I was at Rochdale Hornets with a player (Paddy Reilly) who played for Keighley in
that game, He used to say that the chairman and board paid for everything for
the next week they where so over the moon.

Quite right. Fitness demands are much higher than they were. and the pace of modern RL does not allow players to take it easy, although, having said that, props and hookers are continuously rotated.

also very unlikely that anyone with that amount of talent would be kicking his heels in mediocreleague. nowadays would be snapped up by yawnion and would become world famous for ice skating or something like that.

ps. saw him in cats bar on sunday and thought he was looking really well.

And an era when playing Christmas Day AND Boxing Day was not unheard of. Amazing stuff.

It's not just the fitness , the increase in speed of the game means collisions are harder and more frequent.

I've played for 20 + years at amateur level and my body is knackered ..

Read his Biography, when on tour they used to play 3 sometimes 4 games in a week, and I know the game is different now regarding fitness levels etc. however treatment for injuries is much better also. I once played against Neil when he was coaching at Underbank, the best day of my life.