T'Other Side: Swinton Lions

    

Head Coach: Alan Kilshaw

 

Alan Kilshaw began his career as a head coach with Rochdale Hornets in 2016. In his first year there he won promotion with the from League One to the Championship. He spent two years with them in the Championship In July 2021 he took over from Gary Thornton as head coach at Hunslet. At the end of 2023 he left Hunslet and moved into the head coach position at Swinton.

In 2004 he played one game as a substitute for Swinton and then in 2006 he played 9 games for Blackpool Panthers, 5 at stand-off (including one against Fev), 1 at loose forward and 3 off the bench.

 

Captains: Mitch Cox & Rhys Williams

Mitch Cox was in the academy at Leigh Centurions before moving to Australia and spending 2014 and 2015 playing for Thirroul Butchers in New South Wales. In 2018 and 2019 he was a member of the Leigh Centurions first team squad playing at wing, centre or in the second row. He joined Swinton in 2020 and now plays regularly in the second row.

Rhys Williams, a winger, made his first team début with Crusaders RL, on loan from Warrington in 2011. He played for Warrington in 2012 and 2013 but also had loan spells in 2012 with Castleford, Salford and Swinton. He spent 2014 in Australia playing for Central Queensland Capras before joining London Broncos in 2015. Where he had five seasons making 154 appearances and scoring 100 tries. In 2020 he moved to Salford Red Devils and then joined Swinton for 2024.

He has played 33 times for Wales, more than anyone else.

 

Dual Registration and Loans

 

Swinton Lions are in the second successive year of a dual registration agreement with St. Helens. So far, in 2024 this has seen seven Saints players playing for Swinton. They are Jake Burns (hooker), Ben Davies (loose forward), Ciaran Nolan (hooker), Theerapol Ritson (winger), Sam Royle (second row), Noah Stephens (prop) and Jonny Vaughan (centre or second row).

 

Swinton used several loan players earlier this season. They are Louis Brogan (prop/loose forward) and Jacob Gannon (loose forward) both from Leigh, Matty Foster (second row) and Kai Morgan (scrumhalf) from Salford, Lucas Green (prop), Ben Hartill (hooker) and Daniel Okoro (prop) from Warrington and Denive Balmforth (hooker) from Hull FC.

 

 

The Fev Connection

Craig Dean was a halfback who made his professional début with Halifax in 1998. He played for Halifax for five seasons and during 1998 he played two games for Fev on loan. He joined Leigh Centurions in 1999 and then in 2002 became a Swinton player and made 30 appearances scoring 6 tries, kicking 5 goals and 3 drop goals. After the one season at Swinton he moved to Chorley Lynx. He didn’t play for any English professional clubs in 2004 and 2005 but in 2006 he played for Oldham and then Rochdale Hornets.

Frankie Halton (second row) started his career in 2019 with Swinton Lions and in two season for them he made 29 appearances and scored 5 tries. Fev thought that he had a lot of potential and he was signed in 2021 and had an excellent season playing 23 games and scoring 8 tries. He then moved to Super League with Hull Kingston Rovers and has been at Leigh Leopards for the last two years. He has played internationally for Ireland.

Paul Wood (prop) spent a large proportion of his career with Warrington where he made his professional début in 2000. In 2013 and 2014 he played for Swinton on dual reg and then in 2015 he was signed by Fev and played 15 games before retiring at the end of the season. However, in 2018 he came out of retirement briefly at the end of July and played 4 more games for Swinton. In total he played 7 games for the Lions.

During his time at Warrington he played for both England and Great Britain.