Who do you reckon was better and why?

Hard one that Sally. Both excellent half backs but for different reasons. Distribution and vision I'd have to say Mackey. Kicking game definately Mackey. Nat Wood was a one off, would attack the line brilliantly with a backing up game to match anyone. Great runner from dummy half and could produce a bit of sheer magic from nothing. I always felt he was a hooker playing 7 though. If I had to choose
between them I would go for Mackey as he had the ability to control a game slightly better than Nat.

Mackey a better scrum-half

Wood a better hooker

Both good performers for Warrington

Always a fan of both of them to be honest,Mackeys 1st game scored the winner at cenral park....
nat wood was a bit more individual if you like but was always good for a bit of biff...
Never forget his speech on his last game for us and how emotional he was..
All in all two great players.....

PS.never liked Mackey after he popped a drop goal over for Hull at wilderspool and we lost the game 3-2..

Would have to go with Greg Mackey, but both good players, just think that Mackey had that little bit more.

Mackey was a better all rounder.

Mackey, far better player.

mackey was the better player, but nat wood has to be my all time favourite player. his speech when he left was so emotional for him and the club. a true warrington legend: Nat Wood!

Never in a million years can the word "legend" be used to describe Nathan Wood! He had commitment and played with passion, but is miles from a legend. In fact, the only player that I regard as a Warrington "legend" in the past 10 years is Lee Briers.

Mackay....although Nat would win a fight

Jamie Bloem

in my eyes nat wood is a legend because of the passion he put in and obviously felt for the club and us the fans.

In spite of trying to negotiate a contract with Wigan? Lots of other players have stayed a lot longer than Nathan Wood and shown the same amount of passion. Average player with a big heart.

Can't agree with the average bit but the passion was certainly there. I think we had an inquiry from Wigan but didn't he decide he wanted to stay?

Greg Mackey, by a country mile.
When he played his last game for us in 89/90, we were playing great rugby, joint top of the league and had just won the Lancs Cup. By the end of the season, we'd just scraped a Premiership place (8th).
When he returned, Mackey was playing behind a pack in transition (and some of them not very good), yet he (with the help of Kelly Shelford-genius and some Welsh geezer) steered us to almost win the title.

Wood (who's commitment could never be questioned) was a good player, but at times, you needed a crow-bar to get the ball out of his hands, which for a half back, is not a plus point.

I thought that Wigan backed out at the last minute

Come on then, Sal, you started the debate, where do you stand

I remember hearing a good rumour at the time Nat Wood was in talks with Wigan, that the reason we were letting him talk to them was to open up a quota spot because Simon Moran was trying to get Brad Fittler to join us for 2005 (he had just retired after the 2004 Grand Final in Aus and we wanted him to do a season with us). Fittler decided in the end that he'd mentally set himself up for retiring so didn't want to come round and go through the motions in England, so he didn't come. It wasn't a rumour that was on the internet, I got it off somebody pretty well connected, maybe it was false but you never know, we signed Andrew Johns later that year so Simon Moran was obviously thinking in those terms.

Back on Mackey v Nat Wood, I rate Mackey a better player in terms of ability and them on about a par in terms of toughness but Nat Wood could do stuff that Mackey couldn't, in terms of causing damage with the ball in hand and coming up with big plays in close games. A lot of our most memorable wins in 2002-05 would have Wood having done something big when the game was in the balance.

Something else I always noticed about Wood was how his ability to make breaks and beat players was very good in proportion to his speed. He wasn't slow but at the age we had him I wouldn't say he was gifted with great pace, not enough to be making the long range breaks and scoring from distance like he did. I remember him leaving good defenders like Gary Connolly and Kris Radlinski on their backsides.

It would have been interesting to see how Nat Wood would have gone in England if he'd come over at a young age like say Dunemann did, Wood was in Australia for 10 years and played a lot of games but he was at clubs where he was understudy to Adrian Lam and Stacey Jones etc so he was a bench player. If he'd have come over to England in the mid 1990s rather than 2001, I reckon he would have been at one of the top teams before long and probably won trophies.

Greg Mackey was a class act, remember guys like Kelly Shelford and Kevin Ellis running off him, when he was in the team, we seemed to have more co-ordination on the field, and had a tighter knit team spirit, than any time afterwards since he left until the last couple of years. Also can you ever remember Mackey being injured or suspended? He was in the team sheet every week when I was a kid.

Greg Mackey was made of steel, what was his record of consecutive games?

For me no argument - Greg Mackey.

Mainly for the reasons Lefty states in that he took us above the level of the team. He had definitely lost a yard of pace when he returned for the 2nd time but for the 1st time he was a revelation. I remember him scoring a great try to win the 1st game of the season against Wigan at CP.

It was only the ineptitude of the management in messing around in giving him a long-term contract that meant he left. I always wonder what would have happened if he'd stayed that season.

Great player and after Andy Greg, the best scrum half I've ever seen in the 25 years I've been watching the Wire. For game in, game out consistency he was brilliant.

Was you away on one of your Space Shuttle missions when Alfie signed for us ?

To answer the original question, Greg Mackey by a long way.

What a game that was at the Pie Dome. Nobody gave us a chance, Wigan were beginning to look dominant, and it was Monie's first (official) game in charge, and in that second half we just blew them away. Mackey had just come over looking for a club, we had Mark Roskell who was very underrrated, who had a blinder.
Ahh memories, I've still got very brief (Granada Reports) highlights of this game on tape. Always like to dig it out for a few mins of nostalgia.

You're bang on Chiswick, with your comment about the ineptitude of the management re his contract. I still say we'd have run Wigan close, if not beaten them to the title that season, if we'd have offered Mackey what he wanted. This was one of my FEW gripes about the Higham era

Mackey was brilliant for the Wire but he also helped Hull win the Premiership at OT against what was an excellent Widnes side. I still remember Chariots marding off at the end of that game in a sulk and then toddled off to Wigan. Stood in the Stretford End with all the cod ed fans, top afternoon out that one

Never had the pleasure of watching Greg Mackey but have heard a lot of people mention him.

Nat Wood wasnt a scrum half , he was a player who liked to have ball in hand and to run and fight - as has been said already, he's was a hooker. He also couldn't hit a barn door with a cows . His kicking game was shocking.

That said, he was easily one of our best players in the years he played for us.

their two styles couldnt be more different, Mackey was a Rob Burrow type playmaker constantly running along the line looking for willing runners and finding them with long/short passes.

At times though Mackey would often look bad because if we didnt have those runners he had no other game he was too small to take the line on ...he had the bottle to do it no question but it just wasnt productive...

where as Nat Wood had that ability he could take the line on anywhere on the park and make a break. however he lacked the patience to do the simple stuff.

what Nat wood brought to the side though was confidence he was out injured for a spell and on his return to action against Bradford at the HJ the first touch of the ball was a one handed pick up from dummy half on our own 20 followed by a great break it just exuded confidence that seemed to lift the whole team and we went on to beat a decent Bradford side.

Nat Wood for me