Quote Sebasteeno="Sebasteeno"Lose your wigan bias lads. Sullivan was the first black englishman to captain GB and is spoken of massively by both sides of the Hull divide after playing for both which is no mean feat.'"
There's no Wigan bias in saying that, fine player that Clive Sullivan was, he is not the front runner for this award.
If we take a like for like for instance, Martin Offiah and Billy Boston had better records than Sullivan did.
IMO the shortlist of 10 is too long. There are five names on there that I would discount - Sullivan, Neil and Don Fox, Todd and Davies.
That would leave the voting between Edwards, Hanley, Murphy, Offiah and Boston
I didn't see Murphy or Boston play so for me it has to be between the three Wigan players. A couple of weeks ago I was swaying towards Edwards but now I think Hanley. I think its ridiculous to say Edwards union coaching is a negative, whether he went on to be a top union coach or a taxi driver shouldn't matter, Edwards was a rugby league great.
But I think if we are only allowed to have one statue of a rugby league player then it's hard to look past Hanley. I reckon if you ask rugby league fans who was the greatest player of their time watching rugby league, then 90% of them who saw Hanley play, would choose Hanley and I bet you don't get that from any other player. Even compared to great Aussies like Johns, Fittler, Lockyer, Meninga, I don't think there has ever been a single handedly more influential player than Hanley.