He played in the very first open age game I refereed. It was a Shaw Cup match played at the former BARLA centre of excellence. Got told off by my colleagues for keep calling him Woody during the game.

Hanley was a good player no doubt , but he couldn't kick goals , couldn't do any tactical kicking , didn't have Woodys speed , Hanley was maybe stronger runner , and played in much better teams than Woody , also John created many of his own tries himself , where Hanley had Andy Gregory and Shaun Edwards to feed him ,and look at both players try scoring records .Late in his career I remember him scoring a try under the sticks against Fax at Hilton Park , and the ref disallowed it brought Leigh back and gave Leigh a Penalty for Fax being offside .Tony Iro made his debut for Leigh in the same game .

One for Salfordlad ,nobody called Tom Moody has ever played for Leigh .Mike Lathom knows .

Look john woods is my greatest ever Leigh player but few people outside of Leigh would compare him to ellery.

Ellery was a machine with immense dedication and mental strength.
He beat Australia almost single handed on a couple of occasions and led balmain in to a nrl grand final.

He scored near 400 career try's and mainly from loose forward.

I wouldn't mind an hybrid of both players, now that would be a player

The 19-18 leigh win at leeds was an unbelievable first half 3 of the best tried in one game you will ever see .came home thinking I cant wait to see that on tv and then only second half shown because of the advertising on the shirts.someone please tell me they can get a copy of that game.it was before fred was doing it I think already asked him if my memory serves me right.

And what John said to Kevin Dick as he was lining up the crucial kick was legendary........not for on here, as it could be in breach of the rules, but it did the trick!!