A lot of people could learn from this post, I gave my opinion and explained why I thought it and here is somebody posting a response with their reasons for believing otherwise. Fair do's on the golden boot, heard something similar before but it just seemed a bit dodgy to me the panel had already decided, Adidas had withdrawn the sponsorship of the award anyway so why the hell didn't they just give him the newly titled Open Rugby golden boot award it wouldn't have been a big deal the prestige would surely have been in the title rather than any financial gain to any of the parties. I just can't help but think that he's talking about this not to convey his disappointment or to get people to feel sorry for him but to say 'hey look at me I was the best player in the world, remember my name'

The point of my last bit is the very same and entirely down to how Schofield decides to tell the story. He knows that Peter Sterling was a legend who is massively well known in Rugby League Circles and the message he is trying to convey again is how much everyone rated him "he sought me out and wanted to swap shirts with me" . Rather than acting with modesty which would have gained him so much more respect.

He just reminds me of Ozymandias a poem by Shelley:

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away".

As far as I'm concerned all this detracts from how good a player he was when his intention is clearly to reinforce it. The bloke is worried about being forgotton as a player but by creating the legacy he has he is in danger of being remembered more for his arrogance.

To your first question, I don't know. When Adidas withdrew their backing, Harry decided to scrap the Golden Boot, so there was no winner between 1991 & 1999. When League Publications Ltd bought Open Rugby, they immediately brought the award back.

As for Schoey talking about it - he's known since 1991 that he was the Golden Boot winner that never was, but it was Harry who wrote an article about it in his excellent Rugby League Journal. That's when it first became public knowledge. Schoey mentioned it in the March issue of Rugby League World in response to a reader's question. But from 1991 to Harry writing about it in 2008, Schoey's never publicised it, not even in his book. I think you're doing him a disservice on this one.

Quite possibly so mate, the bloke just makes it so easy to come to the conclusions I'm coming to and although its gone pretty quiet on here I'm sure I'm not alone on this.

You're not alone in it, it's like his need to talk about being allegedly offered vast sums of money (by a club that didn't have any either) but he was a good little Gary and remained loyal.

Oh good, i felt abit like the lone ranger for a bit there lol

no matter what he did in his playing career all hes ever done since is spout garbage.

i reckon hes an attention seeker.

It will be the opposite way around. This is a man who could not step foot in Hull for 20 years ( his words ) because of the way he left us. He said he was grateful to Paul Cooke for making it possible to come back into Hull without being attacked. I don't think the lift goes to top floor there

You make some interesting points in this thread. Whatever people think about Schofield as an individual, you have to admit he was a very good player. I'm not sure I rated him as highly as you do, personally I would always have picked Edwards ahead of him, but he was a great player.

In those days the game was full of great players in this country, players with terrific skills or physical gifts, men who could turn a game on its head. How times have changed.

Hordes of unwelcome visitors to this board over the years have:

1. denied that GB were closer to Australian standards in the early 90s than they are today in the Soopah Doopah League era;

2. alleged that Wigan were the only British team with any great players during the early 90s.

Perhaps I should bookmark this thread for the next salary cap debate or the next time some fool spouts the usual nonsense about standards being higher than ever....

Leg_end on here gave me some old DVDs last week.

Post Match Sky TV Interview with Andy Farrell for London 6 Wigan 32 (he had scored a hatrick) in March 2002.....





Apparently Schofield had bagged him on the Super League Show for an apparent bad show in Wigan's season opening 4-18 home defeat to Bradford. A month after of course "You Beauty", Farrell lifted another Challenge Cup.

Let's Just compare major domestic career medals in Rugby League.

Andy Farrell 15 Garry Schofield errr none! So a player with less medal clout than Ricky Bibey can speak of a true legend. Ok Schofield won many GB caps but I'm too young to remember them!

On that note I thought I'd share this Amazon.com sarcastic review of Schofield's autobiography

Fantastic, no two ways about it. Thanks for sharing this. I remember the Andy Farrell comments and even remember I was eating Lasagne and chips at the time I saw the interview. I had a mouthful at the time, started choking and thought my mum was going to have to give me the Heimlich manoeuvre.

I'm enjoying this thread immensely, and kudos to those who've done their research in order to prove what an idiot Schofield is.

Let's be fair, if the man himself is going to trawl back through the mists of time to provide evidence why he should be held in high esteem, there's no reason why others can't do the same thing to provide evidence why he shouldn't.

But if Schoey wants to stop people laughing at him, the real trick is for him to either moderate his style of comment or shut the hell up.

Even if he gobs off with the best intentions (which I don't believe he does), he still sounds like he's riddled with resentment. It's written in his face whenever he's interviewed on TV, though why he is still occasionally interviewed I don't know. He was never much of an intellect even when he was playing.

There's something in this - Farrell usually reserved his very best for matches against Saints when he was most motivated. On this occasion the criticism wound him up and he took it out on London. If that is the response long may Schofield be a critic of Wigan!

To be fair to him, not that I especially want to, Schofield did say in RLW after the Four Nations that Sinfield's performances had proven him wrong after years of not rating him at test level. As far as Roby is concerned, he's said several times that he's not the player he was when he first appeared and hasn't been for some time. So, I think this change in pov is just down to watching the game and changing his mind based on what he sees.

Other than that, I agree with those who say that he was a tremendous player, although I think putting him "on a level" with Hanley is going too far, nor would I personally have ever picked him ahead of Edwards. I do think that his presence in the 95 World Cup squad might have covered the loss of Edwards to injury in that tournament to some extent. Interesting about him saying that Mo cost him his place in that world cup. I remember an interview with him long ago in which he said that he refused to be considered when then-coach Phil Larder questioned his commitment to the national team. As others have said, he seems to have a lot of bitterness and resentment.

The only criticism I have of shaun edwards in direct comparrison to schofield is that edwards never had a good game against australia,schofield seemed to excell when playing at that level,you can't argue with the medals edwards has won,however its hypotheticall to imagine how good schofield would have been playing in the wigan teams of his era

He'd have scored a hell of a lot of tries - mainly thanks to the play-making of Shaun Edwards.

I'm still not sure why Schofield appears to think that he was a play-maker in his own right. I seem to remember him playing stand-off against Wigan at Wembley and getting so owned that it was almost embarrassing.

Having been in the Man's company on 2 x occasions I can confirm that IMO the Man is a Knoob!

The 2nd occasion was the funeral of Mike Gregory & his behaviour at the rear of the church (Which would only have been visible to maybe up to a dozen people if that) was terrible!

Like a Naughty schoolboy who believes he's the centre of the universe!

Oh and BTW!

To the Leeds fan who said he's one of the few who doesn't dress his comments up & tells it like it is then here it is in reverse, comments about Schofield not dressed up and telling it like it is.

[uGary Schofied is a P***K![/u

I heard about this at the time. What a to$$er.

Garry Schofield has less medal clout than Ricky Bibey?....... I never knew that LOL

Bibey FTW