Long was on loan from Wigan to Widnes when he signed for Saints but he was a Wigan player.
I said Long was one of the reasons we got second prize for so long. Since the mid 50s, apart from the Ossie Daies era and present day, we have been selling our best players to Saints and taking their cast offs.
I completely accept that Long was playing in a better, more professional team than Briers.
Although I stand by much of my criticism of him regarding his lack of professionalism, I am a great admirer of Briers and appreciate his undoubted talent and his efforts in the P&B. What could he have achieved if he had tried?. My post was deliberately OTT to try to bring some sanity to the OTT Briers debate in which he was in serious danger of being canonised. He was a great half back but IMO not as good as Edwards or Greenough and nowhere near as good as Gerry Helme.
With regard to the thread, I think it is impossible to compare the two since they are such different players.
However the one player I really regretted losing in recent years was Paul Sculthorpe. I would have given Briers and Harris in exchange for him.

Long was a Widnes player, he went there in the deal that took Lee Hansen to Wigan.

He joined Saints for £80k from Widnes.

I stand corrected. Thank you for disabusing me of a long held misconception.

Harris by a country mile

We’re talking about two different players who both had two separate eras in their careers. Harris pre union was very good for all the reasons mentioned already. Post union his pace had gone and he was half the player he was before. Briers before Smith got hold of him was unfocused and unreliable albeit playing in a poor side. After Smith came in there seemed to be a lot more maturity in his play. At their peak they were both very good SL players. Not top international quality but then few British halfbacks of the past 20-30 years are.

Disagree with this completely, at their peak both these players were definitely international quality.

I think Briers is one of the best players super league has seen, he's always been consistant

Sorry, I should have made it clear what I meant. Neither competed consistently well against Aussie or NZ opposition when they had the chance.

TBH not many British SL halfbacks were up to antipodean standards.

How many chances did Briers get to compete consistently well against Aussie or NZ opposition?

And if 'not many' British SL halfbacks were up to antipodean standards, who were the few that were?

. ....since smith took control.

I finished your statement for you.