T'Other Side: Dewsbury Rams
Head Coach: Paul March
After steering Dewsbury to automatic
promotion to the Championship by virtue of finishing top in League One in 2023,
Liam Finn announced that he was moving to become head coach of Halifax
Panthers. In his place Dewsbury appointed Dale Ferguson as head coach for 2024
but then he resigned as head coach on May 1st but at the same time stated that
he wished to remain with Dewsbury as a player.
Following Dale Ferguson's resignation Dewsbury Have appointed Paul March, who had been assistant coach, as head coach until
the end of the season.
Paul March was player-coach at York
(2008 to 2009), then Hunslet (2009-2011). In 2012 he joined Keighley as a
player and assistant coach and then as head coach from 2013 to 2016. In 2019 he
came to Featherstone where he combined working for the Rovers Foundation with
various assistant coaching roles including taking charge of the team for their
victorious 1895 Cup Final at Wembley in 2021.
As a player, he was a tenacious
halfback and begun his first-grade career with Wakefield Trinity in 1997. In
2002 he moved to Huddersfield Giants and then back to Wakefield in 2007. The
rest of his playing career was as a player-coach (see above).
Captain: Jimmy Beckett
Jimmy Beckett (prop forward) was a Fev fan as a youngster and
started his career there making his début in 2019, a year which also saw him
have loan spells at Oldham and Keighley. In 2021 he had several loan spells at
Dewsbury and then joined them in 2022.
Dual Registration and Loans
Dewsbury have a dual registration
agreement with Huddersfield Giants which has seen Jack Bibby, Jack Billington
and Kieran Rush turning out for the Rams. Joe Hird has been on loan from
Sheffield Eagles since the beginning of the season and has been on the subs
bench in every game so far in 2024.
The Fev Connection
As well as their last three coaches and their current captain there are many players who have worn the colours of both Dewsbury and Fev.
Allan Agar
is a Fev legend although as a player he only appeared in 4 matches for Rovers.
He had signed for his local team as a teenager but, as a scrumhalf, his route
into the first team was largely blocked by the presence of Carl Dooler and
another very promising youngster in the form of Steve Nash. In 1970 he joined
Dewsbury where he made over 150 appearances. Allan left Dewsbury in 1975 and in
the rest of his career played for Hunslet, Hull KR, Wakefield and Carlisle.
In 1983, he was Featherstone’s coach in the
Challenge Cup victory against Hull and he was awarded that season’s Man of
Steel Trophy, the only time it has ever been given to a coach.
Andy Kain
made his first team début for Castleford in 2004 and then moved initially to
Widnes in 2007 and then on to Fev in June that same year. For Fev he made 210
appearances, scored 128 tries, and kicked 6 goals and one drop-goal for a tally
of 525 points. His try scoring was partly down to his ability to accelerate
rapidly from a standing start. He holds the Fev record for the most hat tricks
(11).
He left Fev after the 2014 season, had a single
year at Hunslet and finished his career with two seasons at Dewsbury (2015
-2016). At the Rams he played 38 games and scored 11 tries.
Arthur Street
(loose forward) played 106 times for Fev between 1940 and 1946, a total which
would have been much greater but for being with us mainly in wartime. He scored
25 tries which included a hat trick against York in 1943. He was at Dewsbury
from 1947 to 1951 and played 126 games for them which included the 1947
Championship Final when they lost 13-4 to Wigan but it is noteworthy that Wigan
scored 8 of their points whilst Street was off the field having an injury
attended to. In 1951 he moved to Doncaster for their first season as a
professional club and the following year finished his career with one season at
Wakefield.
After that he returned to Rovers in a coaching
capacity and led the Fev A team to the Yorkshire Senior Competition
Championship in the 1961/2 season.
Arthur’s brother, Bill, also played for both Fev
and Dewsbury.
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