Chris Bridge
Trent Waterhouse

Bridge for his last 3 or 4 years was fantastic at centre, and I was sad to see him go.

Problem was those injury hit 5 or so years at the start of his Wires career, when he was being in/out of the team and bounced around different positions.

Bridge was a good servant for us and underrated. Ten years he was here and scored 104 tries in 228 games and kicked 209 goals. Th couple of seasons he had with Joel outside of him he was on fire and I remember Joel saying when he left how highly he thought of him.

I put it straight to Paul Cullen that had Bridge stayed...’out of trouble’, you’d still be a Warrington.
“It’s interesting you should say that....”
Make of it what you want.

One of the hardest things for a fan to understand is why players, in general, are not as invested in the club as we are. Rationally we understand it is their job, but emotionally given that we would all do just about anything to pull on the jersey to play we just don’t get it. Which is probably why most players are very careful not to be as blatant about their intentions as A Gregory was.

Andy Gregory gave 100% when he played. He wasn’t looking to go Pies. He went because he fell out with the coach as he did at Widnes. The disappointment was that it was something that could have been resolved as Wire were on the threshold of being better than Wigan. AG had the opportunity to take an average side into the history books...alas he went then to a team that didn’t need him and offered little but to continue their status quo.
I do know that he played the Wigan club too, to suit him. There was one particular day that a doubles golf game was due the same time as a Wigan match, he told the club he wasn’t fit and played golf.
He had said more recently he loved his time at Wire, we’d built a great team and didn’t want to move, and some regret he didn’t stay longer.

Think you lads have drifted off the wrong thread??....

What about Paul Cullen as an underrated player? I know the title is "in the SL era" but I'll sneak him in to the conversation as he is such a significant figure in club history.

I think Cullen got taken for granted in his playing days. I saw the later half of his career, where he was largely a back rower, and I thought he was very good. For me he had the best attitude of any player I've seen in the Wire jersey. Not just about his drive to get the best out of his talent and his commitment to the club. He had incredible mental strength for being able to switch on to a challenge. I don't remember ever seeing him play in a game and thinking he wasn't "up for it". He was never overawed by big games or seem to show any nerves. He wasn't afraid of any opponents or reputations, and he wouldn't coast against lesser teams, he was always competitive. He missed his one chance to play at Wembley because of getting suspended which must have been gutting, but he knew it was his own fault and he just sucked it up and got on with it.

I don't remember him playing centre or stand-off but I thought he played at a pretty high level, for a number of years, when he was in the pack.

I wonder how Cullen would have done if he'd played 20 years later, he would have thrived in the full time professional era. Imagine having Westwood, Cullen and Harrison in the back row in TS side. I bet he'd have played for England.

I used to love Cull’s interviews pre match, “the important thing is that we keep our discipline” said with absolute sincerity, and every one knew who would lose it. BUT he was 100% commitment. I always assumed it was his size that probably held him back from international recognition.

You were lucky , sal.
You missed Cullen's attempts as a half back, which were poor, at best.
As a centre, he reminded of Carl Gibson (Leeds centre late 80's early 90's). No idea, attacking wise, but little got passed him, defensively (Gibson, amazingly, went on to play for GB).

A total revalation, when he moved into the pack.
He almost reminded me of one of those characters from those clichéd war films. You know the ones. Always the first to go into battle, with no thought of his own safety.

(iirc) his move to the pack, was due to his loss of pace (if he had any) after knee/leg surgery . Thank God for that injury.
For that reason alone, Cullen DOES deserve the tag underrated, for his forward work

Paul Cullen was described in open rugby magazine as 'The classy centre with the film star looks'!! Yes, seriously.
He was actually on the verge of making the GB squad until his incident with a certain Mr.Goodway.

Yes I think Cullen thinks that was where he blew his chance because Mal Reilly was at Wilderspool that day, he thought he might have had a chance of the 1988 tour to Australia.

Stretching the rules about "SL era" again (this guy did play for us in 2001 so technically counts) how about Gary Mercer for another underrated player. In his first spell from 1989 to 1992 he was possibly our best player over that time. Certainly would have been up there. He had a tough mentality as well, and was a big imposing guy who was quite fast in his first spell. He had an arrogant swagger to him, not in a bad way, he just gave off the impression that he privately rated himself as the best player around and he was another who was never going to be intimidated by opponents or by pressure situations.

Whereas with Cullen you knew he would stay at Warrington for life unless something really drastic happened, I always felt it was a matter of time before Mercer joined one of the big clubs which happened in the end with Leeds.

I was pleased when he rejoined us in 2001 too, not just for sentimentality reasons. He was in his mid 30s then and seemed to have fallen out with people at Halifax where he'd been player coach. We were going through a difficult season and the team was sliding in the wrong direction, Mercer came in and seemed to bring confidence and toughness to the dressing room and played pretty well too. Later in the season, when we announced the replacement for DVDV as coach, Mercer quit straight away and went back to Leeds. I think he joined us to position himself to go for the coaching vacancy and as soon as he saw it wasn't happening, he was off.

Gary Mercer underrated??... The opposite I'd say.

Came in December 1989 with Duane Mann, off the back of the NZ tour, as an international centre and so there was a certain expectation that we were getting something special.

What we got for the first 12 months was a distinctly average centre, with no more talent in the centre than Paul Cullen, who himself was very limited in that position.

An injury crisis in the winter of 90/91, led to him being moved into the second row, we then went on a run which saw us lift the Regal Trophy and suddenly a new player was discovered.

Overall, he was a (accidentally) good second row for us, but considering his reputation when he initially signed, I'd say underrated is being very kind.

It's interesting to hear other people's perceptions. Maybe me putting in Mercer is similar to the earlier poster who included Logan Swann where I disagreed - a player who made a good contribution that doesn't get talked about much now - rather than underperforming against expectations at the time. Like Swann, Mercer was an established Kiwi international. Also I only started watching in 1989 and was getting to know the players from scratch so I didn't have prior expectations in my mind of Mercer being a big name player.

I thought Mercer was rated well but I am only old enough to remember him under Cullen.
Thought Mike Wainwright always got a rough time of it, Always looking for the offload and didn't miss tackles. Would of looked great in a better side.