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The day Roger came to town
The Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May used to be a relatively quiet time in rugby league circles.
Season over, players on the beach, training not due to start for at least another month.
It was the time of year when you concentrated on the retained list, new contract offers and selling season tickets.
Until Super League and summer rugby that is.
May 1991 at Thrum Hall was a little more hectic, but it was still tranquil without the hustle and bustle of players around the place.
Promotion had been achieved and there was a buzz around the place; volunteers were busy applying coats of paint to the pavilion and adjacent areas and there were a couple of trenches across the pitch where cable for 30,000 worth of new floodlighting was being installed.
The main priority was that of appointing a new coach however.
Despite the job vacancy the board were busy recruiting players.
Dave Watson had been tracked down to a nightclub in Whitehaven and signed by director Mike Ellis with 25,000 going to Hull KR and negotiations would soon be opened with Wigan for Mark Preston.
But on the sunny Bank Holiday Monday itself a dapper little man turned up on the drive and parked outside the bowling club - which was busy at that time - shortly before six o'clock.
Despite that he managed to slip into the rugby ground unseen (no rumours ever circulated as to his presence) and make his way up the stairs from the dressing room corridor towards the board room.
Roger Millward had come for an interview.
He certainly had the right CV and was just the sort of man the club needed to establish some credibility with players after his glittering career as both player and coach.
When Millward eventually left in December 1992 there were some mutterings from certain players that some of his methods were outdated and old fashioned but he certainly seemed to be the bees knees at the time.
He was the first man to introduce training methods like plyometrics - even though the equipment consisted of canes and elasticated straps (the sort that you fasten your suitcases to a roof rack with) which were bought for cash from B & Q!
And he spent endless hours poring over videotapes.
He had good staff too with Allan Agar as his number two and Brendan Finn looking after the Alliance team.
When the club formed an Academy side Colin Dixon came along as coach.
The sad thing is that if you read his biography the whole Halifax period is covered in no more than two or three pages and basically laments what a terrible period it was in his life.
His main gripe is that players were all too keen to go to board members before him, leading to the undermining of his position.
That may have been the case towards the end of his reign but not in his honeymoon period 18 years ago this week.
The real problem was the level of board and spectator expectation; the club had been champions only five years previously and had won at Wembley subsequently.
What we would probably rate as satisfactory now was "failure" then....
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Weather for Halifax
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
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Cloudy
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