Because we're all bored...Rovers top 100 players of the last 50 years

[jamescolin]

Not sure if he was still playing but if he was add Eric Batten to the list.

[RobLambert]

Not bad this

Griffin and Riddy wouldn't have been close for me and probably not Craven

Bussey and Briggs maybe higher

Good shout whoever said Danny Baker.  Unstoppable at times and to prove he could have played at a higher level he scored a cracker v Leeds in the cup.  Was it the ill judged tweets in more recent times that reduced his ranking points ?

[Steve Slater]

On 02/04/2020 at 15:16, The Phantom Horseman said:

It took a grade of 8.0 to make the top 100. Which ruled out plenty of players I graded at 7.8 or 7.9...including some very fine players such as Cyril Kellett, Ken Kellett, Luke Cooper, Nigel Barker, Jordan Baldwinson, Matty Dale, Dale Fennell, Gary Siddall, Tim Slatter, Benny Kaye, Alan Rhodes, Tim Sharp and many more. Just shows how many very good players we have had in the blue and white over the last 50 years.

 

 

Some of the players you mentioned there were regulars in arguably the two strongest ever Rovers sides, ie 1973 and 1977, so leaving out Cyril Kellett, Ken Kellett, Alan Rhodes and Dale Fennell, who were regulars in what we say were the finest teams of the day, could lead to knockers devaluing the trophy wins from those years. Wasn't winning the league in 1977 as big an achievement as winning Super League in the present day? 95% of players from the last  25 years in that list couldn't hold down a regular place with the a lower Super League club, let alone dream of a Challenge Cup or League Championship winners medal.

[The Phantom Horseman]

8 minutes ago, Steve Slater said:

Some of the players you mentioned there were regulars in arguably the two strongest ever Rovers sides, ie 1973 and 1977, so leaving out Cyril Kellett, Ken Kellett, Alan Rhodes and Dale Fennell, who were regulars in what we say were the finest teams of the day, could lead to knockers devaluing the trophy wins from those years. Wasn't winning the league in 1977 as big an achievement as winning Super League in the present day? 95% of players from the last  25 years in that list couldn't hold down a regular place with the a lower Super League club, let alone dream of a Challenge Cup or League Championship winners medal.

All fair points Steve and I definitely mean no disrespect to some of the players I left out but some of the greatest club teams in sporting history didn't have stars in every position and I think that was definitely true about both the 1973 and 1977 teams.

It's no coincidence that four of my top 10 players were all in the 1973 cup-winning pack, and that, along with arguably the greatest player the club have had in the last 50 years at scrum half, was where the strength of the team lay (added to the fact that we had a coach who was years ahead of his time). And it's no surprise that those players were the ones who the richer teams eventually cherrry-picked in the following years - Nash was the first to go, and Thompson, Bridges, Farrar and Stone were all later picked off by much wealthier teams than us, whereas none of the guys I left out were targets for the bigger clubs.

But those four titans of one of the greatest club packs we've ever seen were still with us in our title-winning season in 1976-77, and by then they had been joined by Peter Smith, Mick Gibbins and Keith Bell. I'm in no doubt that it was that pack - surely our greatest-ever, and by a wide margin - that led us to the title (aided by the inspired switch of John Newlove to half back by this stage). We had some very solid backs that year, and John Gilbert and Steve Evans both made their debuts that season, but we owed those glory days to the pack, and it was no coincidence that when Thompson, Bridges, Farrar and Stone all left over the next 2 years, we became significantly weaker very quickly despite the development of backs such as Gilbert and Evans, to the extent that 2 years after winning the title we were relegated.

 

 

 

[Steve Slater]

8 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

All fair points Steve and I definitely mean no disrespect to some of the players I left out but some of the greatest club teams in sporting history didn't have stars in every position and I think that was definitely true about both the 1973 and 1977 teams.

It's no coincidence that four of my top 10 players were all in the 1973 cup-winning pack, and that, along with arguably the greatest player the club have had in the last 50 years at scrum half, was where the strength of the team lay (added to the fact that we had a coach who was years ahead of his time). And it's no surprise that those players were the ones who the richer teams eventually cherrry-picked in the following years - Nash was the first to go, and Thompson, Bridges, Farrar and Stone were all later picked off by much wealthier teams than us, whereas none of the guys I left out were targets for the bigger clubs.

But those four titans of one of the greatest club packs we've ever seen were still with us in our title-winning season in 1976-77, and by then they had been joined by Peter Smith, Mick Gibbins and Keith Bell. I'm in no doubt that it was that pack - surely our greatest-ever, and by a wide margin - that led us to the title (aided by the inspired switch of John Newlove to half back by this stage). We had some very solid backs that year, and John Gilbert and Steve Evans both made their debuts that season, but we owed those glory days to the pack, and it was no coincidence that when Thompson, Bridges, Farrar and Stone all left over the next 2 years, we became significantly weaker very quickly despite the development of backs such as Gilbert and Evans, to the extent that 2 years after winning the title we were relegated.

 

 

 

Good points TPH, you can't beat constructive debate like this when we're all bored due to no live sport.

[jamescolin]

One thing that comes to mind. I saw all those great players and the club brought them on to their heights and then we had to sell to survive. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, Steve Slater said:

Good points TPH, you can't beat constructive debate like this when we're all bored due to no live sport.

Yep. Think I would actually make quite a few changes to my original rankings having read some of the comments here which have all been pretty good.

[Andrew Vause]

I may have missed it but has that list omitted potentially one of the greatest players ever to pull on a jersey for Featherstone? Certainly in the modern game. A lad from Chequerfield, a future Man of Steel. I leave you to fill the blanks in.

He only played for just over a season but some of the others on the list such as Dane haven't been here any longer.

[The Phantom Horseman]

1 hour ago, Andrew Vause said:

I may have missed it but has that list omitted potentially one of the greatest players ever to pull on a jersey for Featherstone? Certainly in the modern game. A lad from Chequerfield, a future Man of Steel. I leave you to fill the blanks in.

He only played for just over a season but some of the others on the list such as Dane haven't been here any longer.

from the first post in this thread...

Anyway, I've restricted it to players who played at least 20 games for us during this period (which ruled out a few, notably Zak Hardaker by one game).

[Andrew Vause]

Yeah I read that. I can't believe he played less games than Dane Chisholm, Freddie Banquet and Jessie Joe Nandye.

Were is 19 games all games or just league apps?

I don't have any figures with me, so as the man in the orthopaedic shoes said

I stand corrected.

 

Back under my stone for another year. 

 

[The Phantom Horseman]

22 minutes ago, Andrew Vause said:

Yeah I read that. I can't believe he played less games than Dane Chisholm, Freddie Banquet and Jessie Joe Nandye.

Were is 19 games all games or just league apps?

 

 

According to the invaluable and usually infallible Rovers history DVD compiled by a couple of our forum regulars, he played 14 times in 2010 (scoring 22 tries) and 5 times (2 of which were as sub) in 2011 before heading off to Rhino land.

5 National League Cup games, one Challenge Cup game and the rest were league games or play-offs and of course the ill-fated Grand Final where he scored that memorable try set up by Tommy Twinkletoes.

[The Phantom Horseman]

35 minutes ago, Andrew Vause said:

Yeah I read that. I can't believe he played less games than Dane Chisholm, Freddie Banquet and Jessie Joe Nandye.

 

 

Think you have a point about Jessie Joe. I don't think he played the 20 games I stipulated, I just assumed he had without checking. Banquet just met the 20 game limit.

[Steve Slater]

On 05/04/2020 at 16:45, POR said:

similar steve I was in same house and class as your alan at Castleford Technical college   later 

airedale high school  

POR, I must have missed your post back in April.........Are you Peter White by any chance? If not you must be Peter Worth? 

[Andrew Vause]

5 hours ago, Steve Slater said:

POR, I must have missed your post back in April.........Are you Peter White by any chance? If not you must be Peter Worth? 

Only if there were 3 pupils Steve.