I can only comment from the early 90's onward, but I suppose the obvious choice would be Joe Grima. I think Powell and Fleary were pretty handy as was Stevie Hall but more in the "if you hit me you will get it back twice as hard" mould, rather than as instigator.

Joe Grima was probably the hardest man I've ever seen in a Keighley shirt.

Brendan Hill never shirked the biff either. Batley vs Keighley 1994 on a certain video site shows him getting the better of both Batley props in the middle of a 26 man brawl.

I once saw Darren Fleary give Kelvin Skerritt a good hiding at Fax. I think it was after Keith Dixon in his infinite wisdom decided to pick a fight with Skerritt and it lasted one punch.

Ian Gately would take high shot after high shot and just keep coming back for more.

I miss the good old days

which site shows brenden fighting

I think Ian Gately was the hardest in the sense that he just got on with it no matter what the opposition did as they say the quiet ones are the ones to watch out for. I saw lose his temper once against Dewsbury canot remember the player involved but something happened while Gately was tackled on the floor, he got up in the players face just smiled and said come on then or words to that effect, the look was enough to make the player back off.

Grima was good but was liability as he usually got sent off saying that he was key to firing up the team when he came on albeit briefly

I'm sure that a lot of the older end who come on this board can fail to forget John Burke.
He was a marked man before he came on the pitch.
He was in the same mould as Joe Grima.
Wonder what John is doing now.

YouTube.

Unfortunately I have heard John Burke has got Alzeimers maybe all the stick he took did not help

The pack back then was frightening, the likes of Dave Larder and Phil Stevenson struggled to make the bench which says it all really.

You're right about the enforcers, there were plenty about then. We had Grima and Big Brendon. Then there we're the likes of Rhino, Skerritt, Barrie Mac, Kurt Sorenson and Tim Street.

It was good entertainment, there's nothing better than a mass brawl to get the crowd going. At school on the Monday. We'd talk more about the biff or why Joe Grima almost decapitating the opposition half back, usually Glen Tomlinson, wasn't a red card over the 90 yarders from Nick Pinkney or Jason Critchley.

Larder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hard???????????????????????

He's always been 'lightweight' and followed his dad!

I once saw John Burke sent off when he was nowhere near the offence! He was 'hard', but a 'gentle GIANT' also!

His reputation went before him and did him a great injustice.

Then there was Colin Evans - as hard a scrum-half (but never dirty) as you would ever see. One of Keighley's BEST!

Not many of today's players could even dare to stand in their boots or next to the Keighley players of the past.

I wasn't referring to whether he was hard or not. I was saying that that the pack we had back then was that good he and Hall of Famer Phil Stevenson struggled to even get in to the 17.

Back then we had,
Big Brendon
Joe Grima
Ian Gately
Steve Hall
Woody
Jason Ramshaw
Phil Cantillon
Darren Fleary
Grant Doorey
Sonny Whakarau
Dave Larder
Phil Stevenson

Every single one of these guys would have made it in to our current pack with ease.

Not 'hard men' as such more like 'quiet assassins' but what about our two of our more diminutive (both quiet lads) that could seriously tackle anything that moved...Brock McDonald and Dave Foster.

McDonald also for a little guy couldnt half jump for a ball (apparently played Aussie Rules as well) and Foster was one of our unsung heros in 2003

There have been many hard men at Lawkholme lane ones that stick in my mind are Ivan Pascoe, Alan Wood, John Burke, Joe Grima, Ian Gateley, Barry Parker & Big Brendan. All these players never took a backward step I am sure there are many more, lets see some more names from the past.

I bet there isn't a video of Big Brendan getting decked by James Pickering of Workington in 1993 at Cougar Park. It was over that quickly with 3 hits from Picks.

anyone remember the aussie Ken Isaacs ?? a few slates missing and always up for a bit off biff