Did Paul Sculthorpe ever win the Golden Boot (back when it was a real trophy) as the worlds best player?

It's a shame we won't get to see your reasoned and sensible posts about Wigan anymore. Maybe the mods will give you a lifeline and you'll still be able to post your vitriol on all things Wigan on the VT with the rest of them.

I will always give credit to good players whether they play for Saints or not and Sculthorpe was a superb player, absolutely....but Farrell was easily the better player no doubt in my mind. When it came to the international stage i would have had Farrell in the second row and Scully at LF. Farrell in the second row was devastating.

At their best there wasn't much to choose between Paul Shorpe and Farrell, and although he never won the golden boot award, I always thought Sculthorpe performed better for GB than Farrell. Injuries meant that Sculthorpe's prime was cut short which is probably why Farrell will always rank higher in these kinds of conversations, but at his best he's up there with best we've seen in this country.

Farrell left Wigan at 29 Scully at 31, Farrell was better for me in all departments not taking away from Scully at all as he was one of the best in the world also at his peak.

Farrell had literally everything (except blistering pace). Defence, step off the left or right, a fend, kicking out of hand and off a tee, offloading, leadership, passion, professionalism and he was a great man off the pitch.

Think it was the 2003 SF vs. Leeds where on one leg he was the best player on the pitch by a mile even with the likes of Rads, Sinfield, McGuire etc. playing.

It would have been a miracle if we had won the 2003 GF from 3rd against that Bradford team that is considered one of the best ever, but we weren't that far off. Even with Lockers and Robinson in the halves who I think were 19/20 years old. We got hammered with penalties and Deacon kicked us to death. Then Leon Pryce assaulted Carney to put him out of the game which was a clear red card but not even a penalty given.

Mike Gregory was an amazing coach.

And amazingly has vanished from the Grand Final Gold highlights package making it look like we simply fell apart. Strange that.

Even more strange, is that the match turning decisions in 2000 are missing as well and we just cut straight from Wigan being on top to Saints winning the game, whereas in 2013 they use about 5 minutes of highlights to show the two wire injuries.