Karl Harrison: Preparing for strong competition

So here we are just at the start of a new season, and I’m sure that every player, coach, and director is full of optimism about the forthcoming season and their teams. We’ve all put together the best squads we can, we’ve done our pre-season work and now we’re ready for the off.

Looking at the Championship teams it seems that there’s likely to be strong competition right across the division. Last season’s champions Featherstone will still be the team to beat. Whilst they’ve lost a couple of players, they’ve recruited well and should be there or thereabouts at the end of the season.

Leigh too have picked up some quality players and in their pre-season friendlies, including the one against us, have looked to be a very strong team with a lot of skill. My old side Batley have a good coach in John Kear and will always be a hard team to beat especially at home. I’m sure that Ben Black will be looking to regain his past form especially when Halifax play them.

And then there’s also Sheffield who are always a hard team to beat, Dewsbury who are hard to play against at home, Swinton, who have quietly put together a good squad, and then of course there’s Keighley and York.

So a strong division, which will only be won by a strong team.

My own team Halifax are ready for the off despite what seems to be an injury epidemic. We have four or five players who have had to have surgery during the off-season, and we have had a couple of training injuries too.

However most of those who had off-season surgery are reasonably close to playing in the very near future, so hopefully there’ll still be lots of competition for places.

Realistically though Halifax are going through a lot of changes at the moment and there is no way that can happen overnight. It’s always difficult when there’s a change of coach and playing personnel to then get them all to gel to start on a winning season.

So our first weekend Northern Rail Cup game against Dewsbury Rams was an important win for us. In muddy conditions, the game was more like an old fashioned rugby league game with two packs of forwards trying to get on top. I was pleased with the way the team played, our forwards never took a backward step and the backs took just about every opening they had.

Dewsbury are a hard team to play against on their own pitch and so the result was doubly pleasing, a good win and a team playing well. I think everyone saw that on the day the 17 people we had out there worked extremely hard and showed a fantastic attitude.  And to be fair Dewsbury too contributed to what was a good game. Firstly, their backroom staff made sure that the pitch was playable, but their team on the pitch worked really hard. There were long periods, particularly in the first half, when they had us pinned down in our own 25.

This weekend we came up against Rochdale who despite not having played a competitive fixture gave a good display even though we beat them by 30 odd points.

So that sets us up nicely for the game against Featherstone this weekend. Featherstone, as I said above, are the team to beat so it will be a hard game no doubt, and whilst Championships aren’t decide in February it will be a test for both teams

One player who unfortunately wasn’t able to play at Dewsbury was Mick Nanyn. As you will have read in the press, Mick is unlikely to play this season after injuring his knee in training.

I think everyone at the club and hopefully throughout rugby league too, would join me in passing our best wishes on to Mick. We all hope he makes a full recovery as soon as possible.

Injuries like this are unfortunately part and parcel of rugby league, but it’s always gutting when a player picks up such an injury, obviously mostly for the player but it’s also upsetting when a key player in your plans is suddenly unavailable for selection over a long period.

But I guess that’s all part and parcel of rugby league and of being a coach. You just have to try to get the best team out on the pitch from those you have available.

But it’s a job I love, and I’ll be doing my best to make Halifax the team of the Division in 2012.