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Matty Chrimes joins Lions for 2024!

Former Eagles winger is latest Swinton recruit!

Our latest new recruit here at Swinton Lions is 25 years old outside-back Matty Chrimes, who joins us after enjoying an impressive spell with Sheffield Eagles. He is a former England Student International, and has previously seen action with both Hunslet and Doncaster.

Lions’ Head Coach, Alan Kilshaw, said, “Matty can cover all the positions in the outside backs and is a very good try scorer. He has kicked on from his experiences in League 1 and has performed consistently well in the Championship for Sheffield over the past two seasons. He is quick and has really good game sense, as well as being extremely dedicated and an excellent trainer. Matty is exactly the type of player that we want to be working with and bringing to the club.”

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2024 Signing! – COLE OAKLEY

Big middle Cole Oakley joins the Lions!

We are delighted to reveal that our first brand new recruitment ahead of the 2024 season is Cole Oakley!

Cole, who will turn 23 years old later this month, has been at Halifax Panthers since 2021. He previously came through the ranks at Warrington and made his Super League debut with the Wolves as a youngster back in 2020.

Whilst on the fringes of the Halifax first team he has spent loan periods at Newcastle Thunder, Hunslet and Keighley, and most recently at North Wales Crusaders who he helped inspire to the recent League 1 play-off final.

Cole is a powerful 6 foot tall middle, and will certainly add strength to the Lions’ pack in 2024.

Head Coach Alan Kilshaw said, “Cole has been in very good systems at Warrington Wolves and Halifax and has really kicked on with loan spells at Keighley and Crusaders this season. He is powerful and athletic, and a player who is dedicated to being the best he can possibly be. We are really pleased he will be a Lion in 2024!”

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BOARD STATEMENT

Board thanks fans and volunteers & states significant challenges are ahead

The Board at Swinton Lions views with great sadness the decisions taken at London Skolars and Newcastle Thunder to withdraw from RFL ahead of the 2024 season.

Skolars and Thunders are two clubs with whom we have previously enjoyed a fantastic relationship, and who have always shown Swinton Lions nothing but respect and warm hospitality. We hope both clubs ultimately find a way forward which keeps rugby league alive in their communities.

Something clearly needs to be done to assist clubs in League 1, primarily by way of creating a meaningful and competitive competition. No doubt over the coming days various ideas will be put forward, and we are fully prepared to back whatever is ultimately overwhelmingly recommended as the best solution for the wider sport – whatever format that entails. But we also feel strongly that having worked incredibly hard to get out of League 1, and then worked incredibly hard again to stay in the Championship, it is not an unreasonable position to take to say that we feel we have earned the right to compete in the second tier.

Referring back to those recent club casualties, from our perspective, and from the perspective of many if not all of our club colleagues outside of Super League, the fate befalling Thunder and Skolars certainly helps us to refocus on our own present financial circumstances and future strategic plans.

Against a background of covid recovery, a cost of living crisis, rising costs, modest match day attendances, a cataclysmic reduction in central funding and other significant challenges, we at Swinton Lions have nevertheless managed to maintain steady progress. That said we also firmly believe that the Board and the club have not received the credit we deserve for this progress from some quarters.

Off the field too we have made incredible progress, and our Foundation is fast becoming one of the most respected across the sport. We are particularly proud of the emergence of our Talent Pathway Programme and our Lionesses, plus we have plans soon to launch a Lions Wheelchair Team. This aside from all the other fantastic development work taking part in our communities under Damian, Gareth, Mark, Dougie, Finn, Steve Thirkell and many others.

Commercially too we are making some great progress, as can be seen through the success of our monthly business networking meetings, many of which have included a fun element, as those of you attending our recent gathering at The Salford Rum Company will testify! Contact the club if you’d like to join us at future events.

On the field, following our relegation in 2021 we immediately gained promotion back to the Championship, and despite every bookmaker, and plenty of our own followers, predicting a swift and immediate return to League 1, we confounded everyone by finishing 10th off the back of nine victories – defeating Toulouse, Sheffield, Widnes, Batley and Halifax amongst others along the way.

Looking back over the past three years, as a Board we feel justified in claiming that on every single occasion when we have had to make a major strategic decision, we have been proven right. And the pressure is certainly greater when you’re in the position of having to make those decisions in the first place, rather than being sat on the outside offering keyboard advice, criticism, or abuse.

The sport of Rugby League is an important juncture in its history, but at Swinton Lions we are determined to maintain an optimistic outlook. In many respects the sport is having to re-set. It’s very early days for IMG and RL Commercial, but the responsibility for the future prosperity of the sport ultimately lies upon all of our shoulders, including fans of the sport. To that end, we as a club would urge all Lions fans to support the upcoming Test series against Tonga.

Sometimes as a Board we receive criticism which is fair and objective, and this was certainly apparent through the results of the recent supporter survey (details of which will be shared towards the end of this month). For example, we will certainly endeavour to improve on our communications, and also we are already bringing in help to assist with our social media output. On the flip side, as a Board we will not hesitate to distance ourselves from sarcasm and abuse. We are not here to be coconuts on a shy, we are to provide you with a rugby league club to follow, and to be as successful as we can possibly be.

But most of all we all need Swinton fans need to support the Lions by whatever means possible. The Board is busting a gut for this club, but without supporters we are wasting our time, and believe us there is no one queueing up behind to take over. For those who have bought a season ticket thank you, but that said our sales to date have been extremely disappointing. We have pinned prices to 2023 levels so there are now significant savings to be made against what will be increased match day admission prices. If you sponsored a player last season we will shortly be asking if you’d like to renew for 2024 – please do so if you can.

Hopefully you’ve been impressed with our player retention, and hopefully you’ll soon be further enthused by our brand new player announcements, which we will begin to release from later today.

In summary, Swinton Lions RLFC, especially given the turbulence of the last 32 years, is a fantastic story of love and hope and aspiration. A story of a famous old club’s determination to succeed despite whatever is thrown at us. Everywhere we go we get asked “How do you do it?”, and we just need to say, “We are Swinton Lions, we are a very special club”. So to all loyal fans of The Lions, and all of our volunteers, both well-established and more recent, we thank you sincerely for all of your support.

News

Jordan Case completes our retention!

Jordan Case completes our retention!

We are very pleased to confirm that our experienced forward Jordan Case has signed again with the Lions for 2024, and becomes the 14th and final player to be retained from our 2023 squad.

Jordan came to Swinton ahead of the 2022 campaign and contributed an impressive nine tries from the forwards in 19 appearances, as we successfully gained promotion to the Championship.

In 2023 Jordan made another 24 appearances, mostly as an impact player off the bench, but didn’t add to his tries scored tally. However, his dogged approach and clever offload game were regular features of his consistent performances, and we are therefore delighted that Jordan has signed for another year at Heywood Road.

Jordan said, “I’m really pleased to be going into my third season with the Lions. Staying in the championship last year was massive for the club and hopefully we can build on that this coming season. The group of lads and environment we created last year was one of the best I’ve ever been involved in. Having played under Alan Kilshaw a few years back, I’m sure he will get the very best out of the squad we have for 2024.” 

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Player of Year Jordan Gibson signs again!

Player of Year Jordan Gibson signs again!

Jordan came to our attention whilst playing against us for North Wales Crusaders during our 2022 promotion campaign, and we were then delighted to secure his services at the start of last season.

Our confidence in Jordan’s abilities was soon justified, and he went on to secure the fans’ Player of the Year, the Players’ Player of the Year, and the Man of Steel trophies at our end of season awards ceremony.

He played 26 times in 2023, the most for any Swinton player, scoring four tries, eight goals and three drop-goals. Two of those tries, plus a magnificent drop-goal, helped secure a critical win over Whitehaven in our penultimate match of the season.

Jordan said, “I am pleased to have signed for another year at Swinton Lions. With a good few of the lads staying we have a solid foundation at the club. I’m also excited at the new lads coming in and what they will bring to our team. After a successful year personally, and on the whole as a team, our aim is to do even better next year. I’m confident we can do that, and I’m looking forward to seeing you all back at Heywood Road in 2024!”

News

Andy Badrock looks forward to another great year!

Andy Badrock looks forward to another great year!

Andrew Badrock came to us from Leigh Miners Rangers ahead of the 2023 season, but settled into Championship rugby league from the off!

In fact Andy scored in his first four appearances in a Lions’ shirt, to equal an all-time record for a Swinton debutant. He went on to finish the campaign on seven tries from 25 appearances, a total which left him as the club’s leading try scorer for the season.

Having also won both the club’s Young Player of the Year award, as well as the try of the season for his effort at Batley, Andy can look back on a fantastic first season in professional rugby league!

Andy confirmed, “I’ve really enjoyed my first year with Swinton. It’s a great club with a strong fan base and I’m really looking forward to another good year with the team.”

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Swinton confirm six more lions not retained

Lions departing – confirmed

The club would like to extend its thanks to six more departing Lions, and acknowledge their contribution to Swinton over the past 12 months.

 

Full-back or half-back Joe Lowe found himself with limited opportunities in 2023, but he did notch up eight appearances and scored one try, and without doubt very much played his part in our Championship survival.

Wing man Calum Hughes made just one senior appearance, that coming in our defeat at Barrow in the Challenge Cup. Calum then sustained a nasty injury playing on DR with Salford reserves, and we wish him all the best with his continuing recovery.

Myles Dalton-Harrop was desperately unfortunate to sustain a serious injury at St Helens in our pre-season friendly, but his return to fitness came just too late although he was named 18th man for our final run-in.

Another player very unlucky with injuries was half-back Jonny Openshaw, who like Myles was unable to earn an outing in a competitive match for the Lions. Unfortunately his injury situation was aggravated whilst playing for Salford reserves on DR.

Welsh international half-back Ollie Olds also struggled with injuries, although he did play in eight games, three of which were won. In one of those victories, at Batley, Ollie scored his only Lions try.

Also we have parted company with Scott Parnaby, who made four appearances from the bench during the course of the campaign. These appearances included one during our critical home win over Keighley in August.

We wish all six lads all the very best in their future careers, and acknowledge their dedication to Swinton Lions during their time at the club.

News

‘Lippy’ says consistency is the aim for 2024!

‘Lippy’ says consistency is the aim for 2024!

Unfortunately our popular winger Richard Lepori sustained a serious injury playing for Italy during the World Cup last autumn, and although we knew he would likely miss the majority of the 2023 season we wanted to keep him involved because he is such an important, influential and experienced member of the Swinton squad.

Now back to full fitness, ‘Lippy’ will be looking forward to much more game time in 2024, and will want to add significantly to his 43 Lions appearances and 20 club tries to date.

Richard said, “I’m excited to stay at Swinton for another year. I was gutted getting injured in the World Cup and missing most of last season, but it was good to finish the season with the lads. We’ve got a great group and the club has always been good to me. 

 “I’m looking forward to working hard and helping us become a more consistent team pushing up the league in 2024.”

 

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‘We can push on again’ – Jake Spedding signs for 2024

‘We can push on again’ – Jake Spedding signs for 2024

A Pridebuilder sponsored signing ahead of the 2023 season, Jake proved to be a consistent performer throughout our recent Championship campaign.

He played mainly at centre, but also added strength on the wing whenever called upon. Jake also scored important tries in pivotal wins over Toulouse at home and against Keighley at Cougar Park.

Jake said, “I’m made up to have re-signed for Swinton Lions! I’ve loved my time here this year and staying up was a great achievement by everyone at the club. Hopefully next year we can push on again, and climb further up the table.”

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