"It's disappointing to hear Michael Maguire, Wigan's new coach, talking so much about fitness and defence. I hope this doesn't mean they will play with no flair because they might suffer for it - we don't need a coach stifling someone like Sam Tomkins. But they look more stable than in recent years, although not good enough to win something...." prediction 5th


A coach who was responsibel for the best side in the comp at the time said
"attack wins you games, defence wins you the league!" No im sure Garry would realise that the reason his GB teams got tonked so much was because we couldnt defend as good as the Ausies (still cant).

Also fatigue makes cowards of men! I know if im knackered and the other guy is still smashing forwards, im going to get beat.

However just think how good we will be if MM does let us start to attack, we scored a bucket full of points without concentrating on it yet!

Oh I forgot we have only played mugs so far!

Also nice to see on sky that stevo is whinging about our defensive tactics. Its always nice to see people complaining about Wigan. Usually means we a threat!

"Wigan offered Ellery Hanley and £25,000 for me"

Yeah right gary !

You wouldn't even be worth the lace out of one of Hanley's boots.

Very true, take a look on the Leeds board from time to time and you will find that 99% of Leeds fans disagree with the garbage he comes out with but that shouldn't detract from how good a player he was.

He loves talking about himself but I can never understand how he finds all this stuff out?

You could be waiting sometime.

Be fair. It took you less than a day.

Quote ="Cruncher"Be fair. It took you less than a day. '" I've been busy working my website, www.iloveitupthegary.com

Quote ="Cruncher"Be fair. It took you less than a day. '" I've been busy working my website, www.iloveitupthegary.com

I have to agree with this. In his early days he was a fantastic finisher and scored try after try after try for both Hull and Leeds. When he moved to stand off, he became a more than decent playmaker, and at international level, he formed a great partnership with Shaun Edwards.

Schofield is one of the very few British players to be more renowned as an international player than a club player, and that is an achievement in itself.

If you want to see a great display of class, ability and leadership, watch the second test against Australia in 1992.

ohhh he was certainly a good un in his time

Schoey's playing at Odsal tonight in the curtain raiser, kick off at 6.30pm. Come and yell some abuse!

Also the following ex Wigan players will be playing too:

Steve Hampson
Gary Connolly
Martin Dermott
Paul Atcheson
Phil Cantillon
Henry Paul

Hope somebody knocks his head off cant stand the bloke

I'm not saying Gary wasn't a good player, he truly was. I'm just questioning the statements he seems to have to make to big up his own self importance. I've never heard anything suggesting we were trying to sign him, and like I stated it was also at a time when we were letting our top players and earners go - to the huge annoyance of John Monie, because we needed the cash we were bleeding due to the stand etc.

Hear hear,

I know I will come across as being biased but Schofield was arguably one of the greatest players of his generation and even the Aussies realised that at a time when they really thought our players were shocking! Hanley was also great and if anything, I would put them both on a level. Different, but both as influential for whatever side they were playing for.

I also heard a whisper quite a few years ago that Wigan offered Edwards for Schofield in a straight swap...personally I think he was much more of player than Edwards, which his GB performances proves. You don't get to equal the most international appearances for your country if you are not much cop!

Eh?

He's about the only person in rugby league who's tells it like it is and doesn't sugar coat. Especially when talking about england.

I cant actually see whats wrong with anything he said that the OP quoted.

Oh I know, thats right, its Gary Schofield so dont even both reading or listening to what he says, its bound to be rubbish. Thats right isnt it?

I guess some people are too used to the tired old cliches and on the fence nothingness that everyone else within rugby league spouts.

The bloke is an idiot who thinks that just because he was a good player he is the fount of all knowledge. His comments about Michael Maguire at Wigan are totally ridiculous and he always goes on about himself as if he was the greatest player of all time and makes claims such as the Golden boot thing which can't be verified. The thing about Ellery Hanley and the media was due to the fact that he wanted to do his talking on the pitch and didn't want to share information about his private life that the press were interested in, Schofield can't get enough of himself. I would suggest that Gary Schofields issue stems from the fact that he is jealous of him. Hanley got the Golden Boot award, a ridiculous number of winners medals, is in the RL Hall of fame and is respected across the board whereas regardless of how good Schofield was on the pitch has none of the above he has always come across as though he has a chip on his shoulder with bitter little man syndrome. In addition to those points about Hanley there is also this from the independent:

=#0000FF:1ya0bo3bIt was the arrival of Doug Laughton in 1991 that set the scene for the other great cataclysm of his domestic career. "He called me in and told me he was making Ellery Hanley captain whether I liked it or not. The captaincy meant a lot to me, so it was a blow to my pride. Dougie could have handled it a lot better, but I'll admit that I sulked about it."
:1ya0bo3b From the same article its clear why he has a pop at Maurice too =#0000FF:1ya0bo3bHe had criticised the then chief executive of the Rugby League, Maurice Lindsay, over his exclusion from the "loyalty bonus" gravy train set in motion by Super League. "I thought Mr Lindsay kept me out of the World Cup in '95 and I still believe that." now I know his comments were a few years ago but seems a little strange to me this change in POV.

I agree with the poster who said he is a compulsive liar and hypocrite like when he was asked whether his pub was in trouble and he said "It's an absolute load of b******s. I want to know who told you this. Who are they, meddling in my business? Who says the pub is closed?" just before the pub was closed and he was declared bankrupt! And when he appeared in an anti crime video before being found guilty of drink driving.

One final quote I found which I would love to see video evidence of "The best player I played with and against was Peter Sterling. I'd played with him at Hull and, after Australia had flogged us at Elland Road, he sought me out and wanted to swap shirts with me."

So believe his quotes if you want and think we're being petty but the evidence points to the fact that the bloke is a complete moron. Thanks for listening

Wish I'd knocked that kebab out his hand in Oz. Would have been worth getting a smack.

What kind of kebab was it?

Doner.

Sheesh I might have known.

Hats off to gpartin for a mighty rant, I really enjoyed reading that. I can only stand back and admire the chip on your shoulder. You must have a cuttings file on Schofield that's as thick as Gareth Hock.

I would have a chip on my shoulder if I didn't support a team that made him look ordinary at the time. I was perfectly calm whilst writing it and remain calm now so I'd hardly call it a rant. Perhaps I shouldn't bother giving opinions and backing them up with evidence, just do what most people seem to do on forums these days and say "I actually agree with Schofield" without saying why or as you seem to do in most of your posts not bother giving opinions just disagreeing with people for the sake of it. Heaven forbid you should actually come onto a thread about Schofield and actually say something about Schofield. Must be great for people like you on forums with all the threads you can post on without actually having an opinion on the subject you could do it all day long and still have hundreds more to go at.

Oh and by the way I don't have a cuttings file on Schofield but there's this thing on the internet called google. Jog on

It can be verified and was verified a couple of years ago by Harry Edgar, the founder of Open Rugby, the magazine which used to award the Golden Boot.

Harry headed a panel of international journalists who decided that Schofield would win the Golden Boot in early 1991 on account of his performances in 1990, in which he was superb in GB's series win in NZ and played a big part in GB coming closer than ever to the Aussies in that classic Ashes series.

But the sponsors, Adidas (the Aussie arm), refused to sanction another non-Aussie winner following on from Hugh McGahan in 1988 and Ellery in 1989, so they pulled the plug.

Not sure why you'd want to see video evidence of Sterling and Schoey swapping shirts?!? But they were big mates from their Hull days, and remain so.