Board index ‹ Welcome to RLFANS ‹ The Virtual Terrace ‹ John Woods

He signed for the Wire while he was at Bradford. SC wont have heard of him as he'd far too young.

[Bullseye]

davids wrote:

We all know what a legend John Woods was at Leigh, and why.

But what were the circumstances that led to him playing for Warrington in 1987-88?

And (before my time), how did that side only end 6th and not win one of the many trophies on offer back in those days?

The side looked strong on paper, with Brian Johnson at full-back, Mark Forster on the wing (I believe he beat Les Quirk of Saints in the fastest player in the league challenge around that time), Des Drummond, John Woods, Les Boyd, Kevin Tamati, Billy McGinty (to name a few...)

Plus a decent crop of youngsters who went on to have solid careers: David Lyon, Paul Cullen, Martin Crompton.

Northern were skint and Wire offered £65k which was a decent offer given Woods' age at the time. As things worked out Northern did alright out of the deal and used the money to sign some decent players like Kelvin Skerrett from Hunslet.

davids wrote:

We all know what a legend John Woods was at Leigh, and why.

But what were the circumstances that led to him playing for Warrington in 1987-88?

And (before my time), how did that side only end 6th and not win one of the many trophies on offer back in those days?

The side looked strong on paper, with Brian Johnson at full-back, Mark Forster on the wing (I believe he beat Les Quirk of Saints in the fastest player in the league challenge around that time), Des Drummond, John Woods, Les Boyd, Kevin Tamati, Billy McGinty (to name a few...)

Plus a decent crop of youngsters who went on to have solid careers: David Lyon, Paul Cullen, Martin Crompton.

John Woods great player.

In answer to your question about Wire not winning major trophies back around 86-88 there were a number of strong teams at that time. Us obviously, Saints, Widnes and Halifax.

Wire probably should have picked up more than they did but would often keep getting beat in the Semi's.

John Woods was/is a legend. I started watching wire in the mid 80s and we had a great side back then until about 89/90. We didnt win much bar the premiership(pre woods)in 86 but i seem to remember us getting to a lot of finals back then only to run into THAT wigan side virtually every time! We had a good record against them in the league though. Seem to recall they went an entire 30 game season only losing twice, warrington home and away.

I started watching in 91-92 when we had a smallish pack (Sumner, Tees, etc as props, Mercer in the second row who had been playing wing/centre only a year or two earlier), lots of industry but not much flair (players like Rudd, Thorniley in the backs, Ellis at half back who was never world class, Shelford who was slow and didn't train properly according to Forster's book etc), yet ended 4th with really a mediocre looking team compared with the one above. Not to mention Mike Gregory was fit in the 80s but absent much of the time in the 90s.

It just surprised me such a decent looking team didn't do more.

MattyB wrote:

John Woods great player.

In answer to your question about Wire not winning major trophies back around 86-88 there were a number of strong teams at that time. Wire probably should have picked up more than they did but would often keep getting beat in the Semi's.

Absolutely. 1986 was the year of Halifax's double with them seeing off both Wigan and Saints (yes Halifax - not a typo) after which Wigan and Widnes threw big money around fighting each other for the Championship which Widnes won 1988. Saints were serious challengers at that time.as were Leeds.

Wire were
11th in 1985
4th. in 1986
3rd in 1987
6th. in 1988
8th. in 1989

Woods signed for the latter two seasons and that coincided with Wire falling down the table. He left for Rochdale after that with youngster Rob Turner coming in. His best times were at Leigh where I had the pleasure of seeing him play a couple of times. He won the league 1981-2 with them 18 tries and 146 goals,

Looking this up I saw that Leigh failed to go on to win the "prermiership" after drawing (then losing in a replay) to Wigan. The drawn match was 1-1......

Donnyman wrote:

Absolutely. 1986 was the year of Halifax's double with them seeing off both Wigan and Saints (yes Halifax - not a typo) after which Wigan and Widnes threw big money around fighting each other for the Championship which Widnes won 1988. Saints were serious challengers at that time.as were Leeds.

Wire were
11th in 1985
4th. in 1986
3rd in 1987
6th. in 1988
8th. in 1989

Woods signed for the latter two seasons and that coincided with Wire falling down the table. He left for Rochdale after that with youngster Rob Turner coming in. His best times were at Leigh where I had the pleasure of seeing him play a couple of times. He won the league 1981-2 with them 18 tries and 146 goals,

Looking this up I saw that Leigh failed to go on to win the "prermiership" after drawing (then losing in a replay) to Wigan. The drawn match was 1-1......

Agree with all that apart from the fact I don't think Halifax did the double.
They won the league in 86, but I'm sure Cas won the Cup (v Hull KR) then in 87 Wigan won the league and Halifax won the cup against Saints (good old John Pendlebury )

Cas did indeed beat Rovers in 86, mainly due to Jamie Bloody Sandy.

Donnyman wrote:

Looking this up I saw that Leigh failed to go on to win the "prermiership" after drawing (then losing in a replay) to Wigan. The drawn match was 1-1......

Where did you look that up, because I’m pretty certain the 1-1 draw was against Warrington