Championship is as tough as we’ve seen it, says boss Grix

Halifax Panthers boss Simon Grix believes this year’s Championship season is the most competitive in years as his men prepare for the visit of Whitehaven.

The 36-year-old made the comments after his side ended their four-match losing run (across all competitions) with a commanding 42-6 win away at Workington last Sunday.

That victory was just the second of the season for the Panthers, who leapfrogged Whitehaven into tenth in the table.

“The Championship gets harder every year,” said Grix. “I think this year is as hard as we’ve seen it, in terms of the quality of competition, the quality of teams up and down the league - from spot one all the way down.

“There’s going to be games which surprise people. There’s going to be points picked off that you wouldn’t expect, because it is that competitive.

“2016 was the first season I came back [to Halifax]. I didn’t play a big part in it, but there were probably half a dozen tough games. The rest were quite steady. I think generally, year on year, that’s built to where now every game is quite a difficult fixture. You can’t really pick any and say ‘oh, that’s easy’. That was a good physical game [against Workington]. The scoreline obviously suggests we were dominant - and we were however it was a good physical contest.

“I think we’ll be encouraged by what we’ve done, but we won’t get ahead of ourselves. It’s two points on the board. We’ll move on and really look at how we go about getting the next two.”

Halifax have endured a tough start to the season having recorded just two wins from six games. However, those who followed the previous campaign will refrain from reaching for the panic button just yet.

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