This week’s League Express Mailbag – Tributes to the Legend

I have enjoyed watching, reading and listening to him in all those roles and his decision to end his involvement with the game is disappointing but entirely understandable, given his health problems.

In his later years Garry has always been prepared to speak out about both the good and bad things that he sees in the game, without fear or favour, which is why he has been such a good columnist for you.

I have to say that I think he has been cruelly undervalued by the RFL over the years. As the holder of the joint record number of Great Britain caps he deserves enormous respect from everyone involved in Rugby League, but I’m not sure that he always gets it.

But let’s make no mistake, his retirement is no doubt a blow for your newspaper but, most of all, for the sport of Rugby League as a whole.

A naturally talented player who played at the highest level and one of the few British players who performed consistently well and starred in Test Matches against Australia, Garry was well respected in both northern and southern hemispheres for his exploits at club level, particularly at Balmain, Western Suburbs, Hull and Leeds.

In fact he was probably more feted in Australia than he was over here.

After a distinguished playing career his coaching experiences were somewhat chequered.

However, I wish to pay tribute to his work as a columnist and broadcaster, even though there were times when I disagreed with him.

He spoke for a generation that has largely been silenced since 1995.

In any other sport he would not have been banned, excoriated and deprived of air time.

People who speak up like he does are often smeared by being accused of talking the game down or clinging to outdated nostrums which have always held the game back from breaking out of its heartlands.

In his closing column he mentions the insidious manoeuvrings of Maurice Lindsay, who was committed to suppressing dissent, not just from Garry but from fans who liked the phone-ins after games on Radio Leeds, anchored by the consummate sports broadcaster John Boyd and its sister local radio stations.

He requested such outpourings be discontinued and, sadly, the radio stations complied with the diktat.

More recently the trade press and what’s left of Rugby League journalism, along with the key broadcasters, have slavishly followed the party line and made the coverage of the game sanitised, to use Garry’s words,

Only recently have some scribes woken up to the farcical grading system of IMG which has reduced the importance of on field performances [ what matters to most supporters who I mix with] for spurious corporate and social media criteria.

Some of us were prescient enough to call out IMG at its inception but found letters sent to publications in protest severely edited or ignored.

Critical analysis from pundits and fans should be encouraged and the sports administrators should be strong enough to handle it with policies that assuage the supporters’ fears.

No other sport has such a sycophantic commentariat and broadcasters.

Diversity of opinion is the lifeblood of most sports that engage the public.

Garry, in his farewell column, also drew attention to the declining playing standards and by implication the yawning gap between the Super League and the NRL.

A sport slapping itself on the back all the time is doomed to long term decline.

Rugby League administration seems designed to cater for a few chosen clubs whose only desire is to receive the bulk of the TV monies that are available.

As Geoff Wake points out (Mailbag, 11th November) the Championship clubs and clubs outside Super League and the amateur or community clubs as they are now known, need nurturing as player supply becomes more of a problem in these litigious times accompanied by increasing dementia awareness.

A top-down managerial system of any sport has problems if it neglects those who went before and those who dug the well.

Garry never forgot where he came from and was a great ambassador for the grass roots of the game.

His attendances at Rugby League luncheons and dinners were always engaging even if his contrarian views ruffled a few feathers.

His knowledge of the game was unrivalled and he always answered questions honestly and in good spirit.

He was keen for Great Britain and England to succeed and he was frustrated that former players like himself were never brought into the fold to assist present-day players to realise their full potential.

His experience was never tapped into and, as he regularly pointed out, this was in contrast to the Australian set-up where former players are fully embraced.

The traditions of the game have lost a wonderful articulator.

I wish Garry well in his ongoing battle with his health issues.

For those of a certain vintage his regular column will be sadly missed.

I can recall the day 30 years ago when he came to my office in Merrion House on the occasion of my retirement from Leeds City Council and made a presentation to me of a plaque of former Leeds great players.

Schofield, playing at centre, completed a move over the length of the field that also had a great involvement from the great Des Drummond to touch down in the corner for the sort of try that, if it were scored today, would get millions of views on social media.

In fact that try could still be highlighted even today as possibly the greatest ever try to be scored by Great Britain against the Aussies.

It seems remarkable to me that Schofield was treated with apparent disrespect by the game after his retirement and I would like to congratulate League Express for allowing his voice to continue to be heard.

For his honesty and genuine love for Rugby League, I think he is irreplaceable and I cast my vote accordingly in your Readers’ Poll.

Can I wish Garry all the best for a happy future, one that I hope he can enjoy without the threat to his health that he revealed in his final column.

I have suffered from many concussions throughout my playing career, which was brought to light in 2021 while playing for the Dewsbury Rams.

I had three major concussions during that season due to being reckless in the way I tackled, which came from how I grew up playing.

One of those concussions resulted in my being hospitalised to what they thought to be a bleed on the brain while playing for the Rams.

Not realising how this could possibly affect me in the future, It wasn’t until I had seen a head specialist for the third time in the 2021 season that I realised how this could impact me if this was to continue.

I was not offered another contract by Dewsbury because of this and the club was hesitant to take that risk,

Understandably. I was at a crossroads. Specialists advised me to stop playing and I was afraid clubs would not want to take any risks knowing my history.

But after having no symptoms following those concussions I decided I wanted to continue to play and sought another opportunity.

I was fortunate enough to sit down with Tubbs (Mark Aston) for a coffee, hoping for an opportunity for the 2022 season.

I will always remember the first words he said to me, which were: “I’ve watched your games and the only problem you have is your technique and your mentality, which I can help coach out of you.”

This stuck with me. Fast forward three seasons playing under Tubbs and I was fortunate enough to play in the 2022 Rugby League World Cup for Scotland as well as being on the way to reaching my potential as a player.

Since then I have had only one concussion, which was just an unfortunate accident, which we all know sometimes is a part of the game we choose to play. But the care and time Tubbs and the club took to help me get back was first class.

I would also like to mention that as a player who has dealt with and continues to deal with mental health issues, I have always had the support of Tubbs, whether it’s been to sit out a game to get my head right, or always being there as someone to talk to. I have never felt pressured to play and always felt like I can go to Tubbs for support. Any injuries I have had, whether big or small, he has always pushed the club to help me get sorted.

I would not be the player I am today nor where I am today in life without the support of Tubbs.

We have read much in the press lately about Government ministers receiving free tickets and hospitality at football matches and Taylor Swift concerts. The implication is that despite declaring these gifts, it then calls into question the independence of the ministers when dealing with the FA and so on.

A lot has been made by the RFL of the independence of the tribunal which it appointed to preside over the Mark Aston trial. Is it similarly a requirement for the disciplinary tribunal members to declare any gifts of hospitality that they have received from the RFL? And if not, then why not?

If they have received any such gifts, then they cannot possibly be independent and the tribunal findings are therefore fatally flawed.

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