What great players they were.None of them knew what a backward step was and all loved playing for Sir Peter of Fox.Jeff had a heart attack a couple of years back but happily is still with us albeit with a couple of dodgy knees.Talking of old players I see Ian Van Bellan suffered a stroke a couple of weeks back and is in hospital.Im sure we all wish him a speedy recovery.

Jeff had a bit of pace in his early years and developed from a running second row into a super ball-handling prop as the years went by. His ability, in his latter years, of off loading whilst he had three or four men swinging at him and hanginig off his neck, AND still walking forward, was just amazing.

I've no doubts - Jeff would have been top class in any era, and with full time training and not spending every day on a building site he'd have been even better.

Yes agreed.

Watching the walk off game reminded me that Harkin could be a dirty little get, although a brilliant player, especially when he came back to us in the late 80s

Didn't we get Casey by letting Harkin go the other way?

When he was on song he was one of the best scrum halves around. He'd have had a field day with the 40-20 rule.

On the walk off game I was staggered by some of the foul play that went unpunished. I'd forgotten how much was simply "part of the game" back then.

The incident where I think it was Carroll who was fouled and there was a resultant set to between the HKR aggressor and a Northern forward resulted in a penalty to HKR. That would never happen now. You could see why players too matters into their own hands.

No need for real hardmen nowadays and in some ways that's not a bad thing. I remember creative players being targeted by the thugs and there being lots of deliberate high shots and broken jaws. Those days are thankfully gone.

Yes correct about Harkin / Casey deal

Talking of hard men being able to get away with it, have a look on you tube and search for Mark Broadhurst fight and it’s a video called big hit. It was during their tour of the uk and they played us, Wally Lewis was niggling all night and Big Mark had had enough and just leathers him. The ref’s reaction (think it was Fred Lindop) is just to tell Lewis to get up. Sky commentators now would be having kittens over that one.

There's a video of Broadhurst flattening someone in a HKR versus Queensland game when they toured here. He flattens some unsuspecting forward not Lewis.

It's a cracker of a punch. The reaction from the lad in the crowd is funny.

I was there at the Queensland game and they really were 'mucking out' and Rovers were very much on the end of it. Why they were playing like that I don't know because they had such a talented side but it was a cold miserable drizzly day in November I think. It was at a play the ball when Broadhurst laid out their hooker whose name escapes me . Broadhurst had done a fair bit of boxing and it was a great punch. There was a huge cheer and everyone in the best stand was on their feet. I think the ref was Whitfield it wasn't Fred and he daren't send Broady off. Rovers won 6 - 3 (or something similar) Mike Smith scored the try. I went with a mate who was a big FC supporter and was hoping to see us stuffed lol.

Yeah thats the one, I always thought it was Lewis he punched. He had been pushed and pushed up til that point.

I was at the Northern walk off match, was a bit young (13) to have much of a memory of it but I'm sure we came out of it worse after the RFL had had their input.

I noticed how deep the players were coming onto the ball, instead of so many flat passes you see these days.

It would definitely be one of Baz 'N' Tez's big hits!

Yeah it's the hooker not Lewis we got the penalty also I think

Whitfield remains the worst referee I've ever seen, and that's against some strong competition. The HKR walkoff game is one of many he ruined with his incompetence.

I was at the game as a 9 year old with Dad and Grandad and remember the long walk back to the car in a housing estate miles away - needless to say that was fun!

Whitfield always did think we'd come to watch him, like a preening peacock and a shocking ref.

Was anyone at Wakey in the cup (early 90s) when Whitefield gave us a controversial penalty try and also gave Neil Summers a try in the corner despite him being about 6ft short of the line? Swings and roundabouts innit.

Yes I was there that afternoon.The Summers "try"was laughable he was a country mile from the tryline yet Whitfield never consulted anyone he just gave the try.He was a strange one was Robin.For a while he was the darling of the RLF reffing all the major semis/finals and could certainly do the job but never seemed happy unless he was awarding contenious game changing penalties at crucial times.He quickly slipped down the rankings and then he was gone.Played for Huyton at full back which probably tells us all we need to know about his playing abilities.

He also awarded us a fair penalty try in the Yorkshire Cup final in 89.

Maybe he wasn't all bad.

My dear old dad used to play for Bradford Northern pre and post WW2 and it was the first time he went to watch Bradford since he retired. Had to really persuade him to go to the game as he had a bit of a chill. The rest is history....only got half a game. But he did enjoy it.

I was at both the games, of the Queensland match, Len Casey was banned. But when the Aussies started niggling, he came down from the seats wearing a club blazer and prowled around the dog track. The frustration of not been on the field was killing him.
After the walk off, I remember some of the Bradford players came into the supports bar. I seem to remember someone trying to get free beer, claiming he was only getting half pay for the match. I think it was a very young Brian Noble but can't be sure, the old memory not what it use to be .

Just watched the game was at it but was only 10 can't argue with any of the sending offs in fact crooks should have gone also and Grayson earlier but he did have a good game and Hanley looked a good player whatever happened to him

Yes I think we got Hanleys best years before he went to Wigan and faded into mediocrity

Not the best at remembering records, but did he ever better the 50 odd tries he got for us one season?

In his second season with Wigan he scored 63 tries playing either centre,stand off and loose forward.In total he scored 189 tries with them in five years.I notice that even has his playing days were winding down he still managed 106 tries for Leeds in 114 appearances.Some player was Chapeltowns finest.

Certainly was a great player. But I remember that a lot of his tries for Leeds came from him starting from an offside position and then running back into an onside position to get behind the player who had made a line break