Me too
I never got the vitriol for Sullivan. Yes, he wasn't Allan Langer, but few are. He wasn't bad for us, by any means, but when you sign an Aussie half back, (not long after you've gone for Andrew Johns) you expect them to shine.

Wasn’t there a rumour that the Anderson’s didn’t get on with Bennie Westwood?

Something must have been wrong behind the scenes because I don't see why Louis would have wanted out at that time but he did. I suppose perpignan is a nicer climate and also considerably further away from widnes.

Sullivan made Brad Dwyer look like a calm, composed playmaker. He was poor.

Back then, even when good players left we replaced them with someone even better.
Hodgson in for mathers, waterhouse in for Anderson, monaghan in for hicks. Best ever era of being a wire fan,......................and we still didn't win the bloody thing!

Lefty you're being too nice, in classic Wire fan style. If Sullivan had played for Wigan or Saints they would have told it like it was - he was nowhere near the standard required for an ambitious club.

He was a classic panic signing by us. We'd pursued Matt Orford that off season and when he didn't come we were left scrambling around to replace Nat Wood. We managed to get taken advantage of by his agent, who landed him what was by all reports a healthy deal, after he'd got into gambling debts.

No way was proper due diligence done on that signing, especially if we were paying him a good contract. He was only ever a bench player in the NRL before and after his time with us. He played a handful of starts in the halves in the NRL at best. The argument that he was not suited to halfback but was a good hooker is fine for Monaghan, but I didn't even see what Sullivan offered as hooker. Even this idea of being a 'change of pace' at dummy half from the bench. We got that after Sullivan left, with Mick Higham, who was a proper hooker. Compare Sullivan to Higham and he wasn't in the same universe. I really hope Sullivan was not paid more than Higham....surely not....?

The other thing that got my goat about Sullivan was his attitude. It's not the comparison with Langer that bothers me, but Nat Wood, who he directly replaced. Nat Wood had the perfect attitude for an overseas halfback, dressing room leader, stepped up in important moments, basically the 2000s version of Greg Mackey. Sullivan just seemed aloof and disinterested. I remember him going back to Australia and doing an interview about his time in England where he said "Paul Cullen didn't have much confidence in me and I didn't have much confidence in him either". He probably didn't want to be here, got his nose put out of joint when Cullen replaced him as a halfback (where he was doing nothing) and then moped and didn't like Cullen so slagged him off later.

Imagine if you'd been a Wire player in that dressing room and had gone from playing with Nat Wood to him. What did the other players think of him or say about him when he wasn't there....I can guess....

Right up there with the worst signings we've made. That year he was here there was a malaise hanging over the team where it felt like people didn't want to be there. Brent Grose had lost interest; Logan Swann, Gleeson, not what they were in 2005 and it felt like their minds were elsewhere.

SC seems to remember him the way I do!

Sullivan was never out of Dones, in everytime I went in.
He’d bet on limpet racing if able. His stakes were hefty and I never saw him cashing a slip in.
Friendly chap though. Shat scrum half, decent hooker.
Another dropped bollox of a near decade of signing Aussie 9 to play 7.
Respect for Nat Wood though, he was a pretty handy, tough 7.I felt hb was too much in the mix for him at times and was loose with carries, when switch to stint at 9, he was superb.

sounds like you were in there a bit too much as well

Nat Wood was limited in a way that he wasn't an organising/kicking halfback but we had Briers anyway. He was a running halfback who would take on the line and make breaks. He was better at that than Myler who was faster, but whose pace was more useful as a support runner whereas NW would beat people with his footwork. Blake Austin is similar but NW was better.

Going back to my point before about Sullivan not really doing it for me as hooker....NW was a player who you could put as hooker and be effective, even if he wasn't as good as Mick Higham there, he had the physical toughness and rugby brain to be effective there.

I think he would have to be in my top 4 or 5 Wire players of all time and he made watching the team more enjoyable. His departure was a real dividing line in the Cullen era. Before that point, Cullen was popular, the team felt together, it felt like an exciting new era and a good time to watch Wire. After he left, the fans became more divided over Cullen and frustrated at the team. A lot of the heart and spirit of the Cullen team died when NW left.

Fare observation about Cullen releasing Nat Wood, Wood was respectful but vocal about it and didn’t want to leave. It wasn’t as if we had a cap issue either, we were well below that. He had said he would be back in a minutes notice following his release if required. Wether he meant it or was tongue in cheek, I’m not quite sure.

The Wigan “episode” probably didn’t do Nat many favours.