Billy Brickhill sad to leave Lions

01 May 2023

BILLY BRICKHILL SAD TO LEAVE LIONS

Unfortunately the club has to reluctantly announce that our popular forward Billy Brickhill is to leave Swinton Lions by mutual agreement.

Billy joined Swinton from Rochdale Hornets ahead of the 2019 season, and went on to make 27 appearances during that successful campaign. In fact he scored a try on his debut, although the Lions went down at Sheffield’s Olympic Legacy Park on 3 February of that year.

As we know Covid then intervened, but upon the resumption of play in 2021 Billy was a regular in the Swinton line-up. Sadly we would be relegated that year, but Billy remained with us to successfully assist our promotion back to the Championship at the end of last season. Unfortunately, however, from a personal perspective 2022 brought about a couple of serious injuries. First came a nasty leg injury at Keighley, and then later in the season as we homed in on promotion a shocking facial injury was sustained in the home win over Hunslet.

Since that painful day back in August of last year Billy has strived to regain full fitness, but in consultation with our medical team and coaching staff, a reluctant decision has been made to allow Billy the time and space to fully recover and consider his options moving forwards. It’s our intention to leave the door open for potential discussion at any point in the future, and in the meantime everyone at the club wishes him every success and happiness moving forwards.

In total Billy made 57 appearances for the Lions, scoring 7 tries.

Billy said, “I want to say a massive thanks to the Board and the staff for supporting me throughout my time at Swinton Lions. I’ve loved playing for the fans and the club for the past five seasons. I want to wish Allan, the staff and the players all the very best for the rest of this season.”

On behalf of the club, Head Coach Allan Coleman added, “Billy is the type of player who possibly doesn’t get the accolades he deserves. He always gave it 110% in training and 110% on the field.  He’s a big loss for the club because he’s capable of covering all areas of the field positional wise. We class him very much as one of our own. He’s made a decision which is the correct one for his family, but should he ever want to get involved in the future then hopefully it will be with us. From me and all the staff and players we wish Billy all the very best.”