It was interesting to read how Wally Lewis met his new teammates and was struck (and humbled) by the fact that they had clean faces, having had a quick wash before coming to training, but the rest of their bodies were black with the grime of a hard day's work on the coalface or construction site. These were men who played either because of the love of the game or because it offered the chance of a few more quid into the house. Either way, "King Wally" turning up might eke out a few wins but someone would be losing out financially to this man who was paid more for 10 games than the rest of the team got between them for the season.

That's a difficult bridge to build and looking at the reception and welcome Wally is being given now, it's something he must have succeeded with.

So when did everything change so dramatically or are we really still very close to those dark days. Professionalism is not just being paid but having the right mindset and environment. How much harder must our management team be having to work to maintain this professional environment than such as Warrington or Hull with all their financial advantages.

Has the academy structure made such a difference and is it an essential factor in bringing through young talent? It seems that the current generation do nothing more than slump lifelessly in front of their screens and our Community teams is charges with the task of engaging with these kids and inspiring them into physical activity. The community clubs seem to do a remarkable job in unearthing a prodigious stream of natural talent but it can only be coming from a small, and shrinking, pool of kids who they have managed to reach. Then of course, we have the pro football clubs who hoover up and buy every child with matching feet and greedy/ ambitious/ pushy parents into their system, ban them from any form of unauthorised exercise without specific permission then spew them onto the scrapheap in their early teens where they are disenfranchised from football and lacking the basic awareness of other sports such as rugby or cricket.

It would be fascinating to hear from those involved within our Community team about the challenges they face and how they are delivering such outstanding results at Wakefield. Perhaps it's because Trinity has the least to offer in terms of facilities so has to make up for this with attention to the detail of treating these kids well and helping them to buy into our club's ethos.

As a product of the Community Game back in the 1970s and a player who came through Wakefield Trinity’s U17s then the all conquering Colts team. Then as 17/18 year old I also played in 10 of the matches alongside Wally whilst serving my apprenticeship as a bricklayer on one of the construction sites you mention so I was one of those players with a clean face who met him when he arrived . More lately Ive worked in Youth Development including 18 months as Head of Youth at Trinity

The thing that’s changed is the Full time nature of the Super League and the Contract nature of a players form if employment. Back then a Ckub held your registration for life and paid you Match terms which were pretty much uniform across the team. When Wally came on £1,300 per game it was so far in excess of anyone else’s payments it was always likely to cause resentment amongst some players.

Those early feelings of resentment pretty much passed me by and I felt none of them whatsoever. They seemed to be centred amongst some of the older players but I’m pretty certain they gave way very quickly to respect for Wally as he not only played brilliantly but also put his body on the line.

Thanks for your reply, Clan
I would pretty much have expected that scenario but I'm perhaps more interested in what has happened since we have become a professional game - or have we?
A someone who is just a fan for decades and never played to any significant level, I have always been astonished by the levels of commitment required to play this game properly.

Saw about 9 of the games wally Lewis played in probably the best player I've ever seen along with bill ashurst both great players although different positions.I can remember going to the cas match and the cas fans shouting kill him kill him and one of the Wakey fans turned round and said kill him he's filled the effing ground for you.cas gave us a good hiding that day with ward , Joyner and co too good for us .also went to Leigh on New Year's Day when I think Nigel bell made is debut at scrum half to wally great times but still a struggling team.

I also went to that Leigh game, rover, when Belly made his debut. can you imagine the pride that Belly must have had playing alongside the acknowledged "Greatest player in the World". I remember Wally's debut also, Peter Sterling made his debut for Hull that day also. Two "Greats" on display on the same pitch on the same day. Alas Sterling's side were successful that day.

As for professionalism, we mustn't lose trace of the fact that Rugby League came about not as a means of earning a living but to cover the wages lost when players took time of their jobs in order to play The players of the day were miners, builders, labourers etc not from priviledged backgrounds like those that played "That other game".They couldn't afford to be out of pocket. I think there was as much commitment from players in the sixties and seventies as there is now.

Remember the Hull fans having a banner "No Wally's in our team".

I remember the home game against Oldham where took a real clout to the head which resulted in a cut to the forehead. He came back on to win us the game.

I can only comment from around 1988 onwards. I played junior RL for 2 local teams in Wakefield. Played RL for school (middle and high as it was then) represented Wakefield city schools at every age group from u11s upwards, along with a certain MR C. From this we were selected for Wakefield and district schools and the yorkshire schools and England rep schools. This was repeated for club levels as well. We were training and playing as juniors 7 days a week. No community teams were involved back in those days, however, we got invited by the districts and counties to goto training, in order to be selected for more representative teams. As club players we also got asked to attend city of excellence days at Wakefield Trinity where we got trained for the day in age groups. Our coaches were players like John Joyner, Tony Marchant and even a very young Alan Hunte and Chris Chester was there ! Many clubs used to hold open training days, I went along to one at Hunslet Hawks and was selected from there by a certain Steve Ferres and Roy Sampson playing numerous games in a day. I played for their academy for 3 years. We started playing games as curtain raisers for Hunslets main game. Bearing in mind summer rugby had just started. As a junior it was valuable experience as we all trained together at that time. Players at that time were Warren jowitt and Jamie Thackeray, along with Steve Pryce. Academy rugby was a good experience, huge learning curve, however, I ended up playing for an amateur team in Wakefield until I retired 5 years ago. The main issue I believe we have in recruiting young players is summer rugby. Young players from 11-16 participating in RL has declined by 40% in the last ten years. In my opinion summer rugby is to blame. Amateur club bs do not have the facilities pitch wise to accommodate harder grounds( hard grounds in winter make games to be called off). Summer is holiday season, good to watch rl but not to play it! Even professionals don’t like it! Why is the NRL still playing winter ? The rugby which is increasing participation is RU (hate to say) more money available at grass roots and still play in English wintertime.