To be fair to Doug Laughton, he may not have been the worlds greatest hands on coach on the training paddock but he could spot talented players in the other code who had a chance of making it in League.

In the backs didn't Laughton always look at Union inside centre for League potential.

Craig Innes springs to mind here. Not all 'All Blacks' were duff recruits at Leeds.

BC was honest enough. He went to Salford purely because he got man of the match in a game against them. That's the way it seemed, anyway.

He played in the Yorkshire Cup semi final in 1988 against Northern (or Hull?) at HQ. We were losing and him and Deadly Medley came off the bench in the 2nd half. Medly got a 20 minute hat-trick to save the game. IIRC, of course.

Brookie was a smashing fella and one of a very select breed of our players in the 80's.That is,one with a winners medal.
As has been previously mentioned,not the most talented player ever to grace the blue and amber but for commitment,work ethic,and passion he was one of the best.
I still find a great shame he never made it in league.
I do know he'll be absolutely thrilled to be remembered and I'll pass on your regards next time I speak to him.

It seems to me that he was the Simon Worrall of his day.....

Very true - Davies, Koloto, Kebbie, Offiah, Tait, Howard, Devereaux, Moriarty, Innes etc.

Mind you, similar to the Brooke-Cowden story I heard a rumour that Douglas signed Innes when he'd originally been looking at Tuigamala.

Nay lad. We beat Hull 12-8 in the semi. Slammin Sam Backo came off the bench to score the winner. About the only good thing he did other than a man of the match performance v Oldham on New Years Day later that season

That is correct, Douglas went to watch Inga initially, but was much more impressed by Innes's performances during the RU world cup, which was jointly hosted by England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and France in 1991, and subsequently offered the terms to craig instead, shame he didn't sign both

IMO i thought that Innes was a fantastic player, so too did Dean Bell, who when asked in his opinion who was the best player in the old 1st division at the time that Wigan were winning everything, he replied Innes!

It was a shame that we couldn't have held of him for longer, but the lure of the Perth Western Reds proved too appealing

Ah, it must have been an earlier rouond.

You've jog my mind regarding that Hull game. Backo went over the line with the entire Hull team trying to tackle him. Or so it seemed.

Aye, in a Challenge Cup game. The Beeb ended up showing it as it was the only game not called off due to snow.

I thought Innes left Leeds for Manly? We were in dispute with them for Compensation because he signed while under contract i think.
Other posters have summed up my memories of Mark Brooke Cowden pretty well. A whole hearted player but never quite good enough at the top level.

Thinking about it - you're right.

He did play for the Western Reds though during an off season when we still played in the winter.

Correct, Manley stole Innes from us & still owe us compensation.
What a centre pairing that was hime & Kevin Iro (when he could be bothered to play!).

He played in the final as well.