Forward I have enjoyed watching the most was Hanley. Even if his best days were behind him when he finally arrived at Leeds, he was phenomenal.

It will be interesting to see who gets the 13 shirt, there are some strong candidates...

I'm a Wiganer but i always thought Eccles was a good player for you he alway played 2 stone above his weight, was his 1st name Graham?

correct Graham IS his name

got to be sinfield surely

Probably will be, but Hanley deserves special mention. His skills were completely different to Sinfield, but he will be on the list and should be a very strong contender for nothing other than his World Record 44 Tries in a season for a forward, which I think he shares with one of Ray Batten or (more likely) Bob Haigh.

Then there's Dave Heron too, but that's another discussion...

good points made, hanley was class

Its not going to be the greatest 13 though is it?surely there will be the usual replacements

Gaz Ellis kicked a goal in what I think was his last ever appearance at Headingley for the Rhinos .

TVOC ?

IIRC he kicked it at the East end of the pitch .

Phil Cookson (Graham Eccles was an 11).

Bob Haigh got my vote, most tries scored by a forward in a season for Leeds (40 I think) but very hard to call between him and Ali L ( I never saw Clues play but am told he was the best) and I always think of Graham Eccles as a number 11 so ruled him out. My all time favourite second rower was Phil Cookson

Almost. As it turned out it wasn't his last ever appearance for Leeds at Headingley although it could have been at the time. It was in the final Home Regular Round fixture V Castleford with Leeds winning 54-12. IIRC it was a conversion following a Jordan Tansey intercept and cantor in under the posts to complete his hat-trick and yes it was in to the Carnegie Stand.

Following that game Leeds finished their regular season with winning away trips to Wigan (16-52) and Wakefield (12-30) before a loss at St Helens (38-10) in the Qualifying Semi-Final, bringing us back to Headingley to face Wigan as we went through to Old Trafford 18-14 after the Calderwood wonder show as a last line of defence had kept it interesting oh and the world record VR - Peacock 'no try' - decision offering Wigan a monumental breather.

Gareth Ellis joined a list of 1 goal contributors to the Leeds cause over the recent past which included such as Phil Ford, Andy Gregory, Gary Divorty, Kevin Iro and Ellery Hanley. Barrie McDermott would have joined them if he hadn't blasted wide from in front V Toulouse at McAlpine in the CC semi-final of 2005.

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Bob Haigh's 40 tries (1970/71) was the record for a Leeds forward until Ellery Hanley scored 41 in his final season (1994/95) with the club.

Bob Haigh scored 40 I think?

Heron was a great player - the perfect combination of speed, ball skills and a great defender, but played at such an awful time for Leeds it's difficult to see him at 13. I also (as much as I thought he was genius on his day) thought he didn't perform consistantly enough. That may be harsh as a lot of the time he was the only Leeds player who seemed to be playing. However, if he turned up as a 19 year old now at Leeds (and they could keep him away from the Town Hall Taps) he would be the most exciting player in SL.

I often thought Dave Heron was Leeds answer to Tony Myler. I also went to school with his nephew, Heron that is not Myler...