Cottrell?? are you kidding? You weren't at the cup game in Widnes when Gelling and Cottrell beat up the Widnes pack, Kurt Sorensen, Esene Flymo, Richie Eyres and all. and we were a Division 2 club then, as well.

No. Out of all the players I have seen play for you I disliked him the most and rated him the least. I watched him play lots of times for you and two games stand out in particular, even by his standards of not being very brave, shall we say. One was away at Chorley and the other away at Carlisle. Both games got rather naughty and Cottrell limped off very wisely in both with supposed leg strains. He had rugby ability but was to be polite, not big on guts. Due to him being keen on bullying little wingers and scrum halves, a lot of fans thought he was tough. However, he would not go near league's hard men. I always thought he was like a pantomime character and a total embarrassment to your club. When the tough got going, TC always went missing. I am not a fan of those who like dishing out to little uns but won't go near big uns. I remember chatting with some of his former team mates at Leigh Miners before he signed for you. I asked them was he any good. They said yes, he has real ability but he goes missing when it gets tough. They recounted one story in particular of a match away at Queens. Predictably, it developed into a blood bath and all the Leigh team really got stuck in, apart from one.He disappeared. Guess who? I cannot say I blame him. He was smart and you will not be the only one to have been conned by good old TC. He was good at it. However, his old team mates saw things very differently. It was due to speaking to them I noticed it and boy were they were right. He had real ability but was very cute. As for Sorensen and Faimalo etc he'd (and I don't blame him) run a mile. Seems a nice and smart guy, but would definitely be in my nightmare team every time. By the way, if you are referring to the brilliant away match when Dessie was superb, in The John Player, Faimalo definitely was not playing. He had not signed for Widnes by then. I think you are getting your seasons mixed up.

no mention of warren stevens here???

see my team on page one of this thread

No doubt that he is a nice, smart and wealthy guy. We will have to agree to differ on the rugby side of things.

What do you mean by both levels? If you mean amateur and pro, he did not at pro level. There was rumour of him being selected on the 84 pro GB tour to Australia. However, this never materialised. Apologies if you mean something else. You are definitely correct in saying that most fans will agree with you. However, myself and some of his former team mates and Miners supporters still disagree. As you said, it is just an opinion though and it makes this forum more interesting when people sometimes strongly disagree on something.

He played for Lancashire v Papua New Guinea,
A Leigh Great he made over 300apps and would fight anyone this Eedyat dunno what he's on about he would of been an International had he been playing now and lets not forget how old he was.
AND he was the first player Chaiman in RL iif not the only one.
6 Feet 2 Eyes of Blue Tony Cottrells after you.!! LEGEND!

Apologies, thought you meant GB.

If he had ever played for GB full squad I would be totally shocked

Of course you are entitled to your opinion, but I beg to differ that myself and some of TC's former teammates are idiots.

Tony Cottrell was a thug on the rugby field, end of. (and no I wouldn't tell him face to face!)

but can you beat his mullet circa 1985??

trained with tc in the 80's at the miners great guy but always late

He was hard but I wouldn't have called him a thug... can't remember him getting his marching orders on many occasions.

Harsh assessment that... his discipline can't have been any worse than some of the players we've got at the minute.

I remember Kelvin '3rd man in cheapshot' Skerrett soiling himself against TC at CP in a midweek game around 88-89. Think we lost 48-0 or something.