Agreed. Davies best player ive ever seen in a wire shirt and second best player ive ever seen after Hanley.

Enjoyable thread this one. Spot on with Davies, magical player.

Johno in full flight getting the ball on the 25 and sything through the defensive line with his side step was a sight to behold.

Up there with Mark Roberts bursting onto a flat pass through the line. Happy days

It all comes down to your personal interpretation of the criteria for a 'legend'.

There is no doubt that both Davies and Hodgson were fantastically talented players, and a joy to watch in a Wire shirt, but when we signed them they were already fantastically talented players.

For me a club 'legend' is more like a long standing clubman who gave their all and perhaps never quite got all the accolades they might have deserved, or someone we saw developing into a great, or someone talented who stayed here despite temptation to go elsewhere.

Of course this is just my personal thoughts, and it'll differ for each of us.

Dessie for his speed and vicious tackling, John Woods was outstanding at stand off. Boyd and Moz for the fact they put sheer fear into opponents without doing anything other than being there.

Paul Cullen is there for me due the fact he has been through a lot with the club and always been 100% a Wire, not the best ability wise but a 100% player.

JD is the best I have seen overall though, he picked up the rest of a mediocre team and turned them into league leaders and bar a dodgy ref and points scored he would have single handedly put us on top of the pile.

Other have come close but not gone above the above for me, having said that my old fella would have none of the above as he was a 50's supporter and we know what happened there

Legendary status should be reserved for the few, but here it's a bit of a PR thing to identify the "best" in the different positions. It's a bit of fun and each position will create a bit of discussion. Prop will be interesting with Boyd and Morley probably in everyone's shortlist of 3.

Wing will be the two Bevans and ANother - Dessie or Hicks? That'll get the generations arguing.

Ken Kelly fits the bill. Cheated out of a GB shirt

My granddad took me to my first ever game of RL.... Widnes 59-8 Salford.... It was Davies debut after he had been signed from RU by Dougie Laughton.

Offiah scored 5 tries and Rick Thackary got a hat-trick.. Davies came on with about 20 mins to go and got absolutely smashed.. he looked tiny, like a little ball boy.

I used to stay at my grandads in Widnes every friday night... he used to take me to the reserve games every Friday at naughton park, which Davies played in for about 3 months before he was tough (and big) enough to play for the first team again..... Think i watched him for a good few years every week at widnes with my grandad.. that widnes team was a bit special.. Laughton was very good at taking players from Union. Davies, Devreaux, Moriarty, Offiah, Kebbie.... a few more as well i think.

But i was a warrington lad and as soon as i started playing through the junior system and representing the town, i was a warrington fan.... Everyone else in my family supports Widnes... im a massive RL outcast.

Anyway my grandad used to say that Tony Myler was the best player he ever saw play for Widnes.

fb - johnno
w - johnny bev
c - cullen
c - jiffy
w - dessie
so - blake
sh - ken kelly
p - boyd
h - m monas
p - mozza
2nd r - mark roberts
2nd r - westwood
lf - mike greg

subs
langer
briers
woods
bob jacko

pay bloody good money to watch that team

Mine would be similar, legend can be determined by many factors ability loyalty both and others

There's only one player I chose outside of players I've seen some very early memories from the days fans could go on pitch after game I kept boyds sock ties for weeks lol

FB penny
W bevan
C vagana
C davies
W Drummond
SO langer
SH johns
P boyd
H mann
P morley
SR cullen
SR westwood
Lf gregory

Subs
N wood
S malloy
Blocker roach
Briers

Players like johns roach vagana Davidson boyd were of a different class at the time they played for us they were Australian nz test players soo players in their best years. Roach at maine road was immense and flew half way around the world to play in that game vagana was always going to go as he was just too good for us!! One thing is that you can jot a list down one day n a few days later jot another down and have a few different players in there but still have a fantastic team.


I think penny is probably a bit out there but his inability to pass the ball was a frustration he is the player that gets in on service for me along with cullen we've had better f but for different reasons they get in my team cullen for chasing that pie down the tunnel!! And penny as I was told after his testimonial that he suffered from nerves quite badly before games but still got on with the job

Yes and its strange to see one obvious omission from these posts so far.

Some of these legends being talked about on here won the odd trophy and played in decent teams that lost a lot of semis and finals.

How about 17 seasons, 400 odd games, 3 Challenge Cups, match-winning performances in games that saved the club from relegation, all time record club points scorer. And the inability to replace him still casts a shadow 4 years on.

nonsense i assume you are talking about briers ??? the guy who spent more of his career underperforming and drinking than putting in good performances and performed well behind one of the best packs we've had in years !! he was not even always the best half back in the team.

I'm by no means belittling his influence on our most recent successes but with the team we had during the cc wins its not beyond the relms of realism to say that most half would have looked good in that team

This is why I'm not sure on his management credentials. He had no self discipline himself so how can he convey discipline to others with any conviction?

The term 'legend' is too easily given away IMO.
A good player is NOT a legend.
A great player might be.
A great player that won titles and gave a life to the sport IS a legend both for the club(s) AND the sport. Briers. Hanley. Murphy. Sinfield. Peacock. etc.
A hard working/good player who gave absolutely everything for one club in a life of playing IS a legend for that club. Cullen. Jackson. Westwood. etc.