Fax transformed in last month, says Adam
Fit-again Halifax forward Adam Robinson says the team he returned to against London on Saturday night is transformed from the one he last played in at Blackpool a month ago. Robinson made a surprise return to action in Saturday night’s 46-22 trouncing of the Broncos, just a month after tearing his calf muscle in the Summer Bash defeat by Bradford Bulls, an injury that was expected to keep him out for eight weeks.
And the prop or back rower was struck by the form and confidence of a side that will go into Sunday’s Shay homecoming against third-placed Sheffield Eagles on the back of five successive on-the-road wins.
“From when I last played, in the game against Bradford, and now there is just a massive difference,” said Robinson.
“You can feel it when you are on the field, it’s difficult to pinpoint, but it’s just a different feeling in the team.
“I think it’s just confidence; we’ve been blowing teams away over the last few weeks, teams that are around us in the league, and we’re feeding off that energy now.
“They’ve all been what you’d call ‘must win’ games, just as Saturday’s is, but we’re ticking along nicely at the moment.
“There’s still a long way to go, but there’s still a lot of improvement in the side too.
“We had a 15 minute spell against London where we lost our way a little bit, so we’ll look to tidy that up this week.
“For me, it was just good to get back out there again and Richard (Marshall) showed a lot of faith in me because I’d only trained a couple of times.
“When I limped off against Bradford they thought I would be eight weeks and I had a scan that confirmed that.
“It never felt that bad, so I thought I might get back quicker, but I’m not sure I thought I could do it in four.”
Robinson is in his fourth season with Fax after arriving from Batley with former boss Karl Harrison, but with the end of his current deal looming he is aware he needs to do enough to earn a new contract under Marshall’s coaching.
“The way Rich coaches, I don’t think anyone really feels they are comfortable or safe and that makes you hungrier and train harder,” said Robinson.
“I think the big difference is the amount of scrutiny your performances are under.
“If you were making the same mistakes week after week, I don’t think you’d be in the team.”
Few people are more closely linked to Sheffield than Mark Aston so that it is sometimes forgotten that he had a short period at Featherstone Rovers.
His Eagles side are at the Shay this Sunday but 21 years ago, in July 1994, Malcolm Reilly was trying to prise him away from Post Office Road to Thrum Hall.
Reilly had a frantic period at the start of the month, signing Grant Anderson from Castleford and Paul Moriarty from Widnes.
In those days playing contracts ended on the 30th June. That didn’t stop clubs from signing players earlier and putting the documentation “in the safe”.
You therefore used to get a rash of signings on the 1st July. Halifax registered Anderson on that date and Cas went mad, accusing them of poaching. By the same dint though Oldham registered Gary Lord on the same day after he rejected a contract at Fax!
And Featherstone registered Aston on July 1st 1994!
Reilly’s main target that summer was a scrum-half to replace Paul Bishop. Whether or not “Bish’s” decision to return to Australia was inspired by a newspaper story that he wasn’t going to be offered a new deal at Thrum Hall is unknown.
Bobbie Goulding was the first name on Reilly’s shopping list. When that didn’t happen Plan B was to go for Mike Ford. Plan C was Aston. Even though he had just moved from Sheffield to Featherstone, Reilly offered to buy him before he had pulled a shirt on for Rovers...