lee briers has been superb under tony smith but to say hes the best is a little ott..for me it would have to be andy gregory then you could argue the case for the many half backs that have worn the p & b..i.e alfie langer ...johns..j woods ..phil blake ..ken kelly..jiffy davies etc...loyalty you cant fault him..

I think what i meant to say but didn't was that Lee Briers is probably the best in his era . I grew up watching Parry Gordon who in his time was great but was also repeatedly overlooked for international honours .

You're right. It was against either Bradford Northern or Batley, I can't remember which. PG, for me, is still the best player I've seen at Warrington. Bobby Fulton's opinion of him also has to count for a lot.

Yes, I think the ref was "Sergeant Major" Eric Clay.

I'm a Briers fan and was before the Tony Smith era.....

but had we not had Tony Smith, and Lee Briers was simply a jack the lad that loved lashing it up more than winning stuff this thread would never have appeared.

a superb player and i'd have no problem in sticking him in my Wires all time best, but we have no idea how good he could have been had he been physically in better shape throughout his career....

its great he played alongside Langer, Johns, etc but he only picked up on field stuff from them, had he played alongside Hanley for ten years he would have been a better pro and an even better player.

he's won more Lance Todds than Sean Edwards so he wont have regrets but surely there is a hint of what could have been?

The thing I don't get about Briers is everyone has been saying through his career that he has a bad lifestyle and he should have attended more to his fitness but how come he's been able to stay at the top of his game into his 30s?

Usually its the guys that are super professionals, Forshaw, Hicks, Hodgson etc that last this long and players that don't look after their bodies find that they are shot by their late 20s and go into a premature decline.

Briers has never really been injury prone and I can't remember any season where people said "look at Briers, he's struggling with the pace of SL because he's out of shape".

So I think this idea that he's spent his career on the beers and pies and that he could have been a better player if he had been in better shape is a myth, his fitness has never been an issue, ever.

Well said. His performance has never been an issue either. Being surrounded by average players for too many years was, however.

I agree. The only thing you would say about his performance was that in the earlier years he was less consistent and post 2006 he has been very consistent but Briers isn't unusual in that. He has never stopped learning and improving and his game has got more polished year on year, he was always one of the best kicking halfbacks in the game, but in the Tony Smith era he got that polished to a tee, the accuracy he could pick out King/Hicks etc with bombs, it's very hard to defend against a kicker that has got good receivers like that and can just drop it on a plate for them.

I think you'd have to say that the fact Briers has been improving all the time shows he has been a student of the game who has worked hard at his profession.

In terms of 'his career might have been different if....' the thing he could have done differently is left Warrington and gone to a club like Saints/Bradford where he would have won more trophies and might have ended up with more GB caps, same as if Mike Gregory had joined Wigan his career would have had more success. But I doubt Briers has regrets about his career now he has got 2 Challenge Cup medals (and may yet end up with an SL trophy), more than most players he's had an interesting life in the game, he's been in a crap team fighting relegation and he's been in a dominant team smashing everybody by 40/50 points and winning back to back at Wembley.

I can't judge him against Parry Gordon, Alex Murphy etc but I'm starting to think now that I'd say on an overall contribution basis Briers is the best halfback in Super League history from any club, he beats guys like Lam and Langer on longevity and I just think he has the edge over Long, Pryce, Deacon and Burrow for quality. Fans of their clubs will probably disagree but which one of those would you swap for Briers at Warrington...?

He stood on the guys testicals in the heat of battle, in an era when tearing a guys testicals off was compulsory, he immediately apologised but was given his marching orders ther by Kershaw or Thompson. I remember it well, or was it a dream !

15 years at the club is a great effort. Pure matchwinner and is now an all round player. I'm not sure of his stats but I bet the last two seasons have been his best in terms of tries scored, defintely become more dangerous close to the line.

Such is the void he'll leave I wonder if Smith will be tempted to splash out on a big name for a season or two rather than slot O'Brien straight in?

Ha ha best in the world might be pushing it a bit, but there's no denying he is one of the best halfbacks of the SL era. Nevertheless, he had the potential to do so much more in the game, so there's still that sense of underachievement given the talent that he had.

The last few years have seen him get earn some long overdue silverware and widespread recognition, but would have loved to see him test himself against the best on the international stage or in the NRL at some point in his career.

He will certainly be difficult to replace, that's for sure. Unless someone of the highest quality like Benji Marshall is available then I'd like to see Ratchford given the opportunity to fill his considerable boots, preferably alongside O'Brien, and then maybe bring in a fullback from the NRL to replace Hodgson.

Just seen him jump on the floor against the catalans like a pathetic footballer. Pretending to be injured in an attempt to get a penalty. Cheating in my opinion, sad to see in our game - not supprised to see him now 1 minute later running about like nothing is wrong. Hall of fame - not in a million years.

Yes, he couldn't possibly have been hurt by the two late tackles he took while he was in the air. Lee is bossing it out there today.