A group statue of rugby league legends Martin Offiah, Alex Murphy, Billy Boston, Eric Ashton and Gus Risman is to be erected outside Wembley Stadium.

They have well & truly stuffed it up... for a second time!

As if the the fall out from the Wigan biased shortlist and the failure to have any player who had played the game in Yorkshire (for any longer than a season, before someone corrects me), with legends like Neil Fox & Clive Sullivan to name two, on the shortlist was bad enough. At least if they had picked one player that would have drawn a line under it, as the players picked were all probably deserving of the honour individually without a doubt.

So, what do they decide, to go for a group representation of the shortlist!!! Great, they are going to immortalise a shortlist of players that all played for Lancashire/Cumbrian sides and omit one massive part of the game and the role it plays in our great game.

What a load of horse crap!

Complaining about an anti-Yorkshire bias from the RFL? The irony is delicious.

Good to see Yorkshire is well represented.

An absolute disgrace that no player from Yorkshire represented.
How Neil Fox was not on shortlist amazes me.
Once shortlist formulated the bullet should of been bitten.
I would have gone for Billy Boston , which would have at least demonstrated the way the game embraced non white players, well ahead of other sports.

I like the idea of the group representation. Each player on that list (regardless of where they are from) are worthy of recognition and I think the group representation is a unique concept showing the history of RL at Wembley rather than highlighting an individuals acheivements

I think it's a great idea. The players were picked via public vote and are representative of our game, not parochial interests. I also submitted a group design for the statue so hope I get a decent fee when they use it

De-facto you clearly think there IS an anti-Lancashire bias at the RFL generally... which makes your post beyond ironic!

Don't put words in other people's mouths. I think the RL community has made a mistake not to include one single player who plied their trade in Yorkshire in a group representation to celebrate the Challenge Cup and RL's history at Wembley! I think that is sad and divisive, when clearly it could have been avoided.

What has Yorkshire really offered Rugby League other than easily beatable opponents

The public has spoken - take note

Actually, it wasn't, the public vote was taken into consideration in the selection process... not quite the same thing!

Not our fault players from the wrong side o' th'ills haven't made a big enough impression at Wembley.

Group representation probably the right way to go - though to be fair I liked the idea of Fox and Offiah at their moments of agony and ecstasy.

Let RL fans moaning commence...

Neil Fox - highest points scorer in a final (1960 - pre-4 points try), Lance Todd Winner (1962), 5 goals in beating Wigan (1963). Wakey won all three. Not a bad impression.



If you are referring to Fox with the agony, are you sure you have got the right Fox?

I have watched the game for over 50 years and all I can say is that you need to research the history of the game before you come up with such a crass comment.

Personally I would have liked to see just either Billy Boston or Clive Sullivan. Clive Sullivan was the 1st black captain of GB/England in any major sport and by putting either him or Boston up there would show how forward thinking and diverse RL is.

I think that colour should not be a factor in deciding. It is meant to be a celebration of RL not of racial breakthroughs.

Whilst it is great that RL has been so forward thinking in such subjects, the statue is to celebrate the importance of RL at Wembley, not the significance of RL in racial equality for sport.

Who created the shortlist in the first place?

Why do people keep saying Billy Boston should have been on it? He's on it!

Great choice, Yorkshire's contribution to RL's history is comparable to that of London and there's no point just picking a Yorkshire player in the name of 'equality and diversity'.

Maurice Lindsay, George Formby, Uncle Joe and Andy Farrell.

Joke of a shortlist, joke of a final decision.

I was hoping that this statue would be something for the RL community to be proud of, a fantastic opportunity to lay a permanent reminder of the great sport of RL.

Instead we have a group of our souls.

Indeed, everything would have been so much better if the George Hotel was somewhere in Lancashire.

Saw the Super League show with Ray French putting the case forward for the group statue and totally agreed with it. A good decision.

Complaining about an anti-Yorkshire bias is laughable really.

I am surprised that they chose to not honour anyone from Wigan as well as Yorkshire.

1 cockney, a couple from Wales and 2 from St Helens seems like a good representation to me.

If the statue had comprised of only Yorkshire based players, would that still be your opinion?

Some true greats of the game to be honoured, oh & Offiah

.

No Yorkshire team has won at Wembley since 1999. Long may the streak continue!

Pah. Paltry effort.


I'm sure you know which Fox brother I'm referring to, and it's not the one you brought up, nor is it Peter.