Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Sun Feb 21, 2021 9:56 am  

If you could pick your best 2 sets of 13 who would you chose, who have played for bradford of course

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:38 am  

I wasn’t alive pre-SL as I was born in 1995. But I’d expect Mumby to be in the pre-SL side!

Post SL side pretty much writes itself other than maybe one or two positions.

1. Michael Withers
2. Tevita Vaikona
3. Scott Naylor
4. Shontayne Hape
5. Lesley Vainikolo
6. Henry Paul
7. Paul Deacon
8. Stuart Fielden
9. James Lowes
10. Paul Anderson
11. Daniel Gartner
12. Jamie Peacock
13. Brad Mackay/Sam Burgess

14. Elliott Whitehead/Lee Gilmour
15. Joe Vagana
16. Brian McDermott
17. Robbie Paul

Obviously there are arguments for players like Danny Peacock, Graham Bradley etc. I haven’t included players like Trueman or Bateman because I think they played their best rugby away from Bradford.

Brad Mackay was arguable our best ever 13 despite only playing one season. But you can’t argue with Burgess’ role at the time.

Same with Whitehead/Gilmour to be fair.

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Sun Feb 21, 2021 12:15 pm  

Great selection, I would have to find a place for forshaw he had a spell where he was scoring tries for fun, and was a tackling machine too

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:30 pm  

Molsk111 wrote:

Great selection, I would have to find a place for forshaw he had a spell where he was scoring tries for fun, and was a tackling machine too

That's probably one of the positions that was up for debate. I'd argue right centre, one second row place (the other is JP) and the LF position.

For SR you could have had Gartner, Rigon (absolute class for that one season), Morrison, Menzies, Forshaw etc.

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:40 pm  

Pre Superleague
1 Mumby
2 Lamb
3 Watson
4 Newlove
5 Redfearn
6 Watson
7 Smales
8 Mills
9 Fisher
10 Thompson
11 Clawson
12 Grayshon
13 Casey

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Sun Feb 21, 2021 2:47 pm  

BTW
3 is Bernard Watson and 6 is Dave Watson

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Sun Feb 21, 2021 3:02 pm  

Wow that is a fantastic team, not sure could add to that

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Sun Feb 21, 2021 6:45 pm  

Just thought of a certain player who I think should be in that team, a certain John woods,,,, what a player he was,,,, skill pack in abundance

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:58 am  

Interesting question this... SL is a lot easier in respect that I was a ST holder for each and every season between 1996 and 2014. The difficult part of that process was selecting just 13 as you soon realise that there are multiple players that could fill each and every position.

The pre-SL team is a bit more tricky. I started to attend games regularly when I was about 7yrs old so I only really got to see the last 5yrs of the Northern sides. I've tried to stick to players I actually saw play during those years (including players that had moved on previously but plays in the RAB). Therefore there is a distinct lack of some of the clubs big names.

Bulls Super League XIII
1. Stuart Spruce
2. Tevita Vaikona
3. Graeme Bradley
4. Shontayne Hape
5. Lesley Vainikolo
6. Henry Paul
7. Paul Deacon
8. Joe Vagana
9. James Lowes
10. Paul Anderson
11. Jamie Peacock
12. Mike Forshaw
13. Sam Burgess

Pre-Super League XIII
1. Dave Watson
2. Carl Hall
3. Daryll Shelford
4. Paul Newlove
5. Brimah Kebbie
6. Neil Summers
7. Deryck Fox
8. Karl Fairbank
9. Trevor Clark
10. Kelvin Skerrett
11. Roy Powell
12. Paul Medley
13. Ellery Hanley

Re: Best 13 pre superleague and best 13 superleague players : Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:40 am  

That’s a very good SL side bullinenemyland!

This is the great thing about picking teams because everyone will have a different opinion and it’s great to hear others. Like you’ve chosen Spruce for example but I’d have put Withers and Robbie there first even though I thought Spruce was class.