Liam Devaney Caldy 1XV

Head Coach – Gary Devaney. My dad, my mate, my coach from under 6s, my hero.

Fitness Coach – Mike Johnson. Putting people through hell on the hill every pre-season. Mike was our fitness coach through our rapid rise through the leagues in the early to mid 2000s

Technical. Water. Assistant. Technician – Kenny Roberts. Even though he landed 3 punches on me, on the coach to Huddersfield for taking 2 sandwiches, his hard work, passion and love for the team was terrific

Social team and vibe administrators – perhaps the most important part of any club. Dan Rowlands. Fraser Smale. Aj Smith. Maffa.

Enforcer – Me.

Devaney’s Dream Team

1 – Matt Holt – brought professionalism to caldy, attracted big names, amazing skill set and double hard. Comical Aussie accent and sayings.

2 – Paul Feely – my favourite ever captain. Would inspire others to go to war, even if he wore gloves, shoulder pads and looked like Carlton banks from the fresh prince.

3 – Degs – joined caldy as a fresh faced little scally, amazing talent and confidence, has become a club legend, i still owe him a few late hits and cheap shots from our trading battles.

4 – Richard Bradshaw – my best mate, hardest man I know, lineout specialist, holds the record for most fights with team mates in training and most rucks inspected in a game

5 – Tom Sanders – knew he was special when he pitched up in the 3rd team as a 17-year-old peter crouch look a like. Matured into a terrific leader, great work ethic and skills, genuinely one of the nicest people alive.

6 – Sam Dickinson – a BFG off the pitch, amazing patience to put up with me through our teenage years and uni lives, big ball carrier. Will never forget when he hit a DMP player so hard he almost voided his bowels

7 – Adam Aigbokhae – been amazing having him move back to caldy, speed, strength and turnover master, still laugh at him losing his head at Sheffield tigers away and we almost had fight on the pitch…….I would have died

8 – Josiah James Dickinson – big call ahead of his older brother at 8. he has it all, except a decent hairline. One of the Best naturally gifted and talented players I’ve ever played with and frustratingly good at all sports

9 – John Broxson – Terrific rugby mind, ridiculously fit, joke skilful. Small man syndrome when had a drink, loves pinching. Favourite memory was when Dave Hall of Halifax fielded a kick, shouted you, pointed at Brox and ran him over.

10 – Richard Vasey aka golden balls. Could fizz a flat pass at serious speed, never missed a kick, great communicator. Other nicknames include Gordon Ramsay or the turnstile

11 – Gav Roberts – the welsh wizard or silent assassin. Predominantly a 13 or 15, too good to leave out of this team though as our top point scorer ever…….took about 3 years to hear him talk when he joined us

12 – Matt Pennington – he may have appeared in batley bulldogs worst ever team, but he makes my top team. Played hard and simple and said basically yeah at the beginning of any sentence. I was stuck in a taxi with him and Matt holt where they were arguing who was the hardest and asked the taxi driver to pull over for a straightener, thankfully for all involved the driver didn’t stop.

13 – Shaun Woof – we must have had 14 moves called variations of woof, he would make up moves to get him more ball, it worked. 6ft 4” and 16st, fast and decent hands, unplayable at times…..reckoned he looked 22 when he was 30, too many bangs to the head

14 – Nick Royle – fastest person I’ve seen in real life, used to hate playing against him when he was at fylde, tried to punch him once but found out he’s well hard and mental. Off the pitch, one of the strangest but nicest blokes around, loves metal detecting

15 – Andrew Souter – a scally from kirkby, to look at you’d think he was out of place – couldn’t be further from the truth. Expert banana kicker, slider hit specialist and would never miss a tackle…….try and assist machine even as the slowest back I’ve ever played with, amazing positioning and turning into a great coach.

Big shout outs must go to

Odd job aka Neil dowridge, fastest front rower I’ve met. John Parker, otherwise known as a Jack. Paul the duke white, used his name many a time with the law to get out of trouble. Loa Tupou, largest human I’ve ever met, made me an honouree Tongan for 7s comps and protected me on the pitch. Gas Bansor the albino, amazing eyebrows and legs. Si Mason the space cadet and European cup winning kicking machine.

Barry Pilgrim says I was the biggest waste of talent he’s ever seen, a lovely compliment.

I think I did ok, played with some amazing players, made lifelong friends and have more memories and stories than is possible to tell, the favourite being Andrew Soutar throwing an explosive into the showers after the game, our players legged it, Hull players stayed in there and regretted it, never seen Degs move so quick, while naked.