I have watched Parry Gordon, Alex Murphy and many more but I have to say Lee Briers has to be the most creative and clever player in the last 50years. Some may have come and gone over a short period. There may be some good grafting "foot soldiers" ... but surely Briers has to be consistently the best match-winner ... ever!! Can anyone give me any other options? Hall of Fame lies in wait for Lee (at least)! Enjoy and celebrate whilst you can.

Bobby Fulton.
Warrington never lost a game when he played.

I watched Bobby Fulton and loved him. A great player. But it's the fact that Lee Briers has done it over such a long period that gets my vote as THE BEST.

I Remember one Warrington Coach thinking Lee was going to be a Full-Back as well,so played him there several times..

I too watched parry Gordon and Alex Murphy and many others also, and I agree with you that he is a very clever footballer, but to say Lee is the best in the last 50 years is a tad over the top and I expect you'll now be hit with many names to challenge your assertion. I'll start with John Woods.

Thanks for this. It's the fact that he's been our key man for so long that sways it for me. I refuse to consider anybody who hasn't played ten years for Warrington.

Are you sure about that? I'm sure I can remember losing a game to Swinton at home with Fulton playing.

The fact that Lee has been with us for so long and maintained a consistently high standard, carrying poor teams for most of his stay, has to be commended.

John Woods as mentioned earlier in this thread was brilliant but was only with us for about 10 minutes in comparison

Watched wire for 35 years and lee is the best half back I've seen by a distance.John woods was class but couldn't hit a man with a pass as lee does.very special player that we won't replace.

Very good poser !!

I assume you are talking of Warrington players only ?

Lee Brier's, Alex Murphy, Bobby Fulton, Parry Gordon, Ken Kelly
but I don't think I could rank them. OK, here's a try:

Bobby Fulton Pure class
Lee Brier's Class + craftiness + will to win
Alex Murphy Class + craftiness + "dirty" win at all cost attitude
Parry Gordon Pure class never booked or even cautioned
Ken Kelly Class + sheer hard graft

Brier's will leave a massive hole, thats for sure.

Would anyone say Lee benefitted from playing with Langer? again i know in comparison Alfie was only here '10minutes' but the guy was class

I have seen them all.

Woods and Kelly were great players and I loved watching them both. Both played most of their rugby for other clubs.

Murphy, superb but my memories of him are as a coach.

Fulton played one season (I think); great player though.

Breiers has played most of his rugby for Wire, best half back in SL era for me bar none. Application...........

Parry Gordon, one club, played for most of the time behind a beaten pack. The pick for me.

Great thread. I think he gets taken for granted far too much. It's going to be very difficult getting used to him not being in the squad, whenever that time comes which hopefully is a little while off yet!

Lee Briers...it has been a privilege to watch him play, especially the pin point accuracy of his tactical kicking. Everyone knows about his alleged off field issues but it is an absolute disgrace that he has been rejected by England/GB on so many occasions when it has been obvious to so many people that he has been the best halfback in the game. I would have loved to have seen him paired alongside Sean Long....probably the best halfback pairing in the world ?

Murphy was incredible, especially for his time.
Lee is incredible, though I think we wasted his best years, I hope he looks back on the last 4 years with pride, he deserves to, most of it was his doing.

lee briers has been superb under tony smith but to say hes the best is a little ott..for me it would have to be andy gregory then you could argue the case for the many half backs that have worn the p & b..i.e alfie langer ...johns..j woods ..phil blake ..ken kelly..jiffy davies etc...loyalty you cant fault him..

I think that you find that Parry Gordon was sent off once in his career.

I think what i meant to say but didn't was that Lee Briers is probably the best in his era . I grew up watching Parry Gordon who in his time was great but was also repeatedly overlooked for international honours .

You're right. It was against either Bradford Northern or Batley, I can't remember which. PG, for me, is still the best player I've seen at Warrington. Bobby Fulton's opinion of him also has to count for a lot.

Yes, I think the ref was "Sergeant Major" Eric Clay.

I'm a Briers fan and was before the Tony Smith era.....

but had we not had Tony Smith, and Lee Briers was simply a jack the lad that loved lashing it up more than winning stuff this thread would never have appeared.

a superb player and i'd have no problem in sticking him in my Wires all time best, but we have no idea how good he could have been had he been physically in better shape throughout his career....

its great he played alongside Langer, Johns, etc but he only picked up on field stuff from them, had he played alongside Hanley for ten years he would have been a better pro and an even better player.

he's won more Lance Todds than Sean Edwards so he wont have regrets but surely there is a hint of what could have been?

The thing I don't get about Briers is everyone has been saying through his career that he has a bad lifestyle and he should have attended more to his fitness but how come he's been able to stay at the top of his game into his 30s?

Usually its the guys that are super professionals, Forshaw, Hicks, Hodgson etc that last this long and players that don't look after their bodies find that they are shot by their late 20s and go into a premature decline.

Briers has never really been injury prone and I can't remember any season where people said "look at Briers, he's struggling with the pace of SL because he's out of shape".

So I think this idea that he's spent his career on the beers and pies and that he could have been a better player if he had been in better shape is a myth, his fitness has never been an issue, ever.

Well said. His performance has never been an issue either. Being surrounded by average players for too many years was, however.

I agree. The only thing you would say about his performance was that in the earlier years he was less consistent and post 2006 he has been very consistent but Briers isn't unusual in that. He has never stopped learning and improving and his game has got more polished year on year, he was always one of the best kicking halfbacks in the game, but in the Tony Smith era he got that polished to a tee, the accuracy he could pick out King/Hicks etc with bombs, it's very hard to defend against a kicker that has got good receivers like that and can just drop it on a plate for them.

I think you'd have to say that the fact Briers has been improving all the time shows he has been a student of the game who has worked hard at his profession.

In terms of 'his career might have been different if....' the thing he could have done differently is left Warrington and gone to a club like Saints/Bradford where he would have won more trophies and might have ended up with more GB caps, same as if Mike Gregory had joined Wigan his career would have had more success. But I doubt Briers has regrets about his career now he has got 2 Challenge Cup medals (and may yet end up with an SL trophy), more than most players he's had an interesting life in the game, he's been in a crap team fighting relegation and he's been in a dominant team smashing everybody by 40/50 points and winning back to back at Wembley.

I can't judge him against Parry Gordon, Alex Murphy etc but I'm starting to think now that I'd say on an overall contribution basis Briers is the best halfback in Super League history from any club, he beats guys like Lam and Langer on longevity and I just think he has the edge over Long, Pryce, Deacon and Burrow for quality. Fans of their clubs will probably disagree but which one of those would you swap for Briers at Warrington...?

He stood on the guys testicals in the heat of battle, in an era when tearing a guys testicals off was compulsory, he immediately apologised but was given his marching orders ther by Kershaw or Thompson. I remember it well, or was it a dream !