Reilly keen for one last hurrah

TRY TIME: Paul Reilly touches down on a recent guest appearance, playing for Moldgreen against Wyke.

PAUL Reilly is hoping for a change of luck next year.

The 32-year-old, who enjoyed a distinguished 12-year spell at Huddersfield Giants, is back playing alongside old friend and club-mate Marcus St Hilaire — this time, in Oldham colours.

Having endured a torrid campaign with Wakefield after switching Super League clubs last season, a now fully-fit Reilly believes better times lie ahead of him as he enters part-time professional rugby league for the first time.

"My career had always been good injury-wise," explained Reilly, a wholehearted full-back who is capable of playing anywhere across the back line.

"Last year, John Kear asked me to go to Wakefield, when I hadn't been anywhere other than Huddersfield for 12 years.

"I gave it a go but sustained a bad injury to my spine — at one point trapped nerves meant I lost the feeling in my arm — and it meant I had to have a disc removed in my neck.

"I ended up coming back to play for Wakefield in the semi-final of the Challenge Cup (which they lost 32-24 to Hull, after beating Oldham 46-4 in the quarter-finals) but I rushed it really and until last month I have never been 100-per-cent fit.

"It was a bad year for me and I was thinking about hanging my boots up.

"But I am really good friends with Marcus St Hilaire — we went to school together and played junior rugby at Moldgreen as well as at Huddersfield — and he told me how much he was enjoying it at Oldham.

"I then had it in my mind to give it a go and it all came about from there."

Having been given the green light by his specialist, Reilly recently played out two games for his old club Moldgreen in the Pennine League and was victorious on both occasions.

Having ignored the attentions of National League One clubs Halifax and Sheffield, both of whom sought his signature, Reilly — who has a Challenge Cup final runners-up medal from 2006 — is happy to put his amateur career on hold in order to bid for further success in the pro game.

"I played in two games for Moldgreen but it was more for fitness reasons than anything else," he explained.

"Last year I only played in nine or 10 matches in total so my body isn't used to playing.

"We got two wins, so I am happy for the lads. But that is it now.

"There will be plenty of time to play at Moldgreen when I finish playing professionally.

"I know what Oldham are capable of and I want to win more silverware in my career.

"We just missed out in the past two seasons, but saying that it is a good achievement to reach a final and hopefully, touch wood, we can do even better this season.

"I have been watching out for Marcus, Phil Joseph — another Huddersfield lad — and I know Rob Roberts too. It is good knowing a few of the lads.

"A lot of people had it that I was going to go and play for Halifax.

"But my goal is to enjoy my rugby. Because of the injury it was hard to enjoy last season, but I am 99-per-cent sure I will enjoy it at Oldham."

Reilly, along with fellow new signing Paul Highton, was one of a number of senior players who held a meeting with new coach Tony Benson earlier this week, at which the former Junior Kiwis boss outlined his ideas.

Benson, who is hoping to bring in a sports scientist to the club, will begin pre-season training next week.

"We'll be testing first and then we'll be working to getting to the levels I feel we need to be at," he said.

"It will be a mixture of skills, conditioning and weights for the next month. I want the players to be jumping out of their skins for the first game."




Anticipation builds in fans



THE APPOINTMENT of new coach Tony Benson and a flurry of big signings in recent days has caused a major stir among Roughyeds fans.



The on-line message boards have been buzzing with comments from supporters new, old and lapsed. While a handful have been negative — possibly due to disappointment over speculated big names being overlooked in favour of Benson — the majority have endorsed the club's strides both on and off the field.

One fan was so moved by chairman Bill Quinn's forthright statement of intent following the appointment last week, he admitted that while he had stayed away from Boundary Park in recent years, he would now be applying for a season ticket in 2009 for both himself and his son.

Benson isn't kidding himself about the task he faces. He freely admitted in last week's press conference that failure to gain promotion to National League One, either by finishing top or by triumphing in the play-off final, isn't an option if he wishes to retain his employment status.

However, particularly given the huge logistical difficulties he was faced with while at NL2 rivals London Skolars last season, the Leigh-based Kiwi will relish such a clear-cut task every bit as much as those optimistic fans do.

With players like Pauls Highton and Reilly on board, allied to the re-signing of the cream of last year's squad which came within a whisker of going up automatically, all the signs are highly promising.