i met my personal favourite player freddie fittler in the east leagues club at bondi junction, and tried in vain to persuade him to sign for widnes. and i have met many great players over the years fro the likes of reg gasnier and the living god who is alex murphy to my ex boozing pal jules o'niell to keiron cunningham.

One of my favourite memories...

Was at university in the early 90's and our RL team president managed to organise for us to play a curtain raiser to the GB - France game in the South of France

The game itself was a nightmare - we were somewhat stitched up and ended up playing something like the France U21 team - I stopped counting when they had scored 70

But.. the night out was great, we were drinking with the GB team (apart from Clarke and Hanley who stayed in the hotel being professional)

The highlight of the night was Andy Gregory taking the out of Kevin Ward from inside a bar so Ward decided to put his hand through the window and cut it open!!

While I'm on the subject - a memory I'll never forget is walking past the changing rooms on that afternoon and Ward was just leaving the pitch... looking at the bloke walking towards me in full kit and looking like a monster my only thought was I'm glad I didn't play professionally against that every week

I was chatting to the Widnes players when they were up for a social in Edinburgh a few years ago.

Spoke to John Stankevitch and Gary Connolly, Baz and Tez were also there.

Only time i've ever really spoke to a rugby player for longer than the friendly chit chat was Bradley Clyde doing this Leeds days. Both stuck in Leeds train station waiting for the same train to arrive which was delayed.

Was a good guy and we spoke for a good half hour or so.

I've served a few players during my time working in Leeds. Leon Pryce, Nick Fozzard (just after he'd signed for Saints, we had a good natter about the club), Richie Mather (arrogant little sh*t), Willie Mason, Lote Tiquiri, Freddie Fittler and Danny Buderus were all in one afternoon when the Aussies were staying in Leeds. Buderus came in a few times and was a lovely guy to chat with, really approachable and willing to chat.

Being a regular traveller I have met many NRL players in airports and on planes. Met alot of the Raiders one day at Burger King in Sydney airport. Wiki was a really nice guy and Daley was a laugh. Was on the plane with the AFL St Kilda team last week and they were nice lads, all looked very young which is bad sign for me!

I seem to often end up on the plane with the netball teams, which is fun as I usually end up stretching with them at the back of the plane! (and no that isn't a euphormism for anything!!)