Just been watching this game on` You Tube`,plenty of biff from the smellies .Wire and Sir Les at there best .Compare this game with the garbage we are seeing now.Class players then,Johno,Kelly ,Boyd Roberts ,and Jacko kicking goals!!!.

Nice semi troll, hesford

Go on. I'll bite (just to keep you happy)

We don't have "garbage", these days. We still have great players.
You've only to recall the RL we played, four short years ago. SCINTILATING.

Yes, my FAVOURITE Wire days are those of

Roberts, Drummond, Woods, Ropati (even lazier (at times) than Atkins, but 1000x the player), Gregoryx2, Johnson, Blake, Shelford, Bateman, Davies, Phillips,

but we have been spoilt in the last decade, and to some extent, the Peter Deakin eraa

Not an attempt at a negative troll but genuinely interested...does anyone who has been watching from (let's say the mid 80s and before) enjoy rugby league more now than from 80s to 2000? If so, why? RL as a whole not wires fortunes.

Just thought the game was better then. Plenty of leaders in the team ,and we recruited well from" Oz".

I much prefer RL, from 84 (the lifting of the Overseas ban) to the dissolving the Brain Johnson era.

Today's players are more savvy, trained better, healthier living etc

BUT, give me a

John Woods drop of the shoulder
Gregory to Roberts pass
Ropati looking disinterested, then[sizeBANG[/size
Drummond's impact
Shelford smoking a fag, then a pass/kick and chase that no-one else could see
Johnny D's UMPTEEN moments of GENIUS

than today's semi-robotic stuff that EVERY team plays.

We were always a good cup team ,up against a powerful Wigan side of the era. We produced our own players ,Humphreys,Cullen,Roberts ,Forster etc.The game now is" robotic".There were plenty of flair players back then ,Blake ,Holden ,Woods and Dessie and a fullback in Brian johnson who flew through the line,along with Roberts.

The game now is just so low-risk, that's the tragedy. Like lefty says, the idea of Kelly Shelford taking the ball at first receiver from a scrum in his own half and trying a chip over the top would give most coaches the screaming ab-dabs.

The game is still fantastic product to watch when it's done right, and the Wires team of a few years ago was hugely entertaining and rightly praised as such in the media, but that might be in part due to watching it in smart stadia and sunshine (sometimes), instead of crubbling terraces, lakes of urine and freezing December afternoons.

Heaven for me would be the players mentioned playing in the modern era, with the fantastic conditions and stadia we enjoy, but with the shackles remaining off to express themselves and entertain us royally.

When you consider our current half-back plight, and then think back to that time when we had Martin Crompton, as an example, who struggled to establish himself as first-choice half-back but was streets ahead of anything we have now, it brings it home. We, and the game in general, were hugely blessed.

So fire up youtube, it might be as near as you get to seeing that talent again.

That's my ideal scenario, the game and players of that era in the stadia of today with today's TV coverage. shame.

Ay lad, nostalgia's not what it was.

The Pies did that last weekend and scored a try.

It's been said many times on here, today's game is more structured with set plays etc... When I first started going to games in the early 90's as a youngster it was great to watch plays with a bit more play off the cuff (i.e Shelford from the back of the scrum) Today when things like this happens it's raved as try of the season, back then it was run of the mill

The last we saw of this type of paly was from the likes of Briers and Mick Monas

That play was called by young Hampshire that's why Smith stands back from the scrum . Great to see that spontaneous calls are not completely coached out of the young generation .

Regards , EW

to be fair with the 1986 season you have probably picked the year we had the strongest ever squad ....and I include 2011 in that..

for a league game against oldham in 86 this 13 took the park

1 Brian Johnson
2 John Bevan
3 Paul Cullen
4 Barry Peters
5 Rick Thackray
6 Phil Blake
7 Andy Gregory
8 Les Boyd
9 Tony Hodson
10 KevinTamati
11 Bob Jackson
12 Mark Roberts
13 Alan Rathbone

pack was a bit powder puff wasnt it....

that left a second string starting thirteen
1 Paul Ford
2 Brian Carbert
3 Steve Hesford
4 Ronnie Duane
5 Mark Forster
6 Ken Kelly
7 Paul Bishop
8 Bob Eccles
9 Carl Webb
10 ........
11 Tony Worrall
12 Billy Mcginty
13 Mike Gregory

I would have put Tommy Gittins at ten but he was your average reserve player that was occasionally called up to cover injuries but the rest were all Real "first teamers"

its stunning that we only won the premiership with that squad.....

I think the increased fitness of the players these days has led to a perceived 'diminishing' in the overall spectacle.

I've watched RL for 35+ years and 'back in the day' I saw a lot of solo tries and alleged 'moments of genius' that were performed against players who were knackered!..especially in the 2nd half of matches

When did the 5 metres become 10 metres?

And of course the much bigger number of interchanges leaves less room/time for flair players to be able to weave their magic.