spot on paintman.if ever a guy was a legend,preccy was THE LEGEND.

Think Taylor is Aus bound, wants to have a crack at the NRL, before coming back to the Hull area to settle down.

After starting at 17 for Wigan in 1937 he came to Hull in 1949 and played until 1955 (a few years as player-coach) before coaching Hull through arguably one of their most successful periods in it's history.
I first saw him play for Warrington against Hull in 1948 and after coming to Hull I became one of his most fervent fans. Certainly one of the most innovative players and coaches I have ever seen.
You classed him as a good centre - I rated him as top class. Perhaps Johnny Whiteley has an opinion on this as he was part of the Francis era.

Roy Francis should have legendary status at Hull both as a player and a coach.

Sorry to be pedantic but he signed for Wigan in 1936 & joined Hull as a 30year old
played just 2 matches in his first season.
Was appointed player/ coach in 1951/52
Before my time, - just got these facts from `100 Hull fc greats' by Raymond Fletcher
`Although past his peak Francis still retained much of his class & individual style is how
he is described in the book.

He might not be a hall of famer as a player but as Coaches go Roy has to stand with Arthur Bunting as one of our all time best. I saw Roy Francis once described as the 'Father of the Modern game' which is probably a bit strong but he did create the first ever mobile pack when he built the Panzer Pack of the mid to late 50's. (named after the packs of massive but very fast tanks the Germans used in the second world war.

It wasn't just his finding bulky and strong players with pace though it was also his training methods where he would regularly make the forwards train as backs and vice versa. He used to get the backs jumping on both legs up and down the terracing with balls between their knees to strengthen their legs and the Pack doing 100 meter sprint training and lap after lap of the terraces up and down the steps. He also introduced the use of players like Roly Moat who would just follow the big forwards around and wait for the off load, which again was a skill seldom seen from a forward back then. As a young lad I would watch them train at the Boulevard every Tuesday and Thursday night but sadly didn't appreciate what I was watching.

A total Club man he was loved by the fans and he had a great singing voice too and would often be seen on the stage on Saturday nights after games in the Supporters Club entertaining the members. He made a good father Christmas at the Kids party too.

Into the 60's of course the rest of the game caught on and that and our ability to produce players of the quality of the old guard as they retired meant that we went into decline Roy went to Leeds where he had another illustrious stint to be replaced by Johnny Whiteley at the FC.

I would agree that he deserves bigger raps than he ever gets in the annals of Hull FC.

Could be a black and white by the end of the week with Shannon a free agent.

Looks like London Irish are more than happy to release him which is interesting.

Not really a suprise, he will be on big wages, has been injured most of the time and obviously hasn't impressed in Union.

As long as he is fit and he can play like he did in league, he will be an excellent signings.

Welcome to Super League's Ragtag Bunch of Misfits!

Thanks for this Wilf. It was like an additional diary for the week

e are the Battlestar Galactica fleet of SL!

You mean every time we get ahead, 33 minutes later [ithey [/icatch us up?

Magnificent Seven, surely, or 8?
Paea
Talanoa
Feka
Thompson
Rankin
Carvell
Tuson
Sa

No problem. I should have said he played his first match for Wigan in 1937 instead of starting in 1937.

Ah! Roly Moat the ultimate finisher of forward breaks and maybe half of them scored with the final pass from Johnny Whiteley. A mention too for his half back partner Albert Tripp who was at Hull for the same period as Moat. Tripp was one of the best tacklers I have ever seen and his round the ankles technique very rarely failed nomatter who came at him.

Re Roy Francis as a singer. During the fifties Roy was the co- licensee(Colin Hutton the other?) of a pub on Sutton Rd( called The Lambwath Hotel?). My father who was a pianist/accompanyist on the Hull Club circuit played there twice a week on concert nights and he said Roy sometimes sang on these occasions. I went a couple of times and met a few Hull players in there.