That was Dean Sampson from what I'm told, I think we were simply outbid for Ward - think our player judgement has improved a lot since then however the Kevin Wards of this world are much thinner on the ground.

For the record the last Chairmans buy I know of was Austin Buchannan - make of that what you want.

Funnily though if you take your examples

Nigel Wright always looked the part but clearly his body wasn't quite as capable at senior level as we'd have all liked
Topper started playing quite late. He didn't play rugby as a kid (iirc)
Belly was a chunky little kid who early on you wouldn't have expected the man he would become. For me it was his attitude that made the difference as he developed through the different positions. That isn't always obvious until you get them on board. If it had been obvious, he'd have been stolen away I'm sure.

i bow to your superior knowledge in a lot of your posts on here vasty ,but stanley lads and particular stanley rugby players would be my specalist subject on mastermind

Shall we settle on both

ceartainly sir






certainly sir

Kevin Ward is a rugby league legend that Wakefield missed out on by not fostering close links to a local club only 2 miles out of Wakefield. He was playing for Stanley in 1970! Dean Sampson did ok for Cas as I recall aswell?

It's players like Annakin, Cowling and Trout that should be signed up on 5 year deals to retain local talent. Should try for regular curtain raisers to keep local clubs close and committed to Trinity.

Like most rugby fans, I'm all for seeing good local lads playing for their club but I'm not sure signing them up on 5 year deals is the way to go. I think for the likes of the 3 players mentioned 3 year deal would be ideal imo. So much can change for a player in 5 years, in both the positive and negative, injuries, form and basically not developing into the player the club thought.

Players worth a 5 year deal come along once every ten years if your lucky. Even then I wouldn't offer them that deal, it's suicidal IMO and would destroy a club like ours. The maximum is 3 years.