your right, he will have him and one of the Burgess's thats it really

I can't comment on form at that time but Vagana was an absolute beast for Bradford. I don't place Satae, good though he is, in anything like that company. Oledzki is still a work in progress for mine as can be seen from recent Leeds performances. He's a good player and prospect, no doubt, but he doesn't even get close to the Bradford 4 at this stage of his career.

A brilliant player aye. I always remember Keith Senior picking a fight with him at the Reebok during a heavy defeat in the 2000 World Cup and Vagana pasted him. He came to Superleague after that and was superb.

It highlights the difference to today’s superleague. Guys like Vagana, Craig Smith, Cayless etc could’ve easily continued to get a place in top NRL teams. The lads that come here now are guys like Satae, Ellis, Mago, Prior Paasi etc who are all looking like ‘good’ players but were either fringe NRL players or forced out from clubs and were unlikely to pick up a regular start at anything other than the bottom sides.

Salary cap/exchange rate was in our favour then

Agreed. A big reason why Scully never went to Aus.

NK is right in what he says, we don't get players in their peak now from overseas, we either get the fringe ones like he mentions or we get the bad boys. Occasionally we get the good ones, Barba (for 6 months) Lyon, Hastings etc that rip up the comp. Unfortunately for SL, they invariably go straight back to the NRL.

Not a patch on Morley he did it in the hardest league on earth

Will never forget that pass left to right straight to Sarge for his try not many could have done that at pace

Indeed. The exchange rate doesn’t get mentioned much but around that time I went to the Ashes in Australia (cricket version) and you were getting just shy of $3 to the pound. When you consider it’s around half that now, it’s an absolutely massive difference and with the boom of the game down under, it’s put paid to that type of player coming over.

I remember it was the time when you could make an end of season signing to play the last few games. Wire got Johns and Bradford got Morley. I absolutely loved it as some of the world's best players came over & it created a buzz. Of course that was too much fun for SL and the loophole was quickly closed.

See, again this is where I struggle. Morley was good in the NRL, as was Graham.

I didn't need to see Morley or Graham in the NRL to know they were top players. This premise that Morley is better than Peacock simply because he played in the NRL is nonsense IMO. We're able to form judgements based on what we see - and Jamie Peacock was a brilliant prop and a brilliant leader.

How anyone can say Peacock was "not a patch on" Morley simply beacuse he didn't play in the NRL is just daft.

I have to disagree with this sadly, as it is how you perform in a top league that counts. There's no 'given' that a player can do it in another league - Josh Perry being a great example.

Yeah we can say JP was a top player and the "patch" comment is obviously wrong, but it does differentiate the two.

OT, but it's why I always say Ronaldo is better than Messi. We know Messi is quality, but Ronlado has done it across the major leagues.

No you have got this wrong Walmsley not a patch on Morley that is what I mean.

Peacock was one hell of a player and leader up there with the best as is Morley.
But not Walmsley (yet) he isnt a leader like those 2 and Lockers and the ginger one all great players and leaders

Peacock was one hell of a player and leader up there with the best as is Morley.
But not Walmsley (yet) he isnt a leader like those 2 and Lockers and the ginger one all great players and leaders

Totally different types of prop in truth. I’m sure he’d still be absolute class Morley but his game would need to be different now or else he’d be sat in the stands even more than he was. Peacock was an absolute grafter. His metres per carry was actually pretty low but he’s just go and go and go and was such an impressive leader.

We didn’t need to see Peacock or Roby in the NRL to admit they were world class but nowadays it’s tough to prove it solely in this superleague because of a lack of quality across the board.

I think Walmsley should go and test himself tbh

You pick an interesting 3 there Stu. Barba had his drugs and wife beating problems, Lyon couldn't at that time handle the pressure of being an NRL star, particularly from the media side of things and Hastings had blown a couple of chances, latterly through his fight with DCE. I doubt Superleague would have seen any of those players had it not been for 'personal problems' so to speak. Sad that we can't attract that standard of player without situations like those being in play but, as you say, that's the reality of our comparitively low cap.

Lyon is a real outlier on that one, as the league attracted plenty of good players during his time with Saints. I agree tho, that in modern times - it's more slim pickings and the traffic now goes to the NRL.

We did but the Aussies made it clear they wouldn’t pick players who moved here (full time) and that stoped most absolute prime Aussies coming here. We’d get first choice Kiwi international players coming but I’m struggling to think of many first choice Aussies. Lyon would’ve been that but had walked away from the game for a spell and had it not been for that, I don’t think we’d have seen him in this country. Even if he did play for Saints, what a player that guy was. An absolute pleasure to watch and pretty much everything I think of when somebody asks what an ideal centre looks like.

Yeah that's true, it was more lads towards the end of their careers. Guys like Gidley (who himself was a quality player), Trent or mostly NZ lads like you said. It's also difficult to judge the quality, as I do believe Richards could have made the Aus squad had he not moved over here. I know when he went back there were calls for him to play for NSW. If he'd have gone back in 2010 (his MOS season) he could have done it. Ultimately we'll never know tho.

The criteria for being world class doesn't have to mean "you've done it in the NRL".Makinson being a prime example.

Makinson is an excellent and complete winger but I wouldn’t put him as world class when you have people like Addo-Carr and To’o running around who are (IMO) clearly a level above.

There is nobody clearly a level above Walmsley - he’s up there with the freakish props of the game.

I agree as do other posters,but you have to perform at the highest level ie against Aussie/Kiwi teams at least as Makinson has and Bateman etc.

You could pick a championship player and say he is world class but he will not have played against Super league players If you get my drift.

Walmsley is a great player and I for one would love to see him do the same in the world cup as he does against Superleague opposition.

But he is a golden boot winner and did it against the Kiwis,surely thatt makes him world class.

It’s a fair question with Makinson. I hated the fact clowns like Brad Fittler stuck the knife in to his Golden Boot award because he deserved it. He was absolutely brilliant that season and in that series against the Kiwis. He’s still playing extremely well but probably not quite to that level.

I said the other day that if there are two starters in a position, then I would probably say world class is a top 10 player in that position. Is Makinson that? He probably is just about as things stand. There are clearly some wingers better than him but another 10+? I’m not sure. I know there are some wingers really on the rise in the NRL, like Saab, Coates, Young etc and Makinson is probably ‘just’ past the peak of his career but I’d have him in the conversation based on my definition. It all comes back to what is world class though? Everybody has different opinions.

He’s a Wiganer, so there’s every chance

Being top 10 in your position makes you world class?

I know it’s subjective but that is absolutely miles off. I’d say 2-3 max.

Look at the premier league for football. The strongest league in the world. Number of world class players is probably less than 10. Could come down to definition of world class though…