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Cardiss back in town with Batley
It is unbelievably over 10 years since Wigan's Daryl Cardiss - who is due back at the Shay tomorrow with Batley - parked up behind the South Stand and walked the short distance to John Pendlebury's office.
The lad from Leeds had made the breakthrough into the first team at Central Park but, as his club made the move to the JJB Stadium, it was time for him to move on as well.
The two men were no strangers of course.
Pendlebury had been coach to the Warriors successful under 21 side before becoming coach at Thrum Hall in March 1997.
And, after coaching Halifax to the play-offs in 1998, he was changing his team to try and go that one stage further in the quest for honours.
"You're not successful until you've won some silverware," Pendlebury had famously commented after being congratulated on his team's feat.
A lot of discussion in the coach's office had centred on the new 40/20 rule which, he was convinced, meant that it would be essential in 1999 to have two classy kickers and two whippet fast lads on the wings plus a sprinter at fullback to cover the opposition's 40/20 efforts.
His new chief scout Derek Standish had spent much of the Autumn sniffing around Sale RU winger Steve Hanley who had played plenty of league as a youngster in Cumbria.
That came to nothing.
A multiple deal with Sheffield had seen Nick Pinkney move to the Shay to fill one wing position however.
And Pendlebury proposed to move Damian Gibson to the opposite flank and insert Cardiss at fullback to give him the pace he craved.
The kicking game would be left in the hands of Gavin Clinch and another new acquisition, Graham Holroyd.
There was another new signing with Wigan connections in the shape of Andy Craig to play in the centre.
All of this comes to mind as Cardiss may well be back at the Shay this week with Batley.
What of his Fax career?
Well, we all remember the glimpses of promise that he showed.
Like that exhilarating try he scored against Leeds at the start of the 2000 season where he showed a clean pair of heels.
And a lot of people remember some of the neat defensive work he used to display.
Or the cool concentration when showing another talent, goalkicking, when he landed a late penalty against Bradford in 2000 to draw the game.
Two things balanced all the good stuff though.
The first was the disappointment that he obviously felt when you spoke to him about the financial health of the club, a state of affairs that only became really apparent three or four months after he signed.
That led to the departure of his mentor Pendlebury, the man who had persuaded him to come.
The other was a knee injury.
He went down as though shot at Wakefield in June 2002 and missed the rest of that season.
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Weather for Halifax
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 0 C
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Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
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