John Woods. Consistently, irresistably brilliant in an all too short Wire career.



John provided the memory that remains probably my most vivid in 30 odd years of being a wire. His locker cup debut v Wigan at Wilderspool, playing stand-off opposite a certain Ellery Hanley. Woods took the ball straight from a scrum and ghosted past Hanley without a finger being laid on him to score in front of the fletcher end. Deceptive pace, acceleration and perfectly balanced running, Hanley was literally left gasping for air and grasping at slipstream. As he did so often, Woods planted the ball down with no histrionics, self-congratulatory gestures or ostentatious bravado.



John is also the player I wish we'd signed earlier and the player I'd most have liked to have seen in a Wire shirt in the SL era.



Apart from that I didn't really rate him.

Briers

Great post.

From the time we signed him our points average almost doubled.

Not since Hesford before him had our scores been similar...

And not since Woods to Hodgson either.



What having a great kicking back means is all too evident in those three players.

Dessie Drummond, he was such an exciting player to watch.

Cheers Builth. Just to completely shatter my childhood memories I suppose you will tell me that the big red Tonka fire engine I received back then did not come from father Christmas but from a sweat shop in Taiwan. I won't believe that or that Offiah stuck 5 past Des

Bobby Fulton, Parry Gordon, Alex Murphy, John Bevan in any order..

This post surprises me ,as I feel you at Warrington only saw John at the end of his career , I agree though he was class , the FINEST RL player I have ever seen , the guy had everything , Speed , Sidestep ,could kick a ball tactically , and kick goals , could tackle , he was the complete player .Being a fellow Butts Bridger , I know John personally , he is a very modest guy , no airs or graces ,and would have been priceless in todays game .I once saw him score 4 tries against Ellery Hanley in a Leigh v Bradford game ,Hanley was good but not in Johns class.

We did only see the arris end of Woods' career at Warrington, would love to have witnessed him in his pomp as the man was an absolute genius. I remember the poster of his Locker Cup try in Open Rugby. Gliding past the world's greatest player who looked completely confused as he grasped at thin air. In the background you could see Tony Barrow and Dessie celebrating on the touchline......happy days.

Les Boyd.



Dessie, Blakey, Woods, etc were all superb players and massive favourites of mine, but I cant help but think that when We tell one tale of Dessie doing this that and the other, there are five of Offiah doing it to everyone else, similarly with Woody doing whatever to Hanley, we don't have time to listen to all the tales of what Hanley did to Everyone else.



But Boyd had no Peers ever......not on these shores or Australian..... he stood there week in week out while player after player tried to be the one that could put the hard man on his backside..... some occasionally got the lucky cheap shot in but in the midst of all this carnage he was consistently a superb leader, and an exceptionally strong, tough and skilfull player.



Morley was the closest I've seen in terms of having an aura about him and being able to lift a team on the back of his presence but he didn't have a fraction of Boyd's footballing skills.



my most favourite Modern day player was Brett Hodgson.

I cant disagree with that as a top four, but for me Parry gets top spot for his outstanding loyalty and for the fact that he carried a poor Warrington side for much of the late 60s and early 70s and never seemed to give less than 100%.

Silver2 wrote: =#FF00BF I cant disagree with that as a top four, but for me Parry gets top spot for his outstanding loyalty and for the fact that he carried a poor Warrington side for much of the late 60s and early 70s and never seemed to give less than 100%.



Agreed..

Les Boyd - leadership, badass & all round skill set including that dummy in the 86 prem final

Jonathan Davies - the night he dropped a ball and the floodlights went out in disbelief

John Woods - just unbelievable skills, pace & step

Michael Monaghan - intelligence, class and toughness