How can you call a man that was pure class.

He was just very injury prone.

Well no, the alternative was Steve Hampson, a specialist fullback who was simply brilliant. You can compare Wellens and Radlinski all you like, but Hampson p155es all over the pair of them.

Lydon scored a good try. Great! What else did he do apart from get sin binned for housing right in front of our own posts about 5 minutes later? I remember him being absolutely garbage in the second test.

As far as I'm aware, Gregory was actually in dispute with Warrington at the time and therefore wasn't playing any rugby, which I think is why he wasn't selected. By the time he came back for the third test, he'd signed for Wigan by that point, or at least was about to.

As for Neil Holding, I'm with you. He was great wasn't he? Very dangerous player and streets ahead of Deryck Fox. But like I said, he was Bamford's mate, wasnt he?

Erm, yeh. Which is sort of how I came to that conclusion. Pretty obvious, really.

However, see my earlier reply on the subject.

:1w40yhmd

Martyn never rode on the backs of others to get success. He won it for himself. Edwards was in the right place at the right time. Any other and he'd have slid into obscurity.

.

Even if don't agree about his quality you can't suggest that any of the reasons you've put above were why Tommy God never got picked for Great Britain because Tony Smith got capped ahead of him.



He wasn't picked because we didn't have any British coaches who could handle his quality which is further evidenced by Tommy God's performances under McRae and Millward.

I suppose it stops him from being blamed for us not winning the Ashes. If we'd have picked the on true footballer we had at the time we'd have beaten the Aussies. Instead we ended up getting lumped with stiffs like Smith, Harris, Farrell and Sheridan playing in the half backs despite the continued success of [iThe S[/i half back pairing in Super League (which IIRC was the only all-British one out of the top four before McGuire and Burrow came along).

Funnily enough the Saints half back pairing regularly guided [iThe S[/i to trophies and yet no coach would pick them together because it was thought that other players, who had achieved and contributed less should get the nod. I can understand Harris getting a run after his good season, however there is no argument in the world that could make a case for playing Farrell at stand off ahead of Tommy God at international level. Tommy God with his two dodgy knees was still twice the ball player of anyone else we had whether you like it or not.

Oh and let's not forget Goodway playing the most electrifying half back in the competition, pre-Lance Todd Legend Days, on the wing.

Absolute rubbish.
Edwards, the man who WON more winners medals than any other player, scored more tries than any other halfback, captained his club and country, led the ONLY English club team to victory in Australia the WCC, and he was according to you, just a support player.
If it was so easy, why didn't others do it?

And as for the coaching, what are the coaches doing now who picked Martyn in their team.

And with all this wonderful ability

that Maryn had, why is he not coaching.

Isn't Edwards now one of the most respected rugby coaches?

He wasn't picked because he was too good?

That's a new one on me.

Natural talent at playing the game doesn't always transfer to coaching.

In fact the more successful coaches are usually those with limited playing talent...

He wasn't picked because the coaches we appointed were useless.

He wasn't picked because he wasn't good enough.
End of story.

No matter how you try to dress it up, that was the reason.

It's like the boys brigade marching through St. Helens.

Oh look they're all out of step except our Tommy.

I can't remember, did Millward pick him for Lancashire?

Name the better British stand offs during his time that you believe were keeping him out of the side. If you start with Tony Smith you'll have zero credibility on this board forever.

Between 1993 and 2003.
Edwards, Schofield, Harris, Davies, McGuire and that's without even having to think.

When do think tippling Tommy was at his best?

If as you suggest he was so good why did Hanley want rid?

You as well as I probably know the reason.

And as to his last try at Central park for the losing side, who played Tommy off the Park that day?

Chris bl88dy Chester.

That should tell you a lot about tippling Tommy. Outdone by Chester and then by Julian O'Neil.

Danny McGuire?



The most one dimensional halfback ever