Richie Mathers. Both spells with us he was pretty average, but I just liked him. Seemed a good guy and respected the club and the fans.

Met him off the field a few times and always has the time of day to chat to kids and have a picture.

Mathews tackle on Bailey in theCC final was fantastic. My favourite memory of him.

Andrew Gee... Way past his best when he came here but I loved how he was straight in there when the grubs of Super League at that time used to try and leave one on Alfie Langer..
The Home game with Bradford where we came back from about 30-12 down to win was a particular favourite Fielden and McDermott who kind of ruled the roost as props at the time were brought down a peg or two that day..

I just thought he was lazy in the P&B. After he returned to Aus he played State of Origin again, I seem to recall.

Alan Gwilliam was in this category. Had all the skills necessary to be a top class scrum half. Trouble was, he did everything at half the necessary speed. Was like watching Andy Gregory in slomo.

Also, Wilf Briggs, a good player, had a unique ability to sidestep [iinto [/ia tackle. Never seen anything like it since.

Players that I liked even though others criticised:-
Eddie Hunter - ginger forward who got injured many times and always seemed to finish games limping
Rocky Turner - stand off with a searing lack of pace

Rocky Turner was better as a fullback in the end.

Austin Woolvine a small barrel of a man who played hooker in the 1960s. Pretty good at winning the ball in the days of brutal contested scrums but also handy in the loose. Went on to be landlord in a number of town centre pubs.

Slight variant... I didn't think Michael Monaghan was that good at first. In fact, not until the Wigan semi final in 2009.

I enjoyed Alan Hunte. He was with us for three seasons and scored a decent number of tries in all of them. When DVDV moved him to fullback in place of Lee Penny it didn't go down well with a lot of fans but he was a useful attacking weapon popping up unexpectedly in the line on to one of Langer's inside balls.

Hunte was never really barracked by the fans but I got the sense most people thought he was a bit of a lazy so and so who knew the best days of his career were back at Saints and he was winding down his career with us and seemed to be having a bit of a laugh while he was at it.

But he was still fast when he was with us and he could still score tries. We had an inconsistent team but with guys like him and Toa in the back line we had tries in us, and we noticed their absence in the grim 2002 season.

As for another "guilty pleasure", in the early to mid 1990s a young stand-off/fullback came out of our Academy who was the best young player I ever saw come out of our Academy. Absolute class in every department, great long pass, nerveless goalkicker, great step on him, could jink through the line with ease. At 18/19 years of age already as good as anybody in the league.

He seems to have been airbrushed out of memory for most of our fans but not me.

Are you talking about Rocky Turner here Sal?

Rocky Turner came through in the 1980s!

Of course he did! Damn you failing memory lol

Chris Bridge!...lol

Seriously...
....Jason Roach, Steve Roach.....Roy Asotasi!
but more respectfully...Mike Wainwright, Roger O'Mahoney and Roby Muller.

If only Harris and Sculthorpe had come through the system 10-15 years later what a backbone to a team that would have made. With a mature club management and decent coaching team you can only dream of what would have been had they stuck around.

Still, didn't work out that way so no crying over spilt milk.

Interestingly, can anyone think of a player with as much natural talent and Rugby League skills as Harris to come through RL since then? Not sure I can, no disrespect to the likes of Tomkins et al.

Difficult one to answer because the game changed since then and meant a talent like Harris wouldn't have been as effective. He would have still been a very good player but as he didn't have express pace he wouldn't have been able to break the line as much in the era of more organised defences and those long cut out balls that created tries from nothing would have been picked off as interceptions too often for it to be worth the risk.

You could take Briers v Harris and say Briers was a player that emerged after Harris, but who was better suited to the direction the game was going. I am a big fan of Harris but in fairness he dominated SL at a time when the game went through a dip in standard. After the decline of the great Wigan sides and the retirement of a lot of legends like Hanley, Schofield, Davies, there was a dip in the late 90s where a lot of SL felt like lower division standard and even the teams at the top had a lot of ordinary players, before a spate of big NRL signings and a crop of very good young players at Leeds/Bradford/Wigan/Hull boosted standards in the 2000s. It was in this late 90s dip that Harris was dominant. Robbie Paul was another player who dominated in that era who maybe would not have been [ias[/i dominant outside of that dip.

So yes definitely one of my all time favourite Warrington players and terrific to watch but I think you can make a case that Briers, Sinfield and Leon Pryce, who all came through after Harris, had talents that were more suited to the direction the game was going.

Scottty, I think you are being either extremely harsh or have misread the thread title here
Keith Holden was an outstanding young prospect who in my humble opinion was neither of Sally's criteria. If I recall he fell in a pot hole whilst playing for us against Swinton at the old Station Road and wrecked his knee and never really recovered.

A potential star for me who suffered rotten luck with injury.

Not wire players but I liked to watch Harvey Howard n sorensen when not playing us!!

John Dalgreen

Mike Nicholas

We had a few wingers whom I admired greatly. Notably, Dennis Curling who played in the 1970s on the opposite wing to John Bevan most of the time. He was very quick and elusive as well as sporting a very 1970s 'disco Stu' hairstyle. At the start of the 1980s we unearthed Rick Thackray whom I was convinced would go on to be an all-time great. Think of a British Deny Solomona. He did play for GB Under 21s (including a match at Craven Cottage against the touring Aussies). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw8q3qf7ZFE but never really fulfilled that early potential.

We had a few wingers whom I admired greatly. Notably, Dennis Curling who played in the 1970s on the opposite wing to John Bevan most of the time. He was very quick and elusive as well as sporting a very 1970s 'disco Stu' hairstyle. At the start of the 1980s we unearthed Rick Thackray whom I was convinced would go on to be an all-time great. Think of a British Deny Solomona. He did play for GB Under 21s (including a match at Craven Cottage against the touring Aussies). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yw8q3qf7ZFE but never really fulfilled that early potential.

...come on...own up.
Who ran on the pitch lol?

I did. I used to get autographs and tie ups

I'm sure I've got a shoebox full of tie ups in my loft still. Last time I remember seeing it it has the unmistakable smell of Wilderspool changing rooms. Charming to some, revolting to others!

Seem to recall him getting sent off against us for clothes lining John Atkinson. That, and the hair, stick in the memory.

If I remember correctly he broke his neck at Central Park,got up and played the ball...apparently if he had attempted to run with the balll he would've been paralysed!