Except Leeds were the first full time team

In the grand scheme of things Hanley didn’t play for Wigan for the majority of his career anyway (204 appearances out of a career total of 489). He played a very fare chunk of it at Wigan and was brilliant but he was brilliant for Bradford, brilliant for Balmain and brilliant for Great Britain. I read somebody say earlier he wasn’t at his best at Leeds but the guy still managed 106 try’s in 114 appearances from Loose Forward.

I love Lockers, Tomkins, Andy Farrell, Edwards, Offiah or whoever but Hanley is the top of the tree.

Hanley was definitely still elite playing for Leeds. You guys won’t like the comparison, but he was similar to Danny McGuire in that he was 2 or 3 plays ahead. Ellery would just be more obvious in standing 10 metres In front of the his own teams play the ball when he knew a break would be made.

Yes you’re right, thinking about it.

But that game in the summer of 2012 50-8win at Leeds he was on another planet.

Although Leeds got the better of Wigan that year.

There's loads of stuff out there. Just look at the players that came over and ask, did they come for free?

Mal Meninga playing for Saints, Blocker Roach at Wire, Peter Sterling at Hull.

There is having full time players and then having a full time squad though

I'm sure that if they could afford to pay Mal Meninga then they could have paid a full time squad instead. Like ing in a bedsit and buying a Ferrari.

I’ve never been able to find documented evidence either. From memory most top flight clubs of that era had a number of full time players, Greg’s scrap yard for example. Obviously some clubs would have more full time players than others, pretty much all the overseas players were full time.

I think I remember Leeds and Wigan going completely full time at pretty much the same time but I think that only really made a difference to the fringe and reserve players as most of their respective first teams already were.

It’s a strange one, what did full time pro mean? Most clubs had a squad of players who were “groundsmen” at the club, at one time saints had quite a few, if you watch the documentary comparing Wigan and orrell there’s a section where Wigan are trying to sign Offiah and Dave Myers talks about playing for A team money isn’t enough, if he gets pushed into the reserves

It may well be that Wigan were the first to openly pay their first team squad as full timers, rather than using club positions to mask it

Quote: Lazy J "It’s a strange one, what did full time pro mean? Most clubs had a squad of players who were “groundsmen” at the club, at one time saints had quite a few, if you watch the documentary comparing Wigan and orrell there’s a section where Wigan are trying to sign Offiah and Dave Myers talks about playing for A team money isn’t enough, if he gets pushed into the reserves It may well be that Wigan were the first to openly pay their first team squad as full timers, rather than using club positions to mask it'" https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 4409549283 according to a Saints fan on here we won most of our trophies when we were the only professional side, then fell away as soon as it was a level playing field. Just wanted to see if there was any accuracy in the claim as no one challenged him on it.

Quote: Lazy J "It’s a strange one, what did full time pro mean? Most clubs had a squad of players who were “groundsmen” at the club, at one time saints had quite a few, if you watch the documentary comparing Wigan and orrell there’s a section where Wigan are trying to sign Offiah and Dave Myers talks about playing for A team money isn’t enough, if he gets pushed into the reserves It may well be that Wigan were the first to openly pay their first team squad as full timers, rather than using club positions to mask it'" https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 4409549283 according to a Saints fan on here we won most of our trophies when we were the only professional side, then fell away as soon as it was a level playing field. Just wanted to see if there was any accuracy in the claim as no one challenged him on it.

https://youtu.be/8_38ZOObHlo

https://youtu.be/8_38ZOObHlo