Neither were i a plodder hardly broke a tackle and didnt hit partially hard in defence.On the plus he had decent hands for a prop.

Matthiou's most memorable feature were the green souls on his boots.

In the SL era it's JP by absolutely miles.

Before then there are a few names but they're mainly before my time. Leeds weren't really known for having great props in the 80s and 90s.

Dickinson was good. As has been said Clues was a second rower.

McDermott was OK but his discipline let him down. Crooks was awful at Leeds and ballooned in size as he got stuck into the ale.

Players like Harmon, Howard and the Raynes were steady but v unspectacular.

Crooks was player of the year 88-89 whilst we never saw the best of him he was certainly a long way from awful.

TBF I only saw him in games versus Northern and when Leeds were on TV. I always thought he was massively overrated.

Lee Crooks was a fantastic player but simply just didn't ever want to ever leave his beloved Hull FC IMO
I guess that it must have been hard for him to be forced to leave FC and to sign for Leeds against his wishes?

Peter Smith & Jeff Grayshon as our starting props. "We wear the blue, we wear the gold, our props can't run 'cos they're too old."

The shoulder injury against Wigan in the JP semi ended up being very serious. I was at that game and then was t the A team game some months later when he made his "comeback". I thought he was pregnant with triplets. That was his first season at Leeds and it took some time for that added "bulk" to work its way off (not sure all of it ever did). That injury was so bad that he didn't tour in the summer ('88 I think). Considering it was a dislocated shoulder in January that's how serious it was. But pies, burgers and bitter are probably not the best therapy.
Leeds signed him when he was 23/4 I think, he had a hamstring injury early season then did his shoulder. The photo of him signing for Leeds that they put in the paper looks like one of those hostage photos where they get the downed American airman to admit to war crimes.
I watched a lot of Aussie league from the 80's on YouTube during the lockdown and there were several appearances from Crooks for Wests and Balmain. He was Wests captain and well worth it. He played in the front row at Balmain with Benny Elias and Blocker Roach. Ouch.
Great ball handler, great goalkicker and when he was mobile he was very mobile. Plus he gave me one of my fave moments at a game, being tackled by Graeme West in a game at Central Park he finally got tired of being ragged around the head, threw the ball away to free up his punching hand and smacked the s*** out of West. The geriatric Pie Eater next to us on the terraces nearly exploded with rage. I think I told him to calm down before he had a heart attack.

When we signed him he was rated the best forward in the world but he wasn't fit and he didn't want to play for us.

Why do I remember all this useless rubbish?

Brilliant. Love the nostalgia on this thread

He did tour in 88 despite being obviously unfit. He got sent home early.

I remember him being decent at Hull but I remember that picture of him signing for Leeds. He looked gutted.

The injuries he had were bad but like you said he didn't have the application to rehab properly. Liked a pint of lager too much. I remember seeing him demolish well over a gallon of the stuff one weekday night with Schoey, Masky and David Creasser and wondering whether it was conducive to being an international athlete.

His biography sheds more light on his attitude. I can see why he and Schofield were such big mates.

I was coming out of Wembley once, I think it was after England beat Australia in one of the opening WC games, way back (John Bentley was on one wing and Offiah on the other I think). You used to get that massive river of people outside the old Wembley when it was emptying and I saw Crooks being "swept" in the opposite direction. He raised one chubby finger, pointed and shouted to his mates "Head for that burger van".
I will always think of him heading for a burger van.

If you think Wigan signed Andy Goodway from Cas a couple of seasons before that, a guy who ran the London Marathon in under 2h30mins.

With regards to Lee Crooks then I've found a very interesting article that is well worth a read.


“After 85 things started to crack and I know now what those reasons are, from a mental and physical point of view, it was crazy,” he said.


“Leaving Hull was a kick in the b******s, and I didn’t cope with it at all. It was such a traumatic thing to go through and it was sad everything that happened to the club.

“The weight of responsibility and the pressure I was under took its toll. Leeds just copped for it all. I probably just cracked up and physically I was absolutely knackered and mentally I was all over the place.”

Crooks struggled to produce his best at Headingley before moving on to Castleford in 1990, where he also regarded as a legend, however, nine years after leaving the Boulevard, he was offered a swansong.

“I got asked if I’d go back to Hull when Phil Sigsworth was the coach,” he explained. “I had two years left at Castleford and John Joyner told me about the opportunity, I discussed it for a long time and I decided it would be great to go back but it never worked out.

“There was a lot of messing about with one thing and another so I just thought they obviously didn’t want me back.”

Crooks’ opportunity to end his playing career where it started may have fallen through, but there can be no denying the impact he made as a teenage sensation at the Boulevard.

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