Quote: the flying biscuit "No surprises that Sally turns all "Rogues" on us and brings out the "what did they win?" line. Rickey Bibey has two challenge cup winners medals from his time at Saints and wigan.... he was still an average plodder with limited talent.... I dont understand Sals disdain for the phrase "Boyd Tamati Jackson"...its like a red rag to a bull......
Apparently when it suits Sals arguments, the full time professional league is an indication of how better this current Wire side is than anything that has gone before. But when a criticism of the game in general is to be made the standards of the game are lower than in the late 80's when we were "closest to beating the Aussies" etc.. when we "had players like hanley gregory and Edwards"...etc etc. Make your mind up. which is the weakest period for rugby League I cant tell.
'"
I don't have disdain for great Wire players of the past....someone asked about comparing them to Morley, Monaghan and Carvell and I argued for Morley, Monaghan and Carvell.
The 'semi professional league' line is the one usually that gets brought out when people talk about how good the great Wigan team was - "yes but they had no opposition".
I do agree with you that there were great individual players around in the past like those guys you say, that don't seem to be around today and for me the strongest era of rugby league was around the mid 1990s just before Super League came in - 1994 season stands out as a highlight for me in terms of the strength of the GB side and the Australia side, and also the great club sides of those eras like Wigan and Canberra.
I'm not knocking great players from our history but I do try and bring some realism in to the old rose tinted glasses brigade, we've had these type of arguments before and you don't tend to like it being pointed out that Warrington in the good old days were a very inconsistent team that most seasons finished mid table or lower, and had some good Cup runs, good memories yes but don't overrate them. Whereas the Tony Smith teams have been consistently right near the top.