SEDGLEY TIGERS
Club News
THE ONE CLUB MAN
Jon Newcombe takes a look at a concept in decline as he explores the Rugby scene for one club men. (pictured our very own Chris Wilkinson)
Professionalism has made the concept of a ‘one-club man’ seem as outdated as the term ‘wing-forward’ and the idea that muddy mounds can double up as place-kicking tees
Obviously there are still some examples where players have spurned bigger pay packets and the lure of rich pickings elsewhere to stay loyal to their one and only club.
People like James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester) and Joe Worsley (Wasps) fall into such a category. But they are the exception rather than the rule, certainly in the Premiership and increasingly so in the Championship with full-time status becoming more prevalent in English rugby’s second tier.
Indeed, it was only a few weeks ago in The Rugby Paper that Doncaster boss Brett Davey bemoaned the lack of loyalty in the game having lost a handful of the players he had helped nurture the season before to club’s no higher up the league ladder than the Knights; the implication being that money was the main motivating factor in these individuals deciding to up sticks and move on.
One player who has never been tempted to do likewise is Dave Jackson, a Nottingham man through and through. The wing/full-back came through the club’s mini and junior section to become a first team favourite.
On Monday, Jackson celebrated the 11th anniversary of his debut for the club, during which time he has clocked up a total of 281 appearances, scoring 91 tries in the process. Jackson told me recently that he never once though about leaving the Green & Whites despite the financial problems that dogged the club until recently.
Jackson would have notched his triple century by now had it not been for a spate of injuries – a shoulder problem keeping him sidelined as I write.
Fylde fly-half Richard Kenyon passed the 250 game mark for his club the other day having put in 12 years of loyal service for the Lancastrians. He is still going strong and playing an invaluable role as ever in Fylde’s push for a second promotion in as many years.
Ed Smithies, captain of Harrogate and a player at the North Yorkshire club man and boy, went even better a fortnight ago when he reached the 300-game milestone in the local derby against Otley. Fittingly, the full-back crowned the occasion with a try – his 126th in the club’s red, black and amber hoops – in what was a man-of-the-match performance.
I’m told that he is one of only seven people to have achieved the 300-game milestone in National League rugby.
One man who can claim an even more impressive record – and is still playing at the age of 36 (18 years after his debut) – is Kendal prop/back rower Billy Coxon. Coxon made his 400th appearance for the Cumbrian club on Saturday when he packed down against Bromsgrove. Legend has it that Sedgley Park once tried to tempt him away from Mint Bridge, but the locally born player turned down the approach – and any subsequent thoughts of retirement – to break new ground for longevity of service.
Others scattered throughout the National Leagues will have enjoyed similarly loyal careers, but to have two players reach the 300-game and 400-game milestone within the past fortnight is quite exceptional.
Obviously there are still some examples where players have spurned bigger pay packets and the lure of rich pickings elsewhere to stay loyal to their one and only club.
People like James Simpson-Daniel (Gloucester) and Joe Worsley (Wasps) fall into such a category. But they are the exception rather than the rule, certainly in the Premiership and increasingly so in the Championship with full-time status becoming more prevalent in English rugby’s second tier.
Indeed, it was only a few weeks ago in The Rugby Paper that Doncaster boss Brett Davey bemoaned the lack of loyalty in the game having lost a handful of the players he had helped nurture the season before to club’s no higher up the league ladder than the Knights; the implication being that money was the main motivating factor in these individuals deciding to up sticks and move on.
One player who has never been tempted to do likewise is Dave Jackson, a Nottingham man through and through. The wing/full-back came through the club’s mini and junior section to become a first team favourite.
On Monday, Jackson celebrated the 11th anniversary of his debut for the club, during which time he has clocked up a total of 281 appearances, scoring 91 tries in the process. Jackson told me recently that he never once though about leaving the Green & Whites despite the financial problems that dogged the club until recently.
Jackson would have notched his triple century by now had it not been for a spate of injuries – a shoulder problem keeping him sidelined as I write.
Fylde fly-half Richard Kenyon passed the 250 game mark for his club the other day having put in 12 years of loyal service for the Lancastrians. He is still going strong and playing an invaluable role as ever in Fylde’s push for a second promotion in as many years.
Ed Smithies, captain of Harrogate and a player at the North Yorkshire club man and boy, went even better a fortnight ago when he reached the 300-game milestone in the local derby against Otley. Fittingly, the full-back crowned the occasion with a try – his 126th in the club’s red, black and amber hoops – in what was a man-of-the-match performance.
I’m told that he is one of only seven people to have achieved the 300-game milestone in National League rugby.
One man who can claim an even more impressive record – and is still playing at the age of 36 (18 years after his debut) – is Kendal prop/back rower Billy Coxon. Coxon made his 400th appearance for the Cumbrian club on Saturday when he packed down against Bromsgrove. Legend has it that Sedgley Park once tried to tempt him away from Mint Bridge, but the locally born player turned down the approach – and any subsequent thoughts of retirement – to break new ground for longevity of service.
Others scattered throughout the National Leagues will have enjoyed similarly loyal careers, but to have two players reach the 300-game and 400-game milestone within the past fortnight is quite exceptional.
Have you seen these?
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Were there really so many "1 club" men back in the day? certainly no more than these days, its a bit a bit of a myth I think. I think it just looks like there are less these days as often the local players who stay at a club for their whole career are pushed into the lower teams by players moving to the area to play for the 1s.
Can the Doncaster coach really be upset that players aren't loyal to the club when the club has released many players over the years who are surplus to requirements, is loyalty not a 2 way thing?
I think the most impressive displays of loyalty are from players like Kenyon etc who could have moved on to big offers when their club were down the leagues but stayed and helped out.
Oxo (4 clubs!)
It is difficult to compare different eras, Oxo. Thirty years ago, at the level Sedgley were at then, the one-club man was the norm. Quite a few of these blokes still turn up every Saturday to watch you lot.
If you got a new player back then, it was someone who had moved into the area for reasons of work; the game itself was strictly amateur, at least at our level.
If a player was ambitious in a rugby sense he was compelled to move to a senior club which, in this area, meant Broughton Park or Sale. Tony Neary was the best known of several Broughton Park Internationalists, and he played for them throughout his career, as far as I know, from Colts age.
Bill Beaumont stayed at Fylde and Wade Dooley pretty well stayed at Hoppers, apart from a short spell at Fylde under pressure from the England selectors. There are many other examples of players who played for only one senior club, though they may have actually started at a club like Sedgley Park.
In those days there was a route to the top, via the County Championship, which was strong in the North. The problem was that you had no chance of getting picked for Lancashire if you played for Sedgley, however good you might be. It was a sort of senior clubs’ mafia, to grab the riches for themselves.
The England grand-slam winning side of 1980 was based on players from the North, and in particular from the North of England XV that had beaten the All Blacks at Otley. I was there! Playing in the centre for the North that day was Tony Bond, who had played for Sedgley Colts, one of the few to leave us for our higher profile neighbours.
I am not claiming players were more loyal in those days. Simply that there was no point in moving clubs. England were captained in the first ever Rugby World Cup (1987) by Mike Harrison from Wakefield. There were two players from Fylde, including Dooley, two from Orrell, and one from Headingley. The selection net was cast much wider back then.
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