MIDLANDS HURRICANES coach Mark Dunning believes Birmingham is slowly but surely embracing Rugby League.
The ambitious club with a long-term vision are in their first season at Avery Fields, the home of rugby union team Bournville in the Edgbaston suburb of the second city.
It’s the third ground Midlands have used since the late 2021 rebrand from Coventry Bears driven by Huddersfield businessman Mike Lomas.
They previously played at Portway Stadium, the home of another union side Birmingham and Solihull Bees, before a spell at the Alexander Stadium, the athletics hub for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
With a 20-year lease at Avery Fields, chief executive Eorl Crabtree, the former Huddersfield and England forward, is working hard to help the Hurricanes put down roots and raise both their profile and attendances.
Former Bradford coach Dunning and his assistant Leigh Beattie, both appointed in mid-2023, signed contract extensions to 2029 at the start of this year, and have created a side that has mostly proved competitive in the merged second tier.
Midlands made the semi-finals of the 1895 Cup, and while they bowed out of the competition at the hands of runaway Championship leaders London Broncos, the team chief believes the occasion at Avery Fields showed the potential of the host club.
“There was a great atmosphere and certainly some faces in the crowd I hadn’t seen before,” he said. “We’d love to see them back and becoming part of what we call the Canes family.
“Eorl is working really hard behind the scenes and Leigh and I are working really hard to produce a competitive team who play entertaining rugby.”
Lomas said: “We think we’re at a place where we can really become embedded in the community, and we want people to come and see the vision of what we’re trying to do.”