Big brother link over the years
Published Date:
22 October 2008
By Dave Fleming
It's nice to see Anthony Bowman follow brother Andrew into the Shay dressing room.
And hopefully into the first team as well.
This is a club with a recent tradition of signing brothers of course.
Academy coach Tony Fretwell once remarked a few years ago about the time when he combined his team's training with that of the club's scholars and the Grixes (Scott and Simon), Corcorans, (Ged and Wayne), Georges (Luke and Marcus), Greenwoods (Lee and Gareth), Garnetts (Luke and Sam) and Boothroyds (Andy and Mark) were all running around the pitch at the same time!
The intriguing point of course is what sort of team Halifax might have had at various times should they have managed to attract the brothers of players they already had....
Imagine for example if Dick Fairbank had persuaded his brothers to join him at Thrum Hall?
Or if Jerry Seuseu had turned up instead of Anthony in 2003 when Tony Anderson was desperately looking for a big prop to replace Brett Goldspink?
Talking of props, wouldn't it have been nice to have Daniel Heckenberg instead of brother Keith in 2006?
Or Adrian Morley instead of "their Chris" a couple of years earlier?
Would Tana Umaga have been as big a crowd pleaser for Fax as was Mike?
The only time we saw him was when 'Monkey' got married at the Holiday Inn at Clifton in 1997.
Back to 'TA,' would he rather have had Scott MacDougall playing for him in that relegation season or his more famous brothers Adam and Ben?
And as for all those Tuilagis.......
Perhaps the only surprise is that more brothers haven't turned up at Fax over the years.
John Schuster was one of 18 children, would you believe. Surely another one of those could play rugby?
Karl Harrison's younger sibling Mark had trials once upon a time but never got past the second team.
Morley junior nearly came to Halifax actually, along with another member of a big family in the shape of Nathan McAvoy.
They were playing youth football in Salford together when spotted by Halifax scout Dave Robinson.
Morley went to Leeds on the lure of a fulltime contract that Fax couldn't match, while McAvoy was put off by a traditional training night at Thrum Hall in February, 1994.
When he turned up for a runout that Tuesday there was a foot of snow on the pitch and it was starting to hailstone.
Can you blame him for not returning?
Roy Southernwood was the club's first signing after its reformation in August 1990.
A team had to be formed hastily so individual members of the board were given various transfer targets.
Alan Lightowlers was the man told to sign Southernwood from Castleford and for years had to put up with the unjust allegation that he had signed the wrong player and that his real task had been to recruit 'Jocky's' brother Graham.
The full article contains 493 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
22 October 2008 8:21 AM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Halifax