Roller coaster ride to Devils for Brierley
FEW have experienced the ups and downs rugby league can deliver quite like Ryan Brierley.
The 29-year-old has seen plenty during his career. Released as a teenager by Castleford, he enjoyed an incredibly successful spell at Leigh Centurions before an ugly exit and an eventual move to Super League.
His next move took him to League 1, then the Championship, back to Leigh, a return to Super League with Hull KR and then a third spell with the Leythers, where he became the club’s second-greatest try-scorer of all time but ultimately suffered relegation.
But now he’s back in Super League again, this time with Salford, the club he grew up supporting as a boy and a club that saw him fall in love with the game.
It’s been quite the ride for the Preston native, but one that will now continue with the fairytale move at his boyhood club.
“It’s a dream move and one I’ve always thought would happen,” he said. “Everyone knows I have a really strong connection to the people and fans at Leigh and nobody was as disappointed as I was to see them go down, I was really happy at the club and I owe them a lot for what they’ve done for me.
“But at this stage of my career I feel like I need to be playing in Super League and Salford is a great place for me to do that, it’s a club that I have a lot of history with and my dad is a massive Salford fan to this day, so he’s absolutely delighted, he was completely made up when I told him.”
Last year was arguably the best of Brierley’s career as he made a permanent transition from halfback to fullback. Despite playing for Super League’s basement club, he ended the season as the competition’s highest try-scoring fullback, scoring ten tries in 17 appearances.
It was a big move for Brierley, who had tried and failed to make to make that move earlier in his career.
“When I was at Huddersfield I was brought in and used at fullback but to be honest, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
“I just didn’t understand it, I remember making my debut against Wakefield there and I was apologising to the boys because I was getting so many things wrong.
“But I’d never been taught how to play the position, I owe a lot to John Duffy, he pulled me in last pre-season and said he wanted me to be his fullback and I spent the full pre-season learning about the role and what it requires and he spent a lot of time educating me too.
“I studied a lot of great fullbacks, I watched a lot of Sam Tomkins, I spent hours watching his clips to see what I could learn and add to my game. Don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere near as good as Sam, he’s absolutely world class but I was able to pick up a lot of things he was doing and try add them to my game.
“I got as fit as I’ve ever been and I think I had a good season. As I said earlier, I’m devastated at how the season went for us as a team, I really hope Leigh can come back up next season.”
A move to Salford gives Brierley time to prove himself in Super League once again, but also give him an opportunity to improve once more.
“I can’t wait,” he said.
“The opportunity to play for your boyhood club is always going to be a privilege and emotional but I’m nowhere near the finished package, there’s a lot more I can improve in my game too.
“Being able to train and play with international players like Dan Sarginson and Kallum Watkins is going to be massive for me and I just want to soak up their knowledge and anything they can pass on to help me and my game. They’ve done everything in the game so it’s going to be great playing with players like that.”