Always got the impression that his infectious enthusiasm was one of the intangible things that stats never tell you, and a lot of squads would be pleased to have him around.

Displaced by Hodgson at Wire, no shame in that. Still a good player in my view. Did well at Leeds, never going to be a megastar, but he was superb in the 2004 Grand Final and always gave it everything. No idea why anyone would want to boo him for his time at HQ.

Think Mathers' passion just boils over at times. EG his celebration for Wakey at Cas this year and his reaction in front of the Leeds fans as he went over in the cup final (only for it to be disallowed).

To be fair, Mathers had been copping abuse from a vocal minority of the Cas fans all game - and he hardly went mad when he scored that non try. If Griffin had gone over on Saturday, I would have expected him to rub our noses in it also.

Yep, the boos on Saturday were ridiculous. Big fan of his- think he attitude to the game is to be credited in all honesty.

me neither.

Yep. He made a couple of great catches in that game that if he hadn't made could well have shifted the game in Bradford's favour.
I sometimes wonder what would have happened at Leeds if we'd lost that Grand Final, whether we'd have gone on to the further success we've had, and Mathers played a significant role in that 2004 win.

I'm not sure to what extent the injury he did have when still at Leeds would have affected him. He strikes me as a player who needs confidence, but playing with the players he was comfortable with may have helped. We would probably never have signed Webb and then who knows what may or may not have happened. From 2007 to 2011, it's hard to argue that Webb hasn't been critical to the success - but Mathers would have been cheaper so we could have used the salary cap space for someone else in another position ... Who knows - despite some ups and downs it's not been a truly desperate six seasons in his absence

I think I'd have been celebrating at Cas too if I'd have been ousted from the club like he is rumoured to have been...

And the celebration of what turned out to be a no try in the Cup Final was at the Warrington end wasn't it??

Mathers is a bit like the rugby league version of Craig Bellamy, he's ultra competitive and isn't everyone's cup of tea but you can't question his will to succeed.

I don't remember him having a dirty streak to his game when he was on loan at Warrington in our relegation battle season, or when he came in to Leeds and displaced Gary Connolly in the early days of Leeds' success. The dirtiness all seemed to start at Wigan, maybe it has come out of frustration that his career hasn't gone as well as he hoped. He had bad luck with injuries in the NRL.

Mathers was popular with Wire fans when he came back to us for a season and a half and he wasn't too bad in terms of high tackles and the like with us, the bigger problem was he was error prone. The opposition always knows there's half a chance of Mathers making a howler when he's put under pressure with a kick. When it happens he always keeps his chin up and keeps going but it happens too often for him to be a player of the highest class. Again I don't remember him being particularly error prone at Leeds, I think it started at Wigan and has affected his confidence. Eyebrows were raised when we signed a much older Hodgson but when you compare the composed reliability of Hodgson to Mathers' highly strung unpredictability, Hodgson is a better fit for us.

Still Mathers played a great game in the 2010 Challenge Cup final he really rose to the occasion there.

My bad, thought it was at our end. Either way, I know it got under the skin of a few fans. All comes back to the same thing, fans expect never ending loyalty when a player has played for their team.

I agree btw that the reaction at the final was a non-event. Just trying to apply logic to people giving him stick on Saturday. I should probably know better than applying logic to the Southstand though...

Wasn't Mathers once said (on here) to be rude to a staff member in HMV ?

If true Richard deserves all he gets.