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What a good team that was...
It is a team that tends to trip off the tongue of Halifax fans of the early 1990's.
The team that basically played together for a couple of seasons after promotion in 1991.
And which, to be fair, won more than it's share of matches, especially at Thrum Hall. Just frustratingly inconsistent.
They'd even run the mighty Wigan close in the challenge cup quarter final a few weeks previously.
So it was when Widnes, this week's visitors to the Shay, turned up on Sunday 4th April 1993.
Fax cruised to a 40-6 victory thanks to tries from Graeme Hallas, Greg Austin, Mark Preston, Paul Bishop (2), Gary Lord and Gary Divorty in front of 6011 fans.
Andrew Hardcastle recorded the team as being David Cooper, John Bentley, Hallas, Austin, Preston, Mark Bailey, Bishop, Karl Harrison, Roy Southernwood, Mike McLean, Lord, Mark Perrett and Divorty with the dugout being filled (possibly literally) by Adam Fogerty and Brendan Hill.
John Fieldhouse, Peter Bell, Henry Sharp, Chris Robinson and Warren Wilson were the other regulars missing for whatever reason that afternoon and Brent Stewart had had to go back home to New Zealand as part of his agreement with their governing body.
But, although it had been a relatively settled side, all that was to change dramatically over the course of the next few weeks.
We didn't know at the time that it would be Austin's final game for Halifax after failing to agree a new deal.
That Brendan Hill, such a hero of the Scratchin' Shed at the turn of the decade, would have left him with him for Keighley.
Or that Fogerty would have exercised his "free agent" status and signed for St Helens.
Or that McLean would also disappear to run the family vineyard up in Queensland.
His was a bizarre signing.
He had played Origin for his state but his agent managed to forget to say that he'd had a knee reconstruction since then...he did improve after Christmas though.
We hadn't realised either how Malcolm Reilly, newly appointed in January, would want to bring in his own gang.
Men like John Schuster, Michael Hagan (after the pursuit for Nigel Wright failed), Michael Jackson, Steve Hampson, Steve Lay, David Boyd, Paul Anderson and Lee Harland.
After this match against Widnes the team slowly started to disintegrate.
Perhaps it had just run out of steam.
And Tony Gartland had promised Reilly funds when he took the job.
An unprecedented run of injuries showed the lack of strength in depth to the squad and there were home and away defeats to Bradford over Easter and a whipping at Central Park.
That left a play-off at St Helens of all places where Divorty had to turn out at stand-off and youngsters Damieon Pickles and Roy Litherland had to play at centre.
It wasn't the best night for the latter who broke his leg and never played for the club again.
But that match against Widnes, 16 years ago this weekend was the last time that we saw messrs Bentley, Austin and Preston all in the same Halifax team together.....
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Saturday 11 February 2012
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