Actually after a couple of requests, i'm going to leave this to run for a few days and thus we can incorporate a coach for the team. i understand there will be no objections to roy francis and arthur bunting being 2 of the 5 nominees so we are looking for another 3. i suspect john kear will feature on the basis of his 2005 triumph, but who else is worthy?

Can we finish this off as to what the RL fans forum Hull FC greatest team is?

ok been through all the threads and this is the final team with percentages of each players vote in the relevant category in brackets. the subs are not really scientific and incorporate the next 4 highest shares of the vote across the categories. (at least this sees us get several players in the team whose omission from the first 13 is controversial). remember though that is is just a bit of fun.

1. gary kemble (52)
2. jack harrison obe (29)
3. james leuluai (30)
4. garry schofield (35)
5. clive sullivan mbe (46)

6. david topliss (73)
7. peter sterling (93)

8. mick scott (24)
9. tommy harris (50)
10. trevor skerrett (31)
11. lee crooks (34)
12. stephen kearney (20)
13. steve norton (59)

subs
14. arthur keegan
15. billy batten
16. bob taylor
17. johnny whiteley

coach due to a lack of nominations and support for both, i've decided on a dream team joint coaching set up of arthur bunting and roy francis.

a couple of thoughts on the team. though it isn't my team there is a decent spread of players through the eras in the 17, though perhaps inevitably the bulk are drawn from the early 80s. the most contentious results are norton beating whiteley, no place for batten and bob taylor being seen off by kearney, who is the only player of the superleague era to feature in the team. i'll keep this bit short as i expect you might want to expand on these and add a few other thoughts.

i would be interested to see your 17s in reflection of this, i'll put mine up too.

once again thanks to all who voted and participated

This is my all time team.
1. Gary Kemble
2. Jack Harrison
3. William 'Billy' Batten
4. Garry Schofield
5. William 'Billy' Stone
6. David Topliss
7. Peter Sterling
8. Mick Scott
9. Tommy Harris
10. Harold Bowman
11. Lee Crooks
12. Bob Taylor
13. Johnny Whiteley

14. Trevor Skerrett
15. Keith Boxall
16. Willie Manu
17. Mick Harrison

I appreciate its about opinions, but it must have been hard to leave Norton out of that team given the years of service he gave.

To be quite honest it wasn't, whilst Norton was a fantastic player his overall endeavour was a fair bit shy of Whiteley who for me was the better defender/leader too. For balance of a proper 17 I've chosen a pack based subs bench with explosive mobility (Rhino & Manu) with tough as nails outright power with skerrett & Harrison, it was a very difficult call as to whether to put (Bill) Drake in there though instead of Skerrett, Bill was a bit of a hooligan on the field and probably suffered in rep honours because of it.

1. kemble
2. harrison
3. leuluai
4. batten
5. sullivan
6. topliss
7. sterling
8. scott
9. harris
10. skerrett
11. crooks
12. taylor
13. whiteley

14. schofield
15. norton
16. drake b
17. drake j

(my dad who saw them regularly said if you pick one of the drakes, you have to pick the other)

In the era that Bill Drake played, Gt Britain had their best pack of forwards I have ever seen and though Hull had arguably the best club pack in the land the only Hull players who always made the international squad in their preferred position were Tommy Harris and Mick Scott.

John Whiteley had fierce competition for a place at lock with Derek( Rocky) Turner and Vince(Wild Bull of the Pampas) Karalius. Bill Drake could not displace second rowers such as Jack Grundy, Geoff Gunney, Mick Martyn and Dick Huddart plus Brian McTigue and Whiteley also played in this position for Gt Britain.

My favourite pack from that era was... Brian McTigue 8. Tommy Harris 9. Allan Prescott 10. John Whiteley 11. Dick Huddart 12. Vince Karalius 13.

They played together when Gt Britain beat Australia in the 58/59 Test series, played in Australia.