Never said I was comparing. Said Tomkins best I've seen in my time. Was never lucky enough to see or judge Hanley, so was asjing fit other people's memories....

Hanley is far and away the best British player of the past 40 odd years. He took a few years to get some consistency at Bradford but when he did he was light years ahead of everyone else. To score 55 tries in a season (the first since Billy Boston) in a very average team was phenomenal. Unfortunately we were never going to hang on to him after that.

Wigan had his best years I remember him 63 tries in the 86-87 season and he was utterly peerless. His stint for Balmain in 88 was magnificent. The Aussies absolutely loved him.

By the time he came to Leeds is was slightly past his peak but he was still the best loose forward in the game over here.

The best British player I've seen. Up there with the likes of Lewis, Meninga and Johns without a doubt.

I saw Ellery walking round the hotel at the last CC final, still looks like he could play now.

It's fair to say the Hanley signing was one of the reasons I started taking an interest in supporting Leeds. My parents had been fans since the 70s, and I was taken to games plenty of times as a kid but it wasn't until 1991 that the sport really clicked with me. Leeds were a much better side with Hanley in the team, and he seemed to score in every game. The Dannatt injury was sheer thuggery, but not uncommon in the sport at the time. Imagine what the Sky commentators would have made of it now!

I never saw Hanley in his pomp at Wigan, but I'm going to be controversial and say that Schofield seemed more important to get that Leeds team ticking. Like someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, Hanley was more of an exceptional individual, but Schofield ran the team, even though his pace had gone by then. Of course, having read about what was going on behind the scenes at Leeds (e.g. Laughton's autobiography), I'm willing to believe that Schofield's ego may have been one of the reasons we didn't pick up any meaningful silverware at the time. You've probably got to point the finger at Dougie as well, given the talent at his disposal, even if some of the players had a better time at other clubs. Hanley seemed to give his all for us though.

As for the best players in SL, it is ludicrous to suggest that Sam Tomkins would not be in the top 20. He was the hottest property in the competition for about 3 seasons, and is still highly influential!

Tomkins would definitely not be in my top 25 Super League players.
Remember, Super League is 25 years old, not 10.
Radlinski in a different league as a full back to Tomkins.
Brent Webb better as well.

Tomkins prior to going to the NRL was sensational.

Sorry to butt in, but...

The thing with Hanley was his consistency over his career. As Schoey says, (yes, I know) what you need from a player is to produce 7 or 8 out of ten performances every week. Hanley produced 9 or 10 out of 10 every week. He had his weaknesses, but he played to his strengths and they were so strong any weaknesses were irrelevant. A proper RL star.

Re - Radlinski. Great player yes, but Tomkins had wow factor. He could win you a game on his own.....

Yeh - all about opinions.
Depends what you define as best ever.
If it’s consistently performing over 10+ years, then its Radlinski or Wellens.
If it’s playing at the very top level and performing on the international stage it’s Webb.
If it’s purely X factor, then Tomkins or Hardaker.
I just think it’s a shame Tomkins failed in the NRL and did little at international level, because I agree, for 3-4 years he was fantastic.
But he deteriorated and just became a grub desperately trying to wind up the opposition and win penalties.

If you put ellery hanley balmain into youtube there is a nice 15 minute documentary on Ellery's time there and how he's regarded over there.

I'd post a link, but not sure of the copyright situation with the video & who uploaded it to there.

https://youtu.be/E5gaU0RaHCA What a player he was

https://youtu.be/E5gaU0RaHCA What a player he was

Tomkins joined the wrong NRL team. Had he gone to a stronger club he would've done better. I'm not sure he had that option though. Hanley transformed Balmain from being a good side to being genuine premiership contenders. Had it not been for a nasty high tackle by Terry Lamb in the Grand Final they would've won it.

The opposition always targeted Hanley,
Stop Hanley and you stop Balmain - Lamb admitted that.
They’d have had to go into the players lounge on match day to target Tomkins!!

My abiding memory of Ellery was watching him during a saturday morning training session at Headingley , he ran up and down the touchline in front of the North stand , he ran at pace up and down , up and down that touchline for ages , when he stopped he not out even of breath one bit , it just proved how fit he was and what a athlete he was really

He is the greatest player in the modern game ,

The first time Leeds played Wigan when Hanley had signed for Leeds the first time he took the ball up 8 wigan players piled into him .