By IAN JUDSON
ALL-ROUND rugby league megastar Daly Cherry-Evans is heading to Super League and the Black & White of Hull FC for the 2027 season – but how does he compare to some of the iconic overseas players that the Airlie Birds have previously attracted?
It can certainly be said that the announcement of the signing – initially by Jenna Brooks on Sky Sports – certainly caused great excitement. Not just for Hull FC but for the game as a whole in the Northern Hemisphere. After all, the name Daly Cherry-Evans puts bums on seats wherever he plies his trade for his new club.
I will at some point write another column about how he compares all-round to some overseas icons who have pulled on the shirts of some of our most famous clubs but just for now, this one is for the Old Faithful, comparing him to the Antipodean talent that have previously donned the infamous Black & White irregular hoops. I’m obviously not going to go through absolutely every single one or I would be sat at my desk until some time after the World Cup has finished.
Instead, I am going to limit myself to some of the best known overseas players who younger fans may well remember, as well as some that only people over a certain age-bracket will have watched either at the MKM Stadium or The Boulevard.
But just a possibly interesting side-note regarding one overseas player, how many of you knew that Hull FC were the first team to have an overseas captain to lift our most famous trophy, the Challenge Cup? His name was Herbert Gilbert, he was an Australian international centre and is named in the top 100 Australian international players of all time. And he was the Hull FC captain who lifted the Challenge Cup after a 6-0 victory over Wakefield Trinity at Thrum Hall on 18th April, 1914, just a few months before WW1 broke out.
Richard Swain: It has to be said that Richard Swain, Hull’s 2005 Challenge Cup-winning captain was, and probably still is, criminally unheralded outside of the west side of Kingston Upon Hull, but should really be much better thought of. He arrived just after the club nearly went bust at the hands of David Lloyd, when it had just avoided relegation in its final game of the disastrous 1999 season. An industrious hooker and a tackling machine who clearly had a big effect on the development of one Mr Danny Houghton, he would tackle anything that moved. And through sheer hard work and will to win, he helped turn an erratic club who were seemingly, at the time of his arrival, lurching from one disaster to another, both on and off the pitch. He turned them into winners, topped off by the thrilling 25-24 victory over Leeds Rhinos at the Millennium Stadium. I will gladly still argue to this day that for what he brought and the almighty change his captaincy influenced, he is still arguably the greatest overseas player of any club in the Super League era!
Fetuli Talanoa: The former South Sydney winger, who was much publicised to have worked as a binman after the end of his NRL career due to serious illness, was a big gamble for the Airlie Birds. But my word did it pay off? He arrived for Lee Radford’s first season in charge in 2014, nearly seeing the club relegated, before serious progression began with qualification for the much-vaunted Super Eights in 2015. That was before writing his name along with 16 others into Hull FC folklore with victory at Wembley over Warrington Wolves in 2016 – and a try-scoring performance to successfully defend the Challenge Cup against Wigan the following year. It has to be said: while not the most outstanding talent, Talanoa’s legacy on the Black & Whites is down to his undoubted cult-hero status. Equally adept at centre the wing, his was an unfortunate end to his time at Hull FC due to a serious arm injury. But that time will never be forgotten and the Old Faithful will always have very fond memories of their flying binman.
Stephen Kearney: The New Zealand superstar was only with the Airlie Birds for one season, that being the 2005 Challenge Cup winning season, along with Hull’s first ever playoffs match win. That was a memorable night when Warrington, Andrew Johns and all, were sent packing with a 40 point thumping at the Halliwell Jones Stadium, just a week after they had spoiled the Challenge Cup winners homecoming. The former Kiwi international had a stellar career Down Under and on the international scene and he joined, with Richard Swain, a special elite list of Kiwi internationals to lift silverware with Hull. He signed off on a disastrous night as he was sent off and the Airlie Birds were humbled by a club record defeat at Odsal Stadium in the playoffs. But his influence in turning Hull into Challenge Cup winners for the first time in nearly a quarter of a century was there for all to see and is still very regularly spoken about now.
Jason Smith: The Australian international loose-forward or halfback was a genuine magician and is still to this day rated as one of the greatest overseas signings ever seen here in the Super League era. He joined, like Swain, not long after the club nearly went bust, but called time on his career here at the end of the 2004 season, just months before the Challenge Cup triumph, something which he is known to greatly regret. However, his level of consistency and outstanding skill is still enough to warm the cockles of the Old Faithful. Many people still talk about one particular night at The Boulevard when Leeds Rhinos were absolutely bamboozled particularly by his kicking game, as he dismantled one of the toughest defences in Super League practically single-handed, or booted as the case may be. Another one who any FC fan will tell you is arguably right up there with, or even above, Jamie Lyon, Bevan French et al, as the greatest overseas talent ever seen here in Super League!
James Leuluai: Hull FC Hall of Fame member, multiple silverware winner and – some would argue – possibly the greatest three-quarters ever seen in the Black & White, alongside the likes of the great Clive Sullivan. Father of current Wigan assistant Tommy, James Leuluai is absolutely revered, along with his fellow Kiwis Gary Kemble, Dane O’Hara and Fred Ah Kuoi. If you got to see these chaps on the field together, as I did, you saw an absolute treat. New Zealand talent was still a burgeoning development at the time in the 1980s, but these chaps had it all, with Hull supporters enjoying a diet of regular semi-finals, finals and trophies while they were terrorising many a defence. It is fair to say that many Hull fans still wonder why O’Hara is still not in the Hull FC Hall of Fame where he surely belongs, that is something I am going to be working on during the off-season.
Richie Barnett: The former New Zealand international joined the Black & Whites when they first moved into their current home, having played for London Broncos before then, and he struck up a more than useful centre/wing partnership with Australian Colin Best. These two had pace to burn. Barnett had the silky handling skills and deft offload for Best to take advantage of with his blistering pace. It was actually suggested that teams would want paying extra if they could catch them! Neither lasted very long but they were a memorable sight on the field together who are both the subject of many conversations even now, over 20 years since their departures from this divided city.
Peter Sterling: Hull FC Hall of Fame member, arguably the greatest player ever to pull on the number 7 shirt in the Green and Gold of Australia and NSW Blues in State of Origin. Peter Sterling had it all; he could simply do things on a rugby pitch that most couldn’t even dream of doing. Many people remember him for the 1985 Kenny/Sterling Challenge Cup Final at Wembley, still ranked as arguably the greatest of all time. But in Hull he is also remembered, on both sides, for his Man of the Match performance in the 1984 All-Hull Yorkshire Cup Final as the Black & White side came racing back from a 12-point deficit to bury their nearest and dearest and scoop a third consecutive Yorkshire Cup. It is probably fair to say that Sterling is arguably the overseas player against whom any subsequent overseas arrivals – including his fellow countryman and former Green and Gold number 7 Cherry-Evans – will be mostly compared – and for good reason. Certainly one part of his legacy that DCE will have to stand up to is his influence on the club, the young players and the sport here and around the world.
It is obvious that Daly Cherry-Evans has a certain role to fulfil here, not just as Hull FC’s new halfback (could he also be named as captain?). He brings with him a global rugby league brand, a winning mentality and a wealth of experience of the sort that you simply cannot buy. He has won the NRL grand final with Manly, he has won State of Origin, including as captain with Queensland and he has won the World Cup with Australia. Missing from his CV is an Ashes Series, being part of a generation that didn’t have one until last year, and he has yet to sample simple, straight knockout rugby league in the Challenge Cup. On Good Friday he will get to run out in front of his new home crowd for the Hull Derby against current Super League and World Club Champions Hull Kingston Rovers, a game that has been known to make and break various careers previously. And it’s a game Peter Sterling rates as being as tough as State of Origin. So I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see what he makes of that.
