Joined: Jun 25 2006 Posts: 14141 Location: Forum21
ninearches wrote:Wasn't Martin suspended when we signed him ? Along with Bridge & Atkins ,he was one of our better centres.
Yes he was suspended following the 2004 betting scandal in which he, and Long, placed bets on the Saints vs Bradford game. They had prior knowledge that Ian Millward would be resting 11 players for the game (including Long but not Gleeson). Gleeson got the longer ban, 4 months, as he actually played in the game and for the side he was betting against. We signed him a few weeks after the suspension for £200K prior to the 2005 season.
For us he scored 48 tries in 117 games which is pretty prolific.
Tony Smith joined Warrington in March 2009 and in April Gleeson was off to Wigan where he won a SL title in 2010. Presumably his attitude did not dent Wigan's title hopes.
Last edited by Wires71 on Mon Aug 14, 2023 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
When TS joined I think he recognised some of the players attitudes just weren’t right, Gleeson was identified as one of those and moved on as much to make a point than anything else. Briers was another who was close to being shipped out, but ended up staying.
No doubt Gleeson didn’t really want to be here in 2005, but that anger seemed to spur him on. 2005 playing under Cullen’s attacking structure, was by far his best season at any club. He was consistently world class at a time none of our other players were even close to world class. A joy to watch, like a Sheikh’s racehorse.
However, we know where it went from there under THAT culture.
This is years later though, and he comes with big raps from the England RU players, who have said that Borthwick didn’t want to implement a lot of Gleeson’s ideas. Maybe during this stint Chambers will give him the freedom to experiment and try new things. I’m also looking forward to seeing what he can do.
2005 ,seems a long time ago now. I think Martin's brother Mark was one of the first to be shown the door. Perhaps if Martin had got rid of his off field problems he would have been even better.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot post attachments in this forum