Quote: madasmcmadammcmad2 "Your Wiki skills do you proud,but I watched every game live in that season home and away and Hanley played the vast majority of games at Numero 6.The reason I travelled away to every match in that particular season,even though we got many tonkings from the top sides was to marvel at Hanley's skills.He didn't need a pack that was dominating and created many of the tries he scored himself.The point I am making is that I haven't seen even a glimmer of real talent from Gale,I wish I had.You don't need a fast No 7 just one with some vision/guile and a kicking game.Seabourne wasn't the quickest but his rugby league brain was sEcond to none IMO.
Anyway some rate Gale,that's fine and they are entitled to their opinion as am I and IMO I haven't seen anything that would make me jump up and down with anticipation.'"
Wiki skills, Madmac? I've got a Bulls history book to jog my memory about just who played in a particular season, though it stops in '89, and doesn't give positions, so the rest is my [not always reliable] memory I'm afraid.
To be honest though, damning someone as, "not as good as Ellery Hanley", is going to leave you with an awful lot players who weren't good enough - including everyone else in the RL Hall of Fame...as Ellery is probably the most skilful player I've ever set eyes on, it damns everybody else as second rate. You're absolutely right, he did score unbelievable tries. The times that I, and a lot of others in the crowd, were saying, "what an earth are you doing, Hanley", when he ran into what appeared to be a blind alley, only to suddenly appear through the defensive line with an open run to score, were legion. And he did it match after match after match.
He was a 'one off', though - as I'm sure you know..
