T'Other Side: Rochdale

T'Other Side: Rochdale Hornets

Head Coach: Alan Kilshaw

Alan Kilshaw

Alan Kilshaw became head coach of Rochdale, following Ian Talbot’s departure at the end of the 2015 season. In his first season in the role he guided Rochdale Hornets to promotion from League One and was named as the coach of the year. It came as a considerable surprise to most pundits when Rochdale achieved promotion in the League One play-offs Promotion Final by defeating Toulouse 26-24 in France. It was the only time in the entire season that Toulouse had lost to another League One team.

Kilshaw began his coaching career with the youth section at Warrington and then had three seasons coaching the Sarina Crocodiles in Australia.

He is making a far greater name for himself as a coach than he did as a player. He started at Saint Helens but never made it into the first team. He made one solitary substitute appearance on loan for Swinton Lions in 2004 and then played 9 games for Blackpool Panthers as either a loose forward or stand off during the 2006 season.

Lewis Palfrey

Captain: Lewis Palfrey

Rochdale captain, Lewis Palfrey, began his career at Whitehaven in 2011. He moved to Batley in 2012 but went back to Whitehaven on loan for the latter part of the season. Then in 2013 he signed for Oldham where he spent four seasons appearing for the Roughyeds 93 times, scoring 22 tries and kicking 351 goals. He is Rochdale’s main goal kicker having kicked 32 (out of 47 attempts) this year. That is a success rate of 68% but last year he achieved a remarkable 84%.

Remarkably there are still 5 members of the Hornets squad who have played in every game so far this season.

Jordan Case can be described as a utility player having played at centre, second row and loose forward. Last week he scored two tries against Hull Kingston Rovers. Matty Hadden is a prop forward who usually starts on the bench. Already having scored 10 tries this season, which is double any other member of the squad, Rob Massam is a speedy winger with the power of a prop forward.

In second place on the Rochdale try scoring chart this season with 5 is hooker, Ben Moores. The final ever present is Daniel Yates who has been their regular  scrum-half. Always worth watching is Jono Smith, a second row and a real ‘character’. He couldn’t be an ever present as he began the season with a 6 match ban having also had an 8 match ban at the beginning of 2016! He often looks rather unfit but looks are very misleading. He is capable of making fine line-breaks and is a proven try scorer.

The Fev Connection

Gavin Bennion, with the grand total of one substitute appearance, is only one member of the current Rochdale squad who has played for Fev Earlier in the year there was also Danny Bridge but he has now moved to Australia.  

Unusually, there is no-one in the current Fev squad who has ever played for Rochdale.