Ellery Hanley

Ellery Cuthwyn Hanley MBE (born 27 March 1961 in Leeds, West Yorkshire) is a British former rugby league player of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, and former head coach of Great Britain, St Helens and Doncaster.

As a player he played most of his games at either stand off or loose forward after starting out as a centre or winger. Over a period of nineteen years, he played for Bradford Northern, Wigan, Balmain, Western Suburbs and Leeds, winning the Man of Steel on a record three occasions, the Lance Todd Trophy once and was the winner of the Golden Boot in 1988. He was capped 34 times by Great Britain, and honoured by the Queen in January 1990 for his services to the game. In 2007, he was voted as the greatest British rugby league player of all time.

Club career

Bradford Northern

In 1978, Ellery Hanley signed for Bradford Northern from the junior club Corpus Christi. On 26 November 1978, he made his professional debut for Northern against Rochdale Hornets in a League Division One match. He helped his club to a 30–18 victory, by scoring a try on his debut. He had to wait his time before gaining a regular first team place but in the early 1980s he exploded onto the scene as one of the top try scoring non-wing players in the history of the game.