Who has played the most first-grade games in the UK?

[ParraEelsNRL]

Jim Sullivan, the great Wigan fullback played 774 games during a 25 year career. This is the record.

Empty pm box ;-)

 

[Evil Homer]

If there's 120,000 ppl there, then that officially holds the record for most ppl at a match (surpassing the 108,000 at the 1999 NRL Grand Final)

No it doesn't. There was only 102,000 officially, so the NRL final still has the record. My grandad was there.

You can see how the capacity has been cut down so much - the roof that you can see on that picture is now the very back of the stadium, while there's no terracing behind the sticks at one side.

 

[terracesider]

Most appearances in the UK:

Jim Sullivan

More here.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

my dad was there apparently....

Was your mum there too? Packed in that tighly conceptions may have occured.

 

[East Coast Tiger]

Seriously though, there are a heap of players in England who played professionally for more than 20 years. It's hard to believe but I guess they started at 17 or 18 and played till they were 40-odd. Doubt that would happen these days, not at the pro level anyway.

 

[Kurt Angle]

When Martin Offiah moved to Wigan in 1991, he moved there for a reported 440,000 pounds/season (equating to approx $1.1 million AUD). 90% of players in the NSWRL Winfield Cup would've been lucky to been earning one-tenth of that amount.

That was his transfer fee, not his wage.

A transfer fees is what a club gives to another club to 'own' the contract of a player. In effect it was like a trade.

 

[S.S.T.I.D]

odsal

Wow! Looks like comfortable viewing that day.

 

[The Clan]

Neil Fox scored more points than any other player in the history of the game; 6,220 (6,578 when adjusted to the 4pt try) from 358 tries and 2,574 goals in 828 matches for his six clubs

Sullivan holds the record for appearances for one club Wigan!

 

[The Clan]

Wow! Looks like comfortable viewing that day.

If I'm not mistaken the players had to walk through the crowd to get to the pitch from the dressing rooms in those days.

 

[deluded pom?]

The changing rooms were at the top of the stadium and the players would walk down a staircase on the outside of the stand that is on the left in the picture. It was too far to go back at half time so both teams would stay on the pitch and get their team talk there.

 

[Knight87]

Oh ok, I didn't know that was the transfer fee, not the salary.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Davies


However, in 1989, Widnes signed Jonathan Davies up for 225,000 pounds/season, which is about a similar amount the top players in the game today get paid. The top players in Australia back then in 1989 would've been lucky to be on a fraction of that amount.

 

[Knight87]

Seriously though, there are a heap of players in England who played professionally for more than 20 years. It's hard to believe but I guess they started at 17 or 18 and played till they were 40-odd. Doubt that would happen these days, not at the pro level anyway.

Well, looking at first-grade (ie. top level) career spans of some of the top players in the modern era:

Ellery Hanley: 20 years (1978-1997). Played till he was 36.
Gary Connolly: 18 years (1988-2005). Played till he was 34.
Jason Smith: 18 years (1990-2007). Played till he was 35.
Andrew Ettingshausen: 18 years (1983-2000). Played till he was 35.
Terry Lamb: 17 years (1980-1996). Played till he was 35.
Shaun Edwards: 17 years (1983-1999). Played till he was 33.

So, there you go. But, when I researched the archives of both UK and Australian players, the career spans of the UK players generally tend to be a lot longer than the Australian players. They've also seemed to have played quite a lot more games than the Aussie folk.