T'Other Side: York Knights

   

Head Coach: Mark Applegarth

 

Mark Applegarth took over as head coach at York last June, succeeding Andrew Henderson. When he arrived, York were in 12th place in the Championship and by the time the season ended they had risen to 4th place.

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 do not appear to have dual reg agreement in 2025 and they haven’t yet signed any players on loan although James Farrar and Mac Walsh (Newcastle), Jack Potter (Goole) and Jack Teanby (Keighley) have been out on loan. Mac Walsh hasn’t played for Newcastle since early April, so we guess he has returned to York.

 

The Fev connection         

Jim Bowden (hooker) played for York before joining Fev in April 1939. He continued to play for Rovers until October 1945 making a total of 84 appearances and just scoring one try. During the war, as was commonplace, he played for several other clubs as a ‘wartime guest player’.

 

Carl Dooler (halfback) was signed from Sharlston Rovers and made his Fev début in 1960 at the age of 17. For the first two seasons he didn’t get many opportunities to play for the first team as Don Fox was first choice. However, he began to make a big impression when chances came his way and became the first-choice scrumhalf in the 1964-65 season with Don Fox moving to centre or loose forward. Carl’s last game for Rovers was in August 1968 by which time he had played 199 games, scored 62 tries and kicked 15 goals. He was transferred to Hull Kingston Rovers and later played for both York and Batley.

In 1965 he scored 4 tries for Fev in a match against Widnes.

While he was at Fev her also played for Yorkshire and Great Britain (but not in a test match)

 

Danny Kirmond (winger) was 19 when he made his Fev début in 2005. Although still primarily a winger, during the 2006 season he filled in at second row for a few games, a sign of things to come. His last season for Fev was 2007 during which he became a prolific try scorer. He played 73 games for Fev and scored 41 tries with 25 of those coming in that 2007 season. He also scored 4 hat tricks, and in two of those games he bagged 4 tries,

In 2008 he was signed by Huddersfield and his main position became second row. In 2010 he had a loan spell with Wakefield Trinity and he was signed by Wakefield in 2012. He spent nine seasons at Wakefield and was their captain from the middle of 2012 until the end of 2018.

During the latter years of his time at Wakefield he suffered several injuries and finished his career with two seasons at York (2021-2022) where he made 43 appearances and scored 5 tries.

When Danny retired, he returned to Wakefield as assistant coach.