Re: Fattest ever players : Tue Mar 23, 2021 10:10 am  

Scarey71 wrote:

Most Friday tea-times on the way back from work I'd see David Solomona outside the chippy in Oakenshaw

Was going to say Solomona.

I once saw Tavita Vaikona smashing back popcorn and a hot dog at Showcase but he was in no way fat - he'd since left Rugby league and was playing for Hull RU.

[Bulliac]

Re: Fattest ever players : Tue Mar 23, 2021 2:39 pm  

Stockwell & Smales wrote:

Our fattest two props must have been Peter Goddard and Ken Roberts who played together in the late 60's. Does anyone remember them?

To be fair to all those mentioned, a big belly was standard back then!

Re: Fattest ever players : Tue Mar 23, 2021 4:48 pm  

Bulliac wrote:

To be fair to all those mentioned, a big belly was standard back then!

Yeah, you can go right back to Frank Whitcombe

Re: Fattest ever players : Wed Mar 24, 2021 10:56 am  

Goddard has his own version of a side step. His feet stayed still but his gut shimmied from one side to the other. Definitely a ball- playing prop rather than a mobile one but as he played mainly in the era of unlimited tackles it didn’t matter in the way it would now. Ken Roberts was a villain when he played for Halifax but views changed when he joined Northern!

Re: Fattest ever players : Mon Mar 29, 2021 5:51 pm  

A halifax legend was Ken Roberts.

Re: Fattest ever players : Tue Apr 06, 2021 3:11 pm  

Solomona seemed to struggle to keep trim at Bradford... At times, even Vagana and Vainikolo had their weight issues. You had no shortage of 'big units' back in the day - luckily SL defences at the time used to leave gaps 2 buses wide with regularity so it wasn't a problem for them to get across the try line (according to Stevo).

Then there's the immortal line about Paul Anderson being left 'in the growing bag' at school by Ray French. Happy days!

Leeds have Hurrell and Lui these days... Hurrell in particular reminds me of the old Bulls style, at least when he's not making handling errors.

[Bullseye]

Re: Fattest ever players : Tue Apr 06, 2021 3:49 pm  

Lesley did have fitness issues early on in 2002. Took him a while to overcome them, then his knees were a problem from 2006 and largely why he went to Union. Big Joe and Anderson were on the large side but it didn't impede their performance.

Re: Fattest ever players : Wed Apr 07, 2021 8:32 am  

Ah two happy memories...

Anderson dispatching Gary Connolly on the way to a try at Odsal and the crowd at Knowsley Road singing 'Lesley is a girls name, Lesley is a girls name, nah nah nah nah' only for their winger to pay the price when he grabbed him by the throat and hammered him over the advertising hoardings into said crowd. Oh how the mighty have fallen...

Re: Fattest ever players : Wed Apr 07, 2021 9:38 am  

Colin Forsyth was short and round and impossible to stop near the line.

Re: Fattest ever players : Sun Apr 18, 2021 7:54 am  

Didn’t Shirley Crabtree play for Bradford northern and Halifax ?