The Sandow thread got me thinking about another player who disappeared from the senior professional game in his late 20s: Brent Grose.

When he joined us he was a decent NRL prospect and he had three really good seasons in the early Cullen era. The third of those he switched to fullback and he was our player of the year. Back then he was one of the best outside backs in SL and there used to be links with him going to Melbourne Storm and so on. You could play him at centre, wing or fullback, his defence was good, he was solid under kicks, strong upper body fending people off and he was a good finisher.

Then he just faded. He was with us two more seasons and he just seemed to be going through the motions. There were no newspaper stories of incidents or controversy like with Sandow, he wasn't disastrously bad, he had just stopped being the impressive force of his first three years. I remember talking to someone at the club at the time who just said Brent is not the same player or the same person, his heart doesn't seem in it any more.

He went back and got picked up by the Roosters and played a season for them where he was in the first team about half their games then he got released and played for Thirroul in the Illawarra league. By this time, Chris Hicks who was a couple of years older than Grose, was playing for us and did three seasons where he won two Challenge Cups. I am sure if Grose had kept up his drive he would have still been around and would have been in our team for those Wembley wins.

Grose just seems to have been forgotten about here. He was a pretty popular player in his early days but you never hear him talked about any more. Probably because he didn't go out with a bang like Sandow etc but played on as a ghost for two years, he was already being forgotten about before he left.

I thought he was without a club paid his way over and asked us for a trial?

Scored some great length of the field tries, Wakey seems to stand out in my mind....?

I seem to recall he was back packing around Europe and asked us for a trial?

I think i have to agree there Mr Duck.

Used to enjoy watching Brent Grose. Pacey and illusive runner. I remember thinking, when he signed, that Hicks has a lot to live up to and he did - and more so.

Dead ball line to tryline against Widnes? Longest ever try scored at least at that point?

There’s been a few tries like that scored during the SL era, especially by the early 2000s Saints teams. You don’t really see them these days due to the different nature of the game.

I’m pretty sure that game against Widnes was the one that saw them relegated. I think ironically that it was Warrington-born Chris Riley that scored the last try that ultimately sent them down. Cullen-coached teams certainly produced some exciting attacking Rugby from one edge of the pitch to the other. Just a shame that the same teams also used to let similarly spectacular tries in at their own line.

Hicks and Grose were similar types of players: consistent, reliable and able to play across the backline. You get some players who will be a winger or centre and if they are put to fullback look like a fish out of water, and everyone has a go at the coach for playing them out of position. But a lot of the Aussie outside backs just seem to have a complete range of skills and so can adjust with no problems.

Hicks had more star quality than Grose as he kicked goals but also was a bit quicker. After Hicks left, although we were still a top side for three seasons, one criticism you could put at our backline was it lacked express pace: Hodgson, Atkins, King, Bridge, Joel M were all a bit one-paced, and Grose was that kind of pace as well.

Also interesting to see the comments about how Warrington under Cullen played some superb expansive rugby similar to what Saints did in the early 2000s. I remember Phil Clarke used to rave about us a lot in that era "on their day the best attacking side in Super League" etc. I think that Cullen side from around 2005, would have been a major contender back in around 2000 when Saints team of entertainers were champions, with Martyn, Long and Sullivan putting together great moves from deep. But generally defences in SL improved a lot in the early part of the 2000s and there weren't the soft touch defences that allowed you to win with an expansive style that wasn't backed up by solidity. By the time Cullen's team were at their peak, the dominant forces were Daniel Anderson's tightened up Saints, an emerging Tony Smith Leeds and the final flourish of Bradford's power rugby, and they were all too solid for us to keep pace, we had come to the party with that style of rugby about 5 years too late.

We did play great rugby in the early TS era but it was more about clinical execution and generals like Michael Monaghan, Briers and Hodgson ruthlessly exploiting other teams weaknesses, rather than the more carefree style of the Cullen days.