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WWW.RLFANS.COM • View topic - WHY is "X" your favourite ever player
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Thu Dec 29, 2016 6:50 pm  
Nobody here has mentioned Lee Briers, but he was a rugby maestro, and we were privileged that he played almost his whole career with us.

Other great halfbacks, Davies, Woods, Andy Gregory, Langer, were here for a few seasons but Briers was Wire throughout and he improved year on year to a point where for about 5 years in the later years of his career he was the best halfback in SL.

Briers had a great rugby brain and he also had a laser guided radar on his boot for those kicks to the corner. It is something I wish we still had. You always knew if it was last tackle and we were 10-20 yards out from their line, Briers would have those targets lined up, Fa'afili, Hicks, King or Joel Monaghan, and would bang one up that would drop perfectly for them to score. They were all very good catchers as well who could beat defenders in the air but the consistent placement you got from Briers was legendary.

Beyond that he could cut a defence open with his delayed balls, missed passes and in his younger years he was a good running halfback as well who could break the line himself. But what I remember most about Briers was his fantastic kicking game, both long and short.

After Bevan I think you'd be hard pushed to find a player who was so good for so long as Briers in a Warrington jersey.
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Thu Dec 29, 2016 6:56 pm  
Can't argue with much of that. Certainly if you combine longevity and impact on the Wire then Bevan and Briers would be at te top of the list.

He didn't make my top 3 but maybe he should have.

Really difficult isn't it?

Just think if TS had got hold of Briers 4 or 5 years earlier.....
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Thu Dec 29, 2016 7:58 pm  
Good shout SC but this is about "your favourite" it will therefore be totally subjective, there is no "right" answer. However it has stirred some great memories.
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Thu Dec 29, 2016 8:05 pm  
fez1 wrote:
Can't argue with much of that. Certainly if you combine longevity and impact on the Wire then Bevan and Briers would be at te top of the list.

He didn't make my top 3 but maybe he should have.

Really difficult isn't it?

Just think if TS had got hold of Briers 4 or 5 years earlier.....


If TS had got hold of Briers 4 or 5 years earlier then he would have "coached" all that inventiveness and unpredictability out of him ........... in my opinion
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Thu Dec 29, 2016 8:13 pm  
sally cinnamon wrote:
Nobody here has mentioned Lee Briers, but he was a rugby maestro, and we were privileged that he played almost his whole career with us.

Other great halfbacks, Davies, Woods, Andy Gregory, Langer, were here for a few seasons but Briers was Wire throughout and he improved year on year to a point where for about 5 years in the later years of his career he was the best halfback in SL.

Briers had a great rugby brain and he also had a laser guided radar on his boot for those kicks to the corner. It is something I wish we still had. You always knew if it was last tackle and we were 10-20 yards out from their line, Briers would have those targets lined up, Fa'afili, Hicks, King or Joel Monaghan, and would bang one up that would drop perfectly for them to score. They were all very good catchers as well who could beat defenders in the air but the consistent placement you got from Briers was legendary.

Beyond that he could cut a defence open with his delayed balls, missed passes and in his younger years he was a good running halfback as well who could break the line himself. But what I remember most about Briers was his fantastic kicking game, both long and short.

After Bevan I think you'd be hard pushed to find a player who was so good for so long as Briers in a Warrington jersey.
intrigued when you said Briers...stopped when you said Fa'afilli
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Thu Dec 29, 2016 8:47 pm  
fez1 wrote:
Can't argue with much of that. Certainly if you combine longevity and impact on the Wire then Bevan and Briers would be at te top of the list.

He didn't make my top 3 but maybe he should have.

Really difficult isn't it?

Just think if TS had got hold of Briers 4 or 5 years earlier.....


For me, Briers was already a great player when TS got here.

In 2006 we were average but he was a star and that was the year IMO he really should have gone on the GB tour. He made the train on squad but Noble discarded him and went with Pryce, Long and Horne. Fair enough Saints had been dominant that year but I still think Briers was better than either Pryce or Long at that point.

By then he had already matured a lot from the younger Briers who was brilliant in patches but also prone to losing his head a bit, getting distracted arguing with refs and when things were going against us he'd kick out to touch on the full, he could have done with some better mentoring then but to be fair to him I think he figured things out on his own, and also with the responsibility he had of being captain and senior player and maybe Cullen developed him as well as he definitely improved a lot during the Cullen years.

The era before TS came was a frustrating one for us as we all thought we were ready to do something big with Simon Moran's investment and all the big signings we made but we never followed through on it, but during that time Briers was quietly becoming a more consistent player ready to be the centrepiece of TS's first great team of 2009 to 2013.

Another point about Briers, apart from the second half of 2003 when he broke his hand and Appo took his spot (with great success!), he was very rarely injured for us.
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Tue Jan 03, 2017 4:49 am  
Can't limit it to one player.

From the ones I have seen in 40 years of watching.

Parry Gordon what a class act.
Tommy Martyn
Derek Whitehead
Shirley Hesford. Could kick goals for fun
John Bevan
Jiffy
Lee Briers. Sunshine if you read this if you had the application of Parry Gordon you would have done so much more. Without doubt the most talented player I have seen in the last 20 years.
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Thu Jan 05, 2017 2:07 pm  
For me it was always Paul Bishop, purely for his impudence, and Sir Les..no explanation required.
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Sun Jan 08, 2017 12:48 am  
Seven pages and Andy Gregory only mentioned once :shock: the guy was a RL Legend,him and John Woods best halves ever.NO DOUBT.
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Re: WHY is "X" your favourite ever player : Sun Jan 08, 2017 9:21 am  
diggory compton wrote:
Seven pages and Andy Gregory only mentioned once :shock: the guy was a RL Legend,him and John Woods best halves ever.NO DOUBT.

This isn't about the "best" player it's about favourite player and there is an obvious reason why Andy Greg would not be considered a favourite however good he was.
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