pffftttt Mark Gleeson was quality for us in a bad team!!!

Sibbit came back from Oz a worldbeater ha-ha

The late Barry Briggs. Played for us in the mid to late 60s then went to Australia for a spell. Came back during the Murphy era and finally went on to Wigan.

Mark Hilton?

I can't remember Tony Thorniley him re-signing for us. I remember him scoring a try against the Aussie touring team. I thought he was a good player for us. Where did he end up finishing his playing days.

I think he had a spell at Widnes sandwiched in between.

Played 49 games for Widnes between 1995 and 1997, according to the official Widnes website he then returned to Wire in a deal that took Anthony Murray (?) to Widnes. He can only have played a few games in his second spell as he retired in 1997.

Phil Blake.

Played for us in the Aussie off seasons of 85/86 and 88/89. And what a player he was. Gutted when he joined Wigan the season after, but I think he was passed his best then.

I think he was here twice, once without playing a first team game as a youth player and then he came back during which there was some confusion/ dispute over his signing.

Was pretty highly rated, forgot he was killed in a car crash.

Anthony Murray was our reserves hooker. I'm pretty sure he played a couple of first team games.

THese Guardian stats are pretty good, one game 9.2.97.

Paul Bishop, didn't he go away and come back to the club?

he was literally one of the few alliance team members kept on after the player exodus at the start of 1997, squad number 30, we had terrible trouble at 9 that year, dermot had signed, despite being MIA for about 2 years behind martin hall at wigan.

god knows how many people we played at hooker that year, but we ended up bringing willie swan back to play there after releasing him at the start of the year.

chris highton
john duffy
carl roden
andy bennett
paul hough
kelly shelford
paul hulme
willie swann
all had a crack at it that year.

ritchie wotsisface we had on loan from leeds as well, ex widnes backrower who's name escapes me.

EYERS

thats the one, mick cassidy broke his jaw headbutting his knee at wembley against widnes.

He actually signed for Warrington before changing his mind and signing for Wigan.. so technically had 2 spells, but never played in the 1st..

Mark Hilton

Definately, signed for Wigan whilst recovering from a broken arm, but didn't recover quickly enough. Was let go and re-signed for us without actually playing for Wigan.

Didn't Joe Ropati have two spells with us?

Kohe Love was the one most wanted back but he was a different player 2nd time round. His step and pace had gone after his injuries at Hull and Bradford.

Paul Sculthorpe - oh wait, no.

Matty Blythe
Lee Mitchell
Tyrone McCarthy


Like what I did there.

Wait for Boxing day announcement!

Yes it was funny how Toa was hero-worshipped after he had left. He ticked all the boxes for being a hate figure, ie he had been good with us first time round, he then signed for a club who was better than us at the time, but who we didn't really like, and he left us at his peak (or as it turned out after he left, his peak had been with us first time round). I was as guilty of this as the rest of the Wire fans, I still hero-worshipped him. Something about Toa was teflon he managed to retain his cult hero status after quitting us for a rival, where other players would have been hated.

Remember all the buzz when he was linked with coming back to us at the end of Cullen's first season, before signing for Bradford, we got him back a year later. Like you say the cutting edge had gone from his game BUT in fairness to Toa, his defence was a lot tighter. He wasn't a bad player second time around, just not the dangerous attacking force of old.

Quite a big list this. Especially over the last 20 years or so. Is it that we are such a great club and players jut loved playing for us or were we offering more than the going rate elsewhere?

Had the cutting edge gone from Toa's game or was he starved of any decent ball on the left edge. Maybe the truth is somewhere in between but the right side has seen a lot more quality ball than the left side over the last 10 years