If he makes it to the starting post, of course.

If them's the rules, I think we should sign Gordon Tallis from 10 years ago

If Crooks is the best example you can come up with we should steer well clear

(I've never heard of Crooks held up as an example of a great signing before)

FWIW I think Westerman needs to leave Cas if he ever wants to live up to his early potential...

...I'm undecided whether that would make him a good signing for us though.

If Westerman genuinely 'hates' Leeds then he's not yet a grown-up.

IIRC Crooks didn't hate Leeds, just never wanted to leave Hull. He did play some good games for us, and was going pretty well IIRC when he smashed his shoulder against Wigan. Never seemed as good for us after that. I used to have the video of the 88/89 Yorks Cup win against Cas - he was in pretty good form that day.

Crooks had some good games for Leeds and some not so good games and that was reflected throughout the side so wasn't particularly player specific but (and there's always a but) he was quite outstanding at Hull (who he clearly loved to play for) and seemed to go pretty well at Castleford after he left Leeds. Therein lays the disappointment of his time at Headingley.

Also the fact that when he departed, Featherstone had tabled a higher offer (£50K higher) but Crooks had intimated that his preferred destination was Castleford. Leeds obligingly dealt with Wheldon Road and this at a time of Leedsline and Loiner's Guild fund raising initiatives where a percentage of the proceeds were made available for team strengthening or so the story goes.

But I bet Cross achieves more for you in 2011 than Mason will for them.

IMO you made the better signing.

Careful any positive comments about Cross are heavily frowned upon round here...AP (sorry Keith Whatever) will have you labeled as a Hetherington lover entirely incapable of independent thought

Given the fee Leeds paid that statement is exactly why I'd never class Crooks as a successful signing (i.e. he never really performed to his full potential/ability while at Leeds but did before and after)

I remember clearly watching Crooks in the yorkshire cup tie against Hull at Headingley. We were losing at half time and Crooks was really poor, clearly not wanting to play against them, and got some stick. We won the game in the end and Crooks was absolutely immense in that second half.

4th June 1987.

As a leeds player Crooks was, overall, a massive disappointment with a few good moments in between.

He never got near the standards he set at Hull (think of a young Sam Burgess who could goal kick and pass) and even though his time at Cas was better than at Leeds the ale had taken it's effects and he was never the same from the moment he left Hull. Shame really.

I'd actually argue he was as good at Cas as he was at Hull, but in a slightly different style.

He was a more mature, physically developed player at Cas who was an out and out front-rower with excellent hands and a good offload game, rather than the running game he had in his younger days when he emerged as a back-rower at Hull.

Both versions however were superior to the disinterested lump he was for large parts of his time at Leeds...

I concur.

Was that when Backo went over under/next to the sticks to win it?