Paul Dixon was the first player to have the honour of being my favourite player when I were a lad. When I first started going to Headingley the sight of him tear-arsing his way into the heart of the opposition pack from every kick off was simply part of the ritual. Neer slowed down going into a tackle, very unlikely to do anything flashy like a step. Just crashing straight into the first tackler he found. What's not to enjoy about that?

I didn't enjoy it when he scored 4 tries for Leeds vs Northern at Odsal.

Not to draw any comparisons to other current players, but didn't Pratt start off as a Stand-Off signed from Featherstone? ........

Laughton had an eye for talent but he also made some bum decisions. Letting forwards like Powell and Dixon go to replace them with the likes of Mick Worrall and Richie Eyres.....deary me.

Anyway Bullseye, whilst we may have taken a few up the arris from your mob over the years I doubt any one signing was as damaging to us as the Harris one was for you.

And no signing, including Lowes, was as beneficial to you as Peacock was to us.

Still cannot believe Leeds allowed Powell and Medley (at the time I thought they were the new [iimproved[/i Eccles and Cookson) to leave: it coincided with me losing interest in supporting the team for quite some time. Years in fact.

Thank god.

thanks guys. Brought some good (and bad) memories whilst reading everyones posts.
Stevie Pitchford was my 1st Leeds hero. and then for some reason a certain centre who i think was the only person in those days to wear red boots.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Richie Eyres at Widnes was better than most forwards around, better than any backrower we see now in Super League.

Richie Eyres at Leeds, was the biggest dissapointment I have seen in a player at Leeds. Dissapointment becuase he was so damn good before coming here, and so damn cr@p when here.

I'd agree with this. He was part of that horrible Widnes pack, and a total pussycat at Leeds. I suspect the weight of his wallet limited his ferocity a bit.

He stands alongside Bradley Clyde in the disappointing backrower stakes. It wasn't Clyde's fault he got injured, and I don't blame him for it, but he was real world class and we never really saw it at Leeds.

Ah the Bionic Barrel .... Lovely stuff

My early(ish) hero was Kevin Dick ( pretty close to been a mini mee bionic barrel ). Even then I use to question the erudition of the head coach. Why was Sammy Sanderson preferred ??

My late father used to call Les a ponce. Damn fine player though. Did he not play stand off once at least too? Bet TVOC can enlighten me

Ah yes, the inimitable Steve Pitchford. I remember a night game in Cas when their ginger winger of that time (Richardson I think) put his head in the wrong place when attempting a tackle. You could hear the smack as his head hit Pitchford's thigh from the other side of the ground. Needless to say his further participation was, shall we say, a little on the tentative side

I never thought Eyres [ithat[/i good Gotcha. I thought Emosi Koloto was a much scarier and more skilful player in that Widnes backrow.

I thought Eyres was brilliant when at Widnes. And it's not like it was just one season, he was consistent. Comes to Leeds, and yeah then he certainly wasn't "that good".

The whole gestalt entity was pretty scary if you ask me.

Perhaps scarier than the sum of its parts though, with hindsight.

I don't know if Eyres was so good he was better than anything else around or the best players today, but he was certainly a LOT better than we saw at Leeds. That was the disappointment. It's that difference in relative performance that makes him the biggest of let downs at Leeds.

With regard to hindsight, I doubt many people thought he was a naff signing at the time.