Ryan mcgoldrick

[Onreport]

yeah Ray Ashton started a great revival, some very low cost signings, got his team playing for each other and they developed a winning mentality , no lack of skills either, a good mix of locals, overseas and travellers. Once spoke with him and he said it was a shame he couldn't finish what he started at Town, the rest is history as they say.

was it Ashton who  brought John Lomax over?  One of the best front rowers I have seen, although I guess we didn't see enough of him at Town unfortunately

[Ginock1]

yeah Ray Ashton started a great revival, some very low cost signings, got his team playing for each other and they developed a winning mentality , no lack of skills either, a good mix of locals, overseas and travellers. Once spoke with him and he said it was a shame he couldn't finish what he started at Town, the rest is history as they say.

Can you enlighten me? I think this is when I got interested in going the games but I was very young

 

..What went wrong ?  I seem to remember a 6-6 midweek draw with Oldham as one of my early games. Wasn't good but I managed to hook me all the same. 

[Seaton Sandy]

Ray Ashton was very much old-school. I remember walking off after an away loss at Carlisle. Ray eyeballed the ref.and said "Why didn't you bring the hammer and nails-- you could have crucified us proper then " You'd be on report for that these days. 

[Derwent]

Can you enlighten me? I think this is when I got interested in going the games but I was very young

 

..What went wrong ?  I seem to remember a 6-6 midweek draw with Oldham as one of my early games. Wasn't good but I managed to hook me all the same.

Think the 6-6 draw was with Salford.

What went wrong ? Let's just say he did a "Justin Carney" and leave it at that.....

[Ginock1]

Thanks Derwent.

[shaun mc]

I think Gary Ainsworth had a fantastic try scoring record for a forward before Ray Ashton signed him. Ainsworth didn't quite repeat the try scoring at Town but he did come up with a few important ones

 

Paul Vannet  - that was someone of that era who could have made a great forward. Had the size and athleticism and pace for a prop, but not quite the grunt and ability to make the real hard yards

[Derwent]

 

Paul Vannet  - that was someone of that era who could have made a great forward. Had the size and athleticism and pace for a prop, but not quite the grunt and ability to make the real hard yards

I couldn't believe it when Hull KR paid us £20k for him, think we robbed them blind on that deal !

[Seaton Sandy]

Think the 6-6 draw was with Salford.

What went wrong ? Let's just say he did a "Justin Carney" and leave it at that.....

Oh go on Derwent give Ginock the full s.p.!  The Justin Carney reference is certainly apt ,but as for taking the p#ss Todd Carney couldn't compete. Ray had a penchant for the finer things in Life which ultimately led to his demise at Town. He did some great stuff for us but ultimately the "wheels" fell off on the back of "vanishing vehicle" issues and some strange Stuart Chick type signings. Oh the frailty of the common man!  

[ivans82]

think the worst player we ever signed was that barla player of the year we signed to replace the mighty mark mulligan , he was so good he used to let every up and under bounce , anybody help out with the name ?from the warrington area..........by the way gary ainsworth was a brilliant signing and he did manage 9 tries from 27 appearances for us playing hooker , second row , or loose forward , he was as wide as he was tall , but what a player . so him play brilliantly for swinton in a divisional final for swinton at old trafford , and we signed him shortly after .

[Derwent]

think the worst player we ever signed was that barla player of the year we signed to replace the mighty mark mulligan , he was so good he used to let every up and under bounce , anybody help out with the name ?from the warrington area..........

 

Peter Livett was the full back signed from Woolston. We also signed his team mate, a second row called Stuart Cash. Neither of them were much cop.

[ivans82]

just remembered peter livett.........wasn t his fault really big step from amateur to full back in a super league team under the cosh every week .

[homeandawayer]

Ashton built his team around 2 simple principles. He had a pack of local forwards who sweated blood for each other in the likes of Colin Falcon, Alan McMullen, Martin Oglanby, Mark Roskell and Buck Armstrong. Then he brought in some quality backs like Ken Kerr and Paddy Tuimavave from overseas and lads like Ian McLean from Oldham to capitalise on the platform that the forwards gave.

 

If you split our overseas signings into two lists one for decent and one for rubbish the rubbish list  would go onto two pages!

[Onreport]

If you split our overseas signings into two lists one for decent and one for rubbish the rubbish list  would go onto two pages!

Sadly true,

 

Then got me thinking, I remembered Brain Edgar telling me once,  a tale about a Welsh International Prop we were interested in signing way back in 60's, Town guys met this bloke in a pub somewhere in South Wales and were amazed when he actually agreed to sign.

Turns out we had signed a bloke with same name!!!!!!! So maybe not always from over seas!

 

However from Overseas, the 3 that stand out for me - 

 

"The giant Queenslander"  who was going to make us unbeatable down the middle,  Mick Mattach (probably spelt this wrong) who couldn't!

Brad Hepi's replacement that we signed from Hunter Mariners reported as 'A bigger and better version' but clearly wasnt!

The giant Kiwi /  Islander centre we signed who was meant to be the next Kevin Iro (cant remember his name ) but he certainly wasn't

[homeandawayer]

The only loose forwards I can think of are Brad Nairn and Craig Spark and the centre would be Ben Lia. Definitely in the rubbish pile.

[homeandawayer]

Talking of giant Aussie forwards I had to laugh the first time I saw Kyle White.  He didn't do much but what he did was quality.

[Seaton Sandy]

One of the biggest let- downs was Butch Fatnowna ,who some wag re-named Fat ##### Nowna . Can't remember who was guilty of signing him. 

[Derwent]

The only loose forwards I can think of are Brad Nairn and Craig Spark and the centre would be Ben Lia. Definitely in the rubbish pile.

 

We also signed a loose forward called Jason Palmada around that time.

 

It was a standing joke, every overseas player we signed was going to be a world beater and turned out to be very average. Anyone remember Esene Faimalo's brother Joe ?

[Derwent]

One of the biggest let- downs was Butch Fatnowna ,who some wag re-named Fat ##### Nowna . Can't remember who was guilty of signing him. 

 

You can blame Ross O'Reilly for that one.

[homeandawayer]

I saw Fatnowna in his A-team game and Leeds would've signed him on that game alone. I thought we had the next Laurie Daley!

[Onreport]

The only loose forwards I can think of are Brad Nairn and Craig Spark and the centre would be Ben Lia. Definitely in the rubbish pile.

Ah, Brad Nairn would be the one, came from Aus Super league outfit Hunter Mariners, and yeah Lia was the centre, Thanks for the memory jogger.

[Onreport]

I saw Fatnowna in his A-team game and Leeds would've signed him on that game alone. I thought we had the next Laurie Daley!

Watched Sterlo interview Wendell Sailor couple of weeks ago and Sailor talked about growing up in North Queensland and how he got by on effort, went on to say he played with some guys with far more quality than he ever had, 2 of the names he gave that stood out from the rest by being different quality were Bret Dallas and Butch Fatnowna.

Ross O'Reilly managed to pick the wrong there as well!, Although to be fair he probably had been quality but past his best when he came to Town.

[Onreport]

Watched Sterlo interview Wendell Sailor couple of weeks ago and Sailor talked about growing up in North Queensland and how he got by on effort, went on to say he played with some guys with far more quality than he ever had, 2 of the names he gave that stood out from the rest by being different quality were Bret Dallas and Butch Fatnowna.

[Onreport]

We also signed a loose forward called Jason Palmada around that time.

 

It was a standing joke, every overseas player we signed was going to be a world beater and turned out to be very average. Anyone remember Esene Faimalo's brother Joe ?

yep, another in the not so good pile

[homeandawayer]

Joe was just a kid when he came to us , he had a few years in SL after that so it was there.

[Seaton Sandy]

Just in the interests of balance -how about some less well remembered good Aussies ? I'll kick off with Kenny Groves. Big and quick, he bust the line an had a great off-load game. Sadly somebody cleaned him out and smashed his nose. Seemed to affect his bottle and he was never as good after.