Easily the most likeable personality to have graced the team in the Super League era.

How great would it be to have him this season, now that we are seeing more offloads and open play again?

One of my favourites. Loved his tenacity and was a better player than people give him credit for. Fearless.

Top man! https://youtu.be/LsXafSrsGKs

Top man! https://youtu.be/LsXafSrsGKs

great bloke, great player....yes. Legend...no.

...

excuse me... what?

I agree....not a Wire Legend by any stretch. The term should be used sparingly. Top man though.

Any man who scores against Wigan and runs off for a hot dog is a legend.

A fine player, who (from the video alone) obviously still carries a torch for us.

But legend? You're having a laugh.

Depends on how to context legend.
His antics were more legendary than probably any Wire player.
We all remember something he did.

A very fair point IMO and quite different from the over quoted "World Class"

LEGEND

1.
a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but not authenticated.
"the legend of King Arthur"

2.
an extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field.
"the man was a living legend"


Nat Wood's antics are talked about on the terraces and the forums to this day. The fans loved him and will probably be reminiscing about his time here for years, with the stories becoming slightly embellished each time they are told... that in itself is surely the point of the term 'Legend'...

All subjective of course but spot on EW sums it up perfectly for me

Purple Aki is a legend. Les Boyd, Mike Nicholas, Brian Bevan are legend players. Wood may be the former but not the latter.

It reminds me of those people who consider Danny Lima a legend.

In your opinion

Purple Aki is notorious not a legend...a huge difference.

A good day for the grammar pedants, today, Wires71.
You've missed the hyphen out, in your description of Lima.

I think he means PA is a legend in the way that he is a character surrounded by myth and stories in the local area.

Nat Wood is also a legend as I heard plenty of tall stories about him.

Did he really take a replica firearm on to the field in his socks to see if he could get it past the ref who would be checking whether the arm padding was legitimate?
Could he grab on to the side of the goalposts and extend his body at 90 degrees to the ground?
Did he tell all his teammates that he was Keanu Reeves stunt double in the Matrix?
Was he set to sign for Wigan as a replacement for Adrian Lam but then turned them down to stay with us?

All these are stories I've heard about Nat Wood. Truth or fiction, who knows, that's the sign of legend.

Watching that clip of his hat-trick against Wigan takes me back. You can see why he was so popular with fans as well as team mates, look at the energy he brought to the team when he had the ball. He was one of the best running halfbacks I've ever seen. A lot of the players that are known as running halfbacks are basically guys with pace who are good support runners, like McGuire, Myler and Gale, and have a great try scoring record. Wood ran at people and beat them one on one. He had superb footwork and balance and could turn defenders inside out even though he didn't have express pace, it also helped that he was stocky and strong so close to the line he could shrug off tackles.

Another incredibly likeable thing about Wood was his attitude to playing for us. We've had other overseas players to whom it seemed like Warrington were an option when they couldn't get a deal in the NRL, their agent fixed them up here on good money, they came over, went through the motions without ever really looking invested in the club, before going home or retiring. Wood completely got stuck in and showed real enjoyment and pride in playing for the club. He came to us aged 30, and I think he had the hunger of a player who had had an unfulfilled career up till then, as he'd been a bench player/understudy for Lam and Fittler at the Roosters for a long time, despite being an obvious talent and well regarded in the NRL. Wire gave him the chance to be the main man and he revelled in that.

Looking back to the Paul Cullen era, you can split it in to two halves: first half of hope, pride, exciting games on Sky and a feeling of the club heading in the right direction; second half of mounting frustration that despite the squad getting better on paper with more and more big signings, the performances were slipping slowly backwards. The dividing line was the point Nat Wood left. 14 years on and we have yet to sign a halfback as good as him apart from Sandow for a half season. Blake Austin looks like he might have similar qualities so fingers crossed.

Well of course it's all opinions, and I expressed mine.

Quote ="rubber duckie"Purple Aki is notorious not a legend...a huge difference.'" If it's the same to you Duckers I'll go with the OED definition #2 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/legend [size=150Legend[/size [iNoun[/i An extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field. [i‘the man was a living legend’ ‘a screen legend’[/i The particular field being the assessment of young mens' musculature.

Quote ="rubber duckie"Purple Aki is notorious not a legend...a huge difference.'" If it's the same to you Duckers I'll go with the OED definition #2 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/legend [size=150Legend[/size [iNoun[/i An extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field. [i‘the man was a living legend’ ‘a screen legend’[/i The particular field being the assessment of young mens' musculature.

Quote ="Wires71"If it's the same to you Duckers I'll go with the OED definition #2 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/legend [size=150Legend[/size [iNoun[/i An extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field. [i‘the man was a living legend’ ‘a screen legend’[/i The particular field being the assessment of young mens' musculature.'" Legend is famous for generally good.... notorious for the opposite... Either way to draw comparison between Purple Ali and Nat Wood is shocking to say the least.

Quote ="Wires71"If it's the same to you Duckers I'll go with the OED definition #2 https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/legend [size=150Legend[/size [iNoun[/i An extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field. [i‘the man was a living legend’ ‘a screen legend’[/i The particular field being the assessment of young mens' musculature.'" Legend is famous for generally good.... notorious for the opposite... Either way to draw comparison between Purple Ali and Nat Wood is shocking to say the least.

I pur old purps in the category of "Living Urban Legend"

Anyone outside the north west stares blankly at you and laughs as though you've told a naff joke when you explain who he is.

"Who?"

"and what does he do?"

"haha give over, he can't be banned from everywhere"

everyone has a story about him and they all get more and more exagerated and intense each time they tell it. so for me, he's also a legend. (of sorts) It's all relative.

How does a post about a message from a hugely popular ex player on the other side of the world turn in to an argument about what we should consider him to be?

He was a great signing for us at the time, very entertaining player, did some great things on the field and off it and he still remembers the club fondly. He should be rembered by the club and the fans fondly (I think he is). Players like Nathan Wood will do for me.

Well done CW for getting us back on topic.

I find those of you saying he’s not a legend are being unfair. You’re likely older than me (I’m 32) but given that for most of my short life Wire have been bang average (save for the last decade or so?) our definition of a wire legend may be slightly different. But for me, watching Nat Wood at Wilderspool and those early HJ years left an impression on me.

Definitely a Wire legend, he made memories that have formed part of the fabric of what I love about my hometown club.

Scored the last league try at Wilderspool and first try at HJ.
If those aren't legacies, I don't know what one is.