And to redress the balance, I remember seeing Hanley run rings around John (a rare event I must admit) when Woody was player-coach at Leigh. I do believe John got sin-binned late on in that game, when his frustration got the better of him?

Think that's the game where woody suffered a serious knee injury and ellery shook his hand when he was being stretchered off

The 'Youngers' game was the 81/82 season were we won 19-18, pretty sure we scored 3 fantastic tries in the first half which unfortunately never graced the TV.

Menorca Airport June 2014. The mayor of leigh will know what I mean - never thougjt a cancelled flight would be so entertaining

On the field, too many memories to mention, no disrespect to anyone but we will never see anyone else with his ability in a leigh shirt ever again

Mans a genius, looked after me in the dressing room in 83 when I was a star struck mascot.

Early 90's/late 80's John was bowling against my dad at the George pub and when my dad told him he was my hero he turned his car upside down to find me something. I still have his Great Britain test pen!

Absolute genius and leyther, should be a stand named after him at the very least!

For a couple of years in the early 80 s John woods was THE BEST RL player in the WORLD, and this was the era of the Invincibles

Ten years earlier I played at Hilton Park in the Kirkhall Cup ( junior school ) final, winning for St Pauls, the same night my brother played in the Ruebens Cup final for westleigh High, they led at half time but lost heavily by the final whistle

My brother has lived in New Zealand since 1975 and since 1978 we have only spent about 4 months in each others company, about 12 years ago we were discussing that night " We were doing well until some kid called Woods ripped us apart " he told me, totally unawarere of what John became in the world of RL

Quite funny really, he really was THAT good

Did you not read the first page of this thread?

Three words

SIMPLY THE BEST

My personal all time rugby hero.
I can still remember the excitement I felt that Woody could make something special happen every time he got the ball. He made going through a gap seem so simple. He would sway the hips, slightly turn a shoulder then float through the gap he had just created. It all seemed like slow motion it was so smooth, but his change of pace was unbelievable.
It was a privilege to have been there when he played.
Thank-you John Woods

My dad once asked another of the team "what does all the other players think about Woody getting paid so much" , and that player replied " we don't care as he's the difference between us getting winning or losing pay"
He was that good

For a ahort while he was my badminton partner. We used to play at Leigh Police Station. He didn't have quite the same natural talent at that game. I remember telling him off and he said I was worse than any of the rugby coaches he'd had to put up with.

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.