Don’t get me wrong, he was a good player, but he lacked the brutal instinct needed in that era in my opinion - he did a very good job, but didn’t strike fear into the opposition, either through brutality or offensively. I actually think he’d have been a better player in the modern era where you don’t so much need enforcers.

that was going to be my original reply re any criticism of him , needed to be a bit more moz like

They might not have feared him but i guarantee they respected him and i doubt they did for many of our pack for most of Roys Leeds career.

This was one of the reason doug Laughton got rid if Roy thought he was not fearsome enough, then spent years trying to replace him with past it, never was, and pure e like mick Worrel, that Scot bloke from Workington, Mike o Neil and some forgettable others, all proper hard men (sarcasm ) Only Ellery plugged the gap tackling down the middle that Roy used to do, and Ellery was not signed to just do 40 tackles a game.

Bet they all would have had him in their team as well.

Every successful team has a Roy Powell.

It does but if you have too many of them your team is no longer successful. There is a place for hard work and toil but there is no substitute for class and talent.

Yep its called balance, but both types of player can still be greats, after we could have an entire thread on players who had class and talent, but still never really made it, either from bad career choices, injury, bad attitude, laziness or just plain bottle. Been by a few mention in here who fit into the latter category.
For every Roy Powell there’s Paul medley
JJB theres Chris feather etc.

For every JJB there's a Sinfield, McGuire, Ali, Senior and Webb - that is about the right balance - 5:1

Mal Reilly picked Roy Powell to tour down under twice. He was a regular in the Test team in the late 80s and 1990. Reilly knew all about how tough you needed to be in the pack.

Powell's job wasn't to intimidate. It was to be rock solid in defence and take the ball up strongly. If there was an occasional offload then all the better.

In the 80s he was the best and most consistent forward at Leeds. Laughton won bugger all at Leeds so letting Powell go was hardly a master stroke and he was sight better than a lot of those he brought in.

harmon, howard, faimolo , mann, eyres seemed to leave something back in lancashire