Five years is a long time in RL...
Published Date:
23 July 2008
By Dave Fleming
There were some contrasting emotions in the Halifax dressing room after the game on Sunday.
Was it a point won or a point lost?
One thing is for sure, it was a much happier weekend for Lee Greenwood and Sean Penkywicz than the corresponding one five years ago.
They had spent that particular Saturday and Sunday getting over a heavy defeat at Headingley which had established a Super League record which still stands.
Eighteen straight defeats for Tony Anderson's men. And yet the team didn't look too understrength, especially in the backs.
It started Daryl Cardiss, Greenwood, Stuart Donlan, Ryan Clayton, Andrew Frew, Dane Dorahy, Penkywicz, Neil Harmon, Johnny Lawless, Chris Birchall, Heath Cruckshank, Jaymes Chapman and Marty Moana with Andy Hobson, John Hill, Chris Maye and Andrew Brocklehurst sitting on the bench at the kick-off.
A lot of the experience in the club was slowly but surely leaving though.
Shayne McMenemy had already upped sticks and by the end of the month Moana would have moved onto Salford.
And Danny Halliwell was set to join Leigh after being absent from the club since a defeat at Wigan eight weeks previously whilst Cardiss was also getting restless, not for the first time in his Halifax career.
Before the end of August Frew and Dorahy would have headed to the airport as well, following Anthony Seuseu through the departure lounge.
Admittedly Scott MacDougall had turned up from Gateshead to bolster the thinning overseas contingent - already shorn of Lee Finnerty and his clumsy tackling technique through a hefty suspension - but his was to be a brief stay.
To describe him as eccentric was the understatement of the season!
As the season went into freefall worse was to come though as untried youngsters came in to try and fill the gaps.
Simon Grix had already made his bow and before the end of the year Byron Smith, Wayne Corcoran, Brad Attwood and Danny Jones would all have made debuts and Rikki Sheriffe would have come on loan from Huddersfield.
July was a pretty horrific month amidst all the turmoil though.
Bradford had come to the Shay and scored 60 points before that trip to Leeds and it got worse the following week when Warrington scored 66 at Wilderspool.
It was a happier time for another current first teamer, James Haley.
He played in the Academy team which had whipped St Helens at Ovenden Park on the Saturday afternoon.
Alongside him were the likes of Joe Hirst, Andy Boothroyd, Luke Simeunovich, Jode Sheriffe, Wayne Corcoran and Scott Law, all of whom went onto play first team football at the Shay.
The Saints side included Ian Hardman, who featured for Widnes on Sunday, plus a young man called James Roby - on the wing!
The full article contains 467 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
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Last Updated:
23 July 2008 8:30 AM
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Source:
n/a
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Location:
Halifax