T'Other Side: York Knights

      

Head Coach: Mark Applegarth

York started the season with Andrew Henderson as their head coach but a week ago he moved into a new role as ‘Head of Rugby Operations and Development and Mark Applegarth was appointed as the new head coach. He got off to a tremendous start last Sunday with a 40-0 win at Dewsbury.

He had been the head coach at Wakefield Trinity in 2023.

As a player he was a forward and was used at prop, second row and loose forward. He started out with Wakefield in 2004. In 2008 he moved to York and in 2010 he went to play for Temora Dragons in New South Wales and then Central Queensland Comets. Returning to England in 2012 he joined Batley and then re-joined York in 2014 and was there until he retired from playing at the end of 2016.

 

Captain: Liam Harris 

Liam Harris (halfback) made his first-grade début playing for York (on loan from Hull KR in 2017). In 2018 he signed for Doncaster but was transferred to Hull FC in May although he played further games for Doncaster on dual registration. He played one season at Halifax in 2021 and then joined York in 2022.

 

 

Loan signings and dual registration

 

York have a dual reg agreement with Newcastle Thunder which has seen Oli Field, Taylor Pemberton, Harvey Reynolds, AJ Towse and Brad Ward playing for Newcastle.

Jacob Gannon (prop or second row) is on loan from Leigh Leopards. Charlie Severs (centre or second row) joined York on loan from Hull FC but we are not sure if he is still there. Earlier in the season they had Tom Nicholson-Watton on loan from Leeds and Davy Litten and Franklin Pele on loan from Hull FC.

 

 

The Fev connection         

 

 

Fev signed Harry Dooler from Sharlston in January 1921 and he was at hooker in Fev’s very first professional match against Bradford in August. He went on to play 10 more games (all at hooker) for Fev before transferring to York in December. He later played for Wakefield Trinity.

Carl Hall (nowadays Chief Executive at Doncaster) who had played for the Junior Kiwis side came to England to join Doncaster. He went on to play for Hull KR, Bradford and Leeds before signing for Fev in 1998. During two seasons at Rovers he played 40 games at centre or wing and scored 14 tries. In 2002 he joined York and played 10 games, scoring two tries before they folded in mid-season.

Nigerian born Will Sharp (wing) was a great favourite with the Fev fans. One of those players who always seemed to play with a smile! He started out with London Broncos (then called Harlequins RL) in 2008. After three seasons there, he joined Hull FC for two seasons and then signed for Fev in 2013. During his three years at Fev he made 81 appearances and scored 60 tries including 5 hat tricks. There were many memorable tries, two that really stand out was a spectacular try against Sheffield in 2014 which clinched our fourth successive Championship League Leaders Shield and the one after the hooter had sounded against Batley in 2015 which (together with the conversion from Paul Sykes) saw Fev win 28-26 after we had been 26-4 with just six minutes to go!

After his time at Fev he spent four seasons at Halifax and then in his last year (2020) before retirement he played four games for York and scored two tries.