Hard to judge Hanley properly as Wigan were the only fully pro team and it wasn't even a contest most of the time.
Tomkins done it against top Leeds, Saints, Wire teams.......

Good point.

Well, except we weren't and he also did it in Australia every year as well.

Tomkins was quite subdued against Leeds compared to in other games. I think there was extra spice in the fixture when he was at Wigan, and Leeds’ kick chase game stepped up a level to close him down.

You may not remember, but Hanley also did it in a Leeds, GB, West’s and Balmain shirt. He was on a different level.

Except Leeds were the first full time team

In the grand scheme of things Hanley didn’t play for Wigan for the majority of his career anyway (204 appearances out of a career total of 489). He played a very fare chunk of it at Wigan and was brilliant but he was brilliant for Bradford, brilliant for Balmain and brilliant for Great Britain. I read somebody say earlier he wasn’t at his best at Leeds but the guy still managed 106 try’s in 114 appearances from Loose Forward.

I love Lockers, Tomkins, Andy Farrell, Edwards, Offiah or whoever but Hanley is the top of the tree.

Hanley was definitely still elite playing for Leeds. You guys won’t like the comparison, but he was similar to Danny McGuire in that he was 2 or 3 plays ahead. Ellery would just be more obvious in standing 10 metres In front of the his own teams play the ball when he knew a break would be made.

edwards special

Yes you’re right, thinking about it.

But that game in the summer of 2012 50-8win at Leeds he was on another planet.

Although Leeds got the better of Wigan that year.

Does anyone have the facts around this? Being the only professional team seems to be thrown at us a lot but I'm struggling to find anything written to confirm or deny it.

There's loads of stuff out there. Just look at the players that came over and ask, did they come for free?

Mal Meninga playing for Saints, Blocker Roach at Wire, Peter Sterling at Hull.

There is having full time players and then having a full time squad though

I'm sure that if they could afford to pay Mal Meninga then they could have paid a full time squad instead. Like ing in a bedsit and buying a Ferrari.

I’ve never been able to find documented evidence either. From memory most top flight clubs of that era had a number of full time players, Greg’s scrap yard for example. Obviously some clubs would have more full time players than others, pretty much all the overseas players were full time.

I think I remember Leeds and Wigan going completely full time at pretty much the same time but I think that only really made a difference to the fringe and reserve players as most of their respective first teams already were.

It’s a strange one, what did full time pro mean? Most clubs had a squad of players who were “groundsmen” at the club, at one time saints had quite a few, if you watch the documentary comparing Wigan and orrell there’s a section where Wigan are trying to sign Offiah and Dave Myers talks about playing for A team money isn’t enough, if he gets pushed into the reserves

It may well be that Wigan were the first to openly pay their first team squad as full timers, rather than using club positions to mask it

Quote ="Lazy J"It’s a strange one, what did full time pro mean? Most clubs had a squad of players who were “groundsmen” at the club, at one time saints had quite a few, if you watch the documentary comparing Wigan and orrell there’s a section where Wigan are trying to sign Offiah and Dave Myers talks about playing for A team money isn’t enough, if he gets pushed into the reserves It may well be that Wigan were the first to openly pay their first team squad as full timers, rather than using club positions to mask it'" https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 4409549283 according to a Saints fan on here we won most of our trophies when we were the only professional side, then fell away as soon as it was a level playing field. Just wanted to see if there was any accuracy in the claim as no one challenged him on it.

Quote ="Lazy J"It’s a strange one, what did full time pro mean? Most clubs had a squad of players who were “groundsmen” at the club, at one time saints had quite a few, if you watch the documentary comparing Wigan and orrell there’s a section where Wigan are trying to sign Offiah and Dave Myers talks about playing for A team money isn’t enough, if he gets pushed into the reserves It may well be that Wigan were the first to openly pay their first team squad as full timers, rather than using club positions to mask it'" https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 4409549283 according to a Saints fan on here we won most of our trophies when we were the only professional side, then fell away as soon as it was a level playing field. Just wanted to see if there was any accuracy in the claim as no one challenged him on it.

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/ranking- ... gue-37281/ The Warriors who were also ONE of the very first professional clubs.

https://www.seriousaboutrl.com/ranking- ... gue-37281/ The Warriors who were also ONE of the very first professional clubs.

https://youtu.be/8_38ZOObHlo

https://youtu.be/8_38ZOObHlo

So that means we went pro 91/92 when we had already won plenty trophies and pulled off mission impossible.

It's as if we did something that was "Against the spirt of the rules". When actually we didn't, and anyone else could have done the same. But, they sat on their hands and have never stopped moaning about it..

Wasn't Leeds the first pro club?

I believe Wigan were the first club to go professional and Leeds the year after.We had already won the Challenge cup,World club challenge,premiership,League before we went pro.
Makes me laugh when you read that we won because we were pro but we wasnt,Ged byrne (window cleaner and a fine piano player)Phil Clark,Mark Preston (students)Andy Farrel(apprentice joiner) there were a few players who carried on studying etc when proffesional.
We was the greatest club side of all time in that dominant period and it was a pleasure to watch and I will add Hanley was the greatest player I have seen.

I thought Widnes went first in all honesty, but that probably sounds about right.

Ian Lucas who was an antiques dealer

Steve Hampson was a drayman, Andy Goodway ran a post office.

Within a few short posts we've already listed the jobs that a significant number of Wigan players held down when we were winning trophies regularly.

This whole thing is bilge, frankly. Just more attempts by sour grapes Saints fans to rewrite history.

They had all left by the end of 92 though, so certainly the Grand Slam will have been won with a full time side. Granted by then we had won 2 WCCs, 7 cups and 6 leagues.