That would be very close to my team only Godden for Carroll and not Peacock twice.

Very good post.



Always dissapoints me how many people form opinions based purely on cups, medals, or even number of try's scored.



Player contributions and skills can be defined a lot more than those labels. Some of the best players ever, never got to play in a cup final or for a "big club" to give them that a chance.



The thread is on the players you have seen play, so any poster can only relate to that. It appears we have a very young majority of posters on southstander.com.

You don't think the present generation possess sublime rugby skills? I've seen moments of sublime skill from McGuire, Burrow, Sinfield, Ali, Webb, Donald, Hall, Harris, Lyons , Ettinghausen, Schofield, Hanley etc etc that I will look back on with the same justified rose tintedness that you look back upon older generations of players.



My "sole criteria" is not cups won. However, I think older generations do look back through rose tinted glasses. I posted a couple of months ago about the season Leeds were enduring under Hynes in 1978 when they won the cup against Saints. It was worse than this season. But as time passes so does the memory of the mundane displays and all that we remember are the great ones.



That is why many of this team doesn't get the recognition it deserves because it's still playing. In fifteen years time I suspect my generation will be waxing lyrical just like older generations do about the players they watched.



Of course it's subjective but there is one inalienable truth. This is a team sport when they aim is success for the team. In terms of championships this generation of players have surpassed anything that generations past have managed and that has to be recognised. This is not tennis.

You can't pick a team until you have picked a coach and know how you want them to play.



In a team sport, the way the coach wants the team to play determines which players get the gig...

So in 20 years you will be waxing lyrical about how great Ian Kirke and Lee Smith were?



No you won't will you. You hit the nail on the head in that final paragraph, it's a team sport. We have had a fair few individuals over the last 7 years that have been extremely lucky to play in such a very good squad of players. And just because they achieved the same honours, this does not mean to say that we will look back on them individually as one of the greats.



Just like many true greats have not even had the opportunity of playing in matches where honours can be won. Not by there own doing, but by chance of playing for the team they did.

No, but then again I haven't named them in my 17 have I? That said, I might wax lyrical about Smith as the years progress, forgetting the indifferent form this year and remembering him as a big match player in 3 GFs in 3 different positions. His display in the 2008 game, given the circumstances, should become stuff of legends. Which kind of proves my point about the passage of time affecting the memory.



I agree. I didn't name Kirke in my 17 did i?



I'm not sure what your point is (again). You've invented what you think I am saying and you're arguing with it. I named my greatest 17. It didn't contain Kirke etc.

An interesting thought comes to mind... I wonder what Tony Smith would have done with Garry Schofield. He got shut of Gleeson ASAP from the Wire but on the other hand he helped focus and revitalise Lee Briers.

Good point. Everyone assumed Briers would be out when Smith got the job. I am guessing Briers made a commitment to be more of a professional. It shows, IMO, in his physique and defensive application under Smith.



I'm not sure Schoey would have made the same commitment. I suspect he'd have focused his energies on undermining Smith at every opportunity. I also suspect Smith would have succeeded where Dougie failed and gotten rid of him.

I could pick an all import team:



Curry

ET

Innes

Bell

Grothe

Jackson

Lyons



Leuleui

Buderus

Patterson

Ali

Furner

Glanville



Or my British version:



Harris

Senior

Holmes

Dyl

Bentley

Heron

Schofield



Powell

Ward

Peacock

Morley

Sinfield

Hanley



JJB

Dixon

Ellis

McGuire



Oh, and best foreign coach, Tony Smith, best British coach...Tony Smith

What ever Smith has done with Briers it has worked, he obviously knew he could work with Briers and get him too change his lifestyle.



He must of thought that Gleeson was beyond help and Gleeson himself proved that with his antics after moving to Wigan.

Ooh, that's an interesting version - let's try...



Webb

Grothe

Currie

Godden

Ettingshausen

Jackson

Lyons

Tunks

Buderus

Patterson

Lauitiiti

Furner

Glanville



Or one based entirely on the club's own youth products



Mathers

Alan Smith

Walker

Dyl

Atkinson

Holmes

Burrow

Powell

Ward

Pitchford

Morley

Eccles

Sinfield

Webb was a tough one to leave out, at his bristling best he was aggresive and brilliant in attack (while a little head high when defending). Currie and ET could interchange in my selection but Currie set Headingley on fire one night while at FB playing against (I think) a touring NZ Maori team. Like a lot of Aussie backs of that time he had all the abilities of a great full back.

Bell and Godden was a tough choice as well, but I guess I saw all Bell's games in the flesh and that tipped it (plus he lived 2 minutes from my house when he was in Leeds).