He might not have been the best. But are you seriously trying to say that Sutcliffe, Keinhorst, or Handley were anywhere near as good? Because they simply were not.
Yes! Phil Hassan, bless him, was a trier. That's about it. He was not as good as any of the three you name.
In fact, my favourite memory of him is after we'd sold him to Salford, and and Morley hit him so hard that Phil's boot flew off.
Give over, he was much better than those three players. Similar, as in bang average, but a better all round game than those as a centre. I will however give you that Sutcliffe can at least offer more flexibility.
“At last, a real, Tory budget,” Daily Mail 24/9/22 "It may be that the honourable gentleman doesn't like mixing with his own side … but we on this side have a more convivial, fraternal spirit." Jacob Rees-Mogg 21/10/21
A member of the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati.
Trouble is more than half of them weren't at their peak in 96. They were stealing a wage at Leeds.
A few of them had come out of retirement. Mercer one, and he still put in better performances than we see from our Backrowers now, other than Ward. Although I think he was actually turning out at prop a few times that year also.
Your job is to say to yourself on a job interview does the hiring manager likes me or not. If you aren't a particular manager's cup of tea, you haven't failed -- you've dodged a bullet.
For making rash comments on a thread? Wow. There's literally nobody who's posted regularly who hasn't spouted utter nonsense at some point. Particularly in reaction to a bad game/performance. I've been there for sure. Its a message board, not BM's fan club.
BM's record in trophies is great, and some people refuse to give him enough credit for that (just as some refuse to give Tony Smith enough as well), which is really unfair. From 2011-2015 I really find him hard to fault, and coming back last year was an achievement in itself.
However, I don't think some people call him out enough for 2016, which was terrible, an awful season. Comparisons to 1996 are daft because then the club was almost bankrupt, and we had quality players leaving mid-season (like Tait leaving to be replaced by Gibbons, Fallon by Golden etc), not to mention Schoey, Harvey Howard and others jump ship as soon as they could get a gig somewhere else.
2016 by comparison was just an utter farce. It started badly and went downhill, with an ongoing pity party and BM IMO guilty of serious errors in terms of continually picking half fit players and seemingly not recognising how bad the situation was until way too late. We had injuries, but in most games we put out sides capable of performing far better than they did (14 players played more than 20 games that year). We may have survived without Segeyaro, but he made the difference between a comfortable path through the Middle 8s and a real slog.
This year started OK but is now a shambles. What's most worrying to me is that we seem to be in full Groundhog mode now, with the mistakes of 2016 coming back along with the collapse of structure, players being picked who aren't fit, and continuing to pick players who simply aren't performing in the vain hope they'll magically turn it around. It really is the definition of stupid.
A lot of 2016 and this year I put down to BM. To be fair, I don't think GH hasn't managed recent recruitment well, and some of our most senior players simply aren't showing the kind of 'leadership' that they should. But ignoring that it looks like 2 out of 3 years under BM will have been our worst in SL since 1996 and not acknowledging his huge role in it, is as bad as pretending that all the wins are nothing to do with him. You can't give him credit for wins and ignore garbage, or bag him for bad times and ignore/diminish the good.