All this talk of McIllorum as a dirty player (which I think he is personally) got me thinking about what defines a dirty player.

And would the likes of Terry Newton, Barrie Mac and Mike Nicholas be deemed as dirty players if you take off the rose tinted spectacles.

And what about Toa?
TKL must have hit more heads with his swinging arm than the bloke who was in charge of the guillotine during the French revolution. Having said that I maintain it was more a case of tackling technique and being caught with a step (and during his 2nd spell with us he was a lot better).

Ryan Bailey is one who gets me - a large bloke who makes cheap shots at small blokes.

There are plenty more, and whilst I realise that our game isn't played by choirboys it success shouldn't be based on thuggery. (At least in my book).

I would say a dirty player is one that will go onto that field with more enthusiasm to hurt people than to actually play the game itself, or at least look like that. People like Bailey are prime examples. But then you have 'MickyMac' who can play, but chooses to be a tosspot in defence for the hell of it, this type probably falls into a different bracket.

I'd also say there's a difference between dirty and cheeky, dirty players will have the intention to hurt, whereas cheeky players will set out to wind up the opposition so much they lash out, Jon Clarke is particularly good at this.

Dirty - Bailey.

Cheap shots on the sly - McIlorum, Hock, Wilkin etc.

Cheeky - Clarke, Briers etc.
And as much as I hate to say it, Webb was more of a wind up merchant than anything else.

Westwood... anyone that goes into the first tackle of a grand final swinging a punch in someones face isnt right in the head.

Paul Bishop definitely falls into the 'cheeky' bracket!

Suuuuuuuuuuupppper, super Ben.

Ben was merely saying 'hello' in the only way he knows how.

Ryan bailey is just a poophouse, he never squares up to a big man and is the first to throw the sly dig on the smaller players.

An old friend of mine reckoned that the dirtiest/ hardest man ever to play RL was Charlie Pawdsey of Leigh in the 1950s. Apparently he used to train with a double decker bus strapped to his back and burst pigs under his arm!!!

Paul Reilly of Hudds was a niggler and cheap shot merchant.

Charlie Pawsey was universally acknowledged as a hard man in an era which was far more vicious than today when the game is far more sanitised.
He was captain of GB playing NSW and the game was so brutal that play was abandoned when the ref walked off the pitch and never refereed another game. This is what happens when dirty play is not dealt with and players have to take the law in to their own hands.
I only saw him a few times and he did not do anything memorable but, as a kid, I remember that people spoke his name in awe.

Joe Price. He makes todays game look like tick and pass.

By any yardstick Joe Price was indeed a dirty player. His motto of 'get your retaliation in first' was certainly adhered to.

The website for all biff-related fun! www.eraofthebiff.com/

The website for all biff-related fun! www.eraofthebiff.com/

The only player that I have ever heard being booed by his own team`s fans (Wire fans) for being too dirty.