“I am from Birmingham, so now that we’re playing in the city is great. It means that a lot of my friends come down to watch me play now and it feels like an even bigger family than before.”
HURRICANE HAYDEN
IF YOU are looking for the perfect role model to champion rugby league in the Midlands, then look no further than Hayden Freeman.
A local lad through and through, who has spent almost his entire career playing in the region, becoming the Midlands Hurricanes’ leading appearance maker and top try scorer.
He’s had chances to move away and get his foot in the door higher up the leagues, but the call of home was too strong and he now wants to use his connection to the club to really develop the game in the area.
“It’s a massive achievement for me to be this club’s record appearance maker and it means a lot to me,” said Freeman, who made his debut for Coventry Bears in 2016 before transitioning with them to the current Hurricanes set up.
“As a Midlands lad I’m glad it’s me, or at least someone local, that holds the records. If it was a northern lad it maybe wouldn’t mean as much because rugby league is predominantly a northern sport with northern players. But when people can look at this club and see local players playing for their local team, scoring plenty of points and reaching landmarks it sends out a really strong message.
“For me, being able to send that message out is massive. My little brother comes to watch now and looks up to me knowing that he too could go on to play for his local club.
“I come from a rugby union background and generally started playing league in the summer or a bit of fitness, but a real pathway into the game was never really there.
“We had the RFL academy, which I started in, but when that folded it lost that pathway too.
“The Midlands is such a big area and the game can really get a foothold down here, but it’s an area that has often been overlooked and maybe not tapped into as much as it could have been.
“Hopefully with the way Greg Wood and Mike Lomas (the club’s chief executive and owner/chairman respectively) are doing things now we can start to change that and attract more local players.
“We have that pathway in place again now that players can start playing here, develop and then maybe move on in the game.
“After being a part of the Midlands Hurricanes RFL academy I had a short stint in the London Broncos academy. I was offered another year there, but at the same time Coventry Bears approached me and that felt like the right one for me. I have been back here for eight years now and I have never looked back.
“It was very hard decision for me to turn down staying involved with a club like London, but it just wasn’t the right move for me. I’d have had to move there and I had already been away from home while at Loughborough with Midlands academy, I wasn’t ready to move again.
“I like being at home and that is part of the reason I have stayed around so long.
“I am from Birmingham, so now that we’re playing in the city is great. It means that a lot of my friends come down to watch me play now and it feels like an even bigger family than before.
“I am really enjoying my time here and I would have moved on if I wasn’t. I have pretty much had offers from elsewhere every year, but this is my home town club, I love it here and its made we want to stay around and represent them for as long as I have.”
Having missed the opening months of the season with a thumb injury, Freeman returned to the side at the start of May to face London Skolars, in what was a landmark game for him.
That was his 106th appearance for the club in either guise as Coventry Bears or the Hurricanes, and it saw him draw level with former fans’ favourite Chris Barratt as their all-time leading appearance maker. The following game against Barratt’s North Wales Crusaders side, saw Freeman take that accolade outright.
Going into this season, Freeman already led the way as the club’s top try scorer with 52 touchdowns since his debut in 2016. Three more added to that in his return against Skolars reiterated his importance to the side, and at only 25 and with no apparent desire to leave his roots, the sky must surely be the limit for the winger whose name looks set to remain in the club’s record books for many years to come.
“The injury was a pain but it’s part of the game,” admitted Freeman.
“It wasn’t a major injury, but the ligaments on either side of my thumb had gone so it meant I had no stability in the thumb.I played on with it at the back end of last season but I was sometimes pulling out of tackles because of it, which wasn’t great. So I got surgery on it in the off season and my recovery rolled into the start of this year, meaning I was out for around eight months in total.
“That is a long time not to play so I was nervous coming back and I trained a lot harder for my return because it was a big occasion for the club and myself.
“I knew I wanted to come back and break that appearance record so there was a lot more pressure on me than before a normal game and I definitely felt that going into the London game.
“I really wanted to make an impression when I came back so I worked really hard ahead of that and scored a hat-trick, so it was great.
“Then in the next game it was nice to actually play opposite Chris when I broke that record, although I’m not sure he was happy about it.
“When I first joined the club, Chris was about the same age as I am now and had played a lot of League One games. As a young lad making that step up from the academy game and going into League One, it was great to have a guy like Chris around and that you could play alongside. He knew what it was all about and was able to guide me through that and lead us all on the field.
“I am still only 25 so I’m hoping there are still plenty more years in me yet to not only double my total number of games, but maybe even push towards the 300 appearances.
“If I could do that, that would be incredible.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 486 (July 2023)
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