The evening was billed as a ‘Farewell to Stevo’ who leaves his post at Sky Sports after the close of the 2016 Super League season. A position he has held for an impressive 26 years.

Stevenson will return to Australia, where he played for five years at NRL side Penrith Panthers before working in the media.

Stevo moved to Penrith after a successful career in England. He won the championship with his home town team in Dewsbury and scored the winning try in the 1972 World Cup final against Australia.

Stevo always planned to retire when he started to reach the age of 70, and with his 70th birthday coming up in January he feels he is retiring at the right time.

He said: “I always said that when I got on the verge of 70 that I would retire. It is time for the young kids to take over, I have had a good trot.

28 years in television, 10 years in radio and the media, I suppose for many people I have been involved for 40 odd years in the media. I have enjoyed every minute it’s been fantastic. Whether you like it or not you can’t keep going on forever, even when I was playing I felt myself losing that edge, so I retired.”

Stevo has enjoyed every minute off his broadcasting career and reflected on some fantastic moments he was witness to.

He said: “There was a time down in Australia when GB played Australia in the second test down in Melbourne and we won that game, we won it quite convincingly. That’s a pretty good highlight.

Maybe the game that stands out more than anything, the famous or infamous moment, depending what way you want to look at it. St Helens with only seconds remaining on the clock came from 10 metres away from their own line and finished with Chris Joynt scoring the try. When it looked like Bradford were going on to Old Trafford.

There have been many many games but far too many for me to remember.”

As Shaw Cross Sharks Club President Stevo takes great pride in the success that goes on at the club. With eight under 16’s from Sharks signing professional contracts in the past number of weeks, Stevo had some advice for those moving to academy sides next season.

He said: “You have to be confident, if you are playing any sport you have to learn. You have got to work hard on the things you don’t do well.

If you can’t tackle with your left shoulder then work hard on that. If you can’t pass from left to right, which quite a lot of players can’t, work on that. All those things where there is a bit of negativity to it, that’s where you have to practice.

You’ll get disappointments. You have got to work hard at it, no one is going to give it to you.”

Stevo feels that too many players forget their junior development but promises he will never forget his days at Shaw Cross.

He said: “I will never forget what this club offered to me. I was a bit of a wayward lad, 14/15 years of age I thought I knew everything but I didn’t. But this club gave me the opportunity not only to act like a human being, but a good human being.

To be frank, I wasn’t all that bloody good at it. But slowly and surely I got good. The coach was a guy called David Bradshaw, he always said to me I don’t know what it is about you but I think you’ll make it.”

Despite achieving so much in his playing and broadcasting career, Stevo has one moment that he will always remember with the most fondness.

He said: “Probably one of the greatest honours I have achieved, I have won the championship with Dewsbury captained my home team. Scored the winning try in the world cup final that’s great, but the one thing I look back on with so much pride is that they actually made me the president of this club. And that to me is probably one of my biggest honours.”