My absolute all time favourite rugby league player, gutted doesn't even come close. Sure I'm not the only one who's gotten a bit "emotional" on hearing this news.
As other people have said, Lee's career at Warrington included plenty of pretty miserable seasons as well as more recent great ones. I was made up for him when we finally won the Challenge Cup - seeing Lee and Mozzer lifting the trophy together is a memory that will live with me forever. I also remember the tearful reaction (Lee's, not mine - honest!) after he kicked 5 drop goals at Halifax and we lost to a late Cardiss try in the year we almost went down. And how about when he nearly beat Australia single-handedly in the 2000 world cup? King of the drop goal, king of the interception, king of packing down in the Wigan scrum... Such a fun player to watch, I love that he plays (played
) the game with a smile on his face... the gamesmanship that drives other team's fans mad but that you secretly love when it's done by one of your own.
Such a shame that we never won a grand final with him in the team; I half suspected that if we had won at Old Trafford he would have bowed out after that anyway, but it wasn't to be. As with Brett Hodgson, it's a shame we haven't had the chance to say "thank you" in a manner befitting the career. I hope (and expect) that the club will make a big deal of this so that he can get the standing ovation he deserves. Oh and obviously he should have been GB's half back for the last 10 years but that's a debate for a different day!
I'm sure he's had offers to move elsewhere (to - dare I say it - teams where he would have had a better chance of silverware earlier in his career) but for whatever reason he has stuck with the wire long enough to be our all-time record points scorer (think about that - it's a lot of points!). If it wasn't for some of his "flaws", I suspect he may have moved on to a bigger club way-back-when, but that personality is part of what makes him great - a brilliant, enigmatic, rugby league genius and a Warrington legend.
Thanks for the memories Lee.
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