T’Other Side:Toronto Wolfpack

T’Other Side: Toronto Wolfpack

2019 Matches

FIRST TEAM SQUAD

LAST TIME OUT

Head Coach: Brian McDermott

McDermott began his coaching career as assistant coach at Huddersfield Giants in 2003. He was then appointed as head coach at London Broncos (then called Harlequins RL) in 2006. In 2010 he moved to Leeds Rhinos and became the most successful coach in the Summer Era. He guided them to Super League titles in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017. They won the World Club Challenge in 2012 and the Challenge Cup in 2014 and 2015.

He took over from Paul Rowley as Toronto head coach this year.

As a player he was a prop forward and spent his entire career from 1993 to 2002 with Bradford Bulls. At representative level he appeared for Yorkshire, England and Great Britain.

Captain: Josh McCrone

Josh McCrone is an Australian halfback who joined Toronto in 2018 and was immediately appointed as team captain.

Before joining Toronto he had made 161 NRL appearances for Canberra Raiders between 2009 and 2015 and for Saint George Illawarra Dragons in 2016 and 2017. From 2012 and 2014 he was picked for the New South Wales Country Origin team.

New Signings for 2019

Toronto have made 7 new signings this year.

Ricky Leutele, centre, joined them from Cronulla Sharks for whom he played 129 games in the NRL. He is a Samoan international.

Joe Mellor, halfback, was signed from Widnes Vikings. He started out with Wigan but made his professional début on loan at Harlequins RL in 2011. That year he also played for Widnes on dual reg. The following year he again played for Widnes, this time on loan. In 2013 he joined Widnes where he remained until making the move to Toronto.

Anthony Mullally, prop forward, moved from Leeds to Toronto just after this season began. He began at Widnes in 2009 and went on loan to Swinton in 2010 and Whitehaven in 2012 In 2013 he joined Huddersfield. Whilst there he had loan spells at Batley, Bradford and Wakefield. He joined Leeds in 2016 and played for Fev on dual reg in 2016 and 2017. Mullally is an Irish international.

Tom Olbison, forward, has been recruited from Widnes. He began his career with Bradford in 2009 and then moved to Widnes in 2017. While he was at Bradford he played for Dewsbury on dual reg in 2013.

Gadwin Springer, prop forward, is a French international. He made his début with Catalans in 2014. He transferred to Castleford in June 2016 and then spent the following two seasons there before joining Toronto. Last year he played one game for Halifax on dual reg.

Bodene Thompson, second row, is a New Zealander. He signed for Warrington in June last year after initially joining Leigh for 2018. He had previously played 143 games in the NRL with Gold Coast (2009-2012), Wests Tigers (2013-2014) and New Zealand Warriors (2015-2017). In 2010 he played for the New Zealand Maori team.

Jon Wilkin, loose forward, is the most high profile signing and has been signed from Saint Helens. His career began with Hull KR in 2002 and in 2003 he joined Saint Helens remaining with them for 16 seasons and making 404 appearances. He has played for 6 times for Great Britain and 10 times for England.

Dual Registration and loan signings

Toronto do not have a dual registration agreement.

Three players have come on loan to Toronto from Hull FC. We do not know whether Brad Fash is still there, Jack Logan was at Toronto earlier in the season but has now returned to Hull and Hakim Miloudi came to Toronto earlier this month.

Olsi Krasniqi is out on loan with Bradford and Nick Rawsthorne is currently with York.

The Fev connection

In the current Toronto squad there 2 players who have played for Fev, Anthony Mullally (see ‘New Signings’ above) and Greg Worthington who was a Fev player from 2011-2014. As a result of injury he hasn’t yet played this year.

The only player in this year’s Fev squad who has played for Toronto is Jack Bussey who was at Toronto in 2017 and 2018.