The first books in an on-going series that pays tribute to the 100 greatest players at each English rugby league club. The first are Leeds Rugby League and Salford Rugby League clubs.

Each player is individually profiled in a biography per page (some two pages) with an accompanying photograph and stats profile.

The first notable feature is that these books extend beyond the birth of rugby league - they go back to beginning of each club (Salford 1873, Leeds 1890).

This is to be applauded given that many of the pre-1895 players contributed to the early successes of their club and in some cases the creation of rugby league, even though they may have retired or played few games under the Northern Union.

Settling upon each club's top 100 is an onerous task, in reality simply starting this task by choosing a player from each season alone would produce too many to start with! Of course, there will be arguments and there are few people who can now offer personal testimony on players before the 1930s - but that is the beauty of sport, we can all have an opinion.

The Leeds 100 Greats includes profiles of many well known Australian players, notably "Dinny" Campbell, Vic Hey, Arthur Clues, Joe "Chimpy" Busch, Ken Thornett, Andrew Ettingshausen, Tony Currie, Cliff Lyons and Brad Godden.

But it also includes welcome pieces on other Australians who are long forgotten at home, but were undoubtedly some of the best footballers ever produced in NSW or Queensland including Eric Harris ("The Toowoomba Ghost"), Frank O'Rourke, Jeff Moores and Keith McLellan.

Published by Tempus Publishing :
Salford 100 Greats: ISBN 0 7524 2196 4
Leeds 100 Greats: ISBN 0 7524 2225 1

 

Product Review © Sean Fagan / RL1908

RL1908 Book & DVD Reviews

---