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Quote: Inflatable_Armadillo "The short-list raised a few eyebrows at the time with it's Lancashire and Wigan bias and notable Yorkshire absentees who were on the long list but didn't make the short-list were Neil Fox & Clive Sullivan. Also, IMO Ellery Hanley should have made the long-list but maybe the reason he didn't was political.

That all said a short-list is a short-list and, with the exception of Offiah IMO, they would all have been individuals worthy of the individual (I stress, individual) honour of a statue at Wembley to represent our game and the CC at Wembley. However, when they decided to make this a group statue then I think things changed, and simply going with the short-list as the focus of the group statue is a huge mistake IMO. Now, not having any player who played for a Yorkshire club in a group statue is simply a travesty. The statue is not representative of the game as a whole or do justice to the history of the game at Wembley as it focuses on five British players who played the game in Lancashire mainly (with the exception of Ashton & Cumbria).

I think had they set out saying this was going to be a group statue then I would have looked at five (or more?) individuals from the key areas of the games heritage that had also all made they mark on Rugby League Challenge Cup history at Wembley. So not only British born players that played for Lancashire, Yorkshire & Cumbria clubs but also maybe an Aussie and New Zealand born players, some of whom have had a massive impacts at Wembley & are also important in the history of the game and CC at Wembley.

I am sorry to say that when I walk up Wembley way, the players in this statue do not represent the primary heritage of the element of the game that matters to me most, the game in Yorkshire, the same as it wouldn't represent the game in Lancashire had it been the other way around. I can't say to my Son, you see that Neil Fox in the statue, he is still the World Record points scorer, still the joint record points scorer at a Wembley final, winner of the Lance Todd trophy and three Wembley Finals and was born 10 miles down the road from where you where born! That, I think is a huge shame and missed opportunity for the inclusive history and future of the game!'"

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To not have a Yorkshire player represented is a travesty - ok if a single player had been selected then fair enough if it was a Lancashire player but to select a group of players that represent Rugby League as a whole and have no Yorkshire representation is appalling IMO.