Glen Tomlinson left his job as a butcher in Australia to try his luck in the UK and ended up with a Challenge Cup final appearance with Bradford Bulls and folk hero status at Batley.
WHEN Australian Glen Tomlinson swapped the beautiful sunshine of Redcliffe for the bitterly cold North of England in the early 90’s, you could not get anymore of opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to living conditions.
But that is just what the former butcher did when he left the Redcliffe Dolphins to try his hand in England playing 12 seasons at four different clubs.
As fate would have it, Tomlinson who was disillusioned with the game in Australia, initially had intentions of trying his luck in the UK for 12 months only.
That all changed when he ended up in West Yorkshire where he fell in love with Batley and ended up becoming one of the Gallant Youths’ most distinguished players.
Whilst the former Dolphin may be long retired, his insatiable love for the Batley club, its supporters and the town itself, still resonates with him even today.
“If you had asked me all those years ago if I would end up playing rugby league in England instead of the beautiful Redcliffe in Moreton Bay, I would have laughed at you.
“I was playing at the Dolphins under the late Darryl Van De Velde, but I just was not getting the opportunities I had hoped for and seemed to be languishing without any sense of progression.
“I knew I was good enough to make it, so I left Redcliffe and ended up playing for neighboring Bribie Island where former London Crusaders coach Ross Strudwick approached me with a view of signing for the club.
“That was 1989, but I was not ready at that stage to pack up and leave home, so I just plodded along playing alongside my mates at Bribie.
“I found out a few years later that Darryl Van De Velde was coaching over in the UK with Castleford Tigers. I was looking for a fresh start so I contacted him.
“A few weeks later, I was boarding a plane as Darryl had offered me a train and trial deal, but after a few months, he told me that I was not quite up to the rigours of first division football and got me a start with Batley.
That move was the best decision of my career.”
With Tomlinson instantly falling in love with the Heavy Woollen district, he was immediately taken under Batley elder statesperson Jeff Grayshon’s wing, with the pair becoming lifelong friends until Grayshon’s untimely death in 2021.
“I felt like Batley was my home away from home, I absolutely love the place and still have that emotional attachment given that it is where I met my wife.”
With the Batley supporters mesmerised by the gun halfback, a trio of other Australians in Michael Booth, Mick Cameron and later Chris McWilliams, joined Tomlinson at the Mount during their unforgettable run in the 90’s.
“We had a good blend of youth and experience when I first signed for Batley. Michael Booth and Mick Cameron were terrific clubmen and big Chris McWilliams was a bouncer by trade, so he was not afraid of anyone out on the field.
“Add those guys alongside players such as Simon Wilson, Mark Scott, Steve Parrish, John Stainburn and big Jeff Grayshon and we had all the ingredients of a winning combination.”
In 1994, Batley went agonizingly close in gaining promotion to the top flight when they took on heavyweights Keighley at a packed Mount Pleasant.
That game is still talked about even to this day, with both teams playing in the game of their lives.
“For us, that was the one that got away unfortunately. I thought we did enough to hold Keighley out, but we had a lapse in concentration and it cost us promotion, but you cannot change the past and I have just accepted it now.”
After six seasons trudging out onto the sloped Mount Pleasant field, Tomlinson was in hot demand with other clubs, notably Bradford Bulls. That move was just as successful as his stint with Batley culminating in a 1997 Challenge Cup Final appearance.
“Bradford was such a good club. When I signed for them, it was my dream to play first division football and with Super League alive and well, I went to Odsal at the height of Bullmania. That alone was phenomenal for the club, but when you add a Challenge Cup Final appearance to the mix, well that just iced the cake.
“I actually scored my 100th career try in front of 90,000 screaming fans in that Cup final. The experience of playing at Wembley was unforgettable.”
At the end of the 1997 season, the Bulls parted ways with Tomlinson and he joined Hull Sharks which proved to be disastrous having badly broken his leg after only eight games.
That proved costly with Hull not in a position to renew his contract and he subsequently signed with Wakefield Trinity on a three-year deal.
“The Hull move was simply bad luck, but the Wakefield move was just as bad but in this case it was all contractual issues.
“Signing with Wakefield was the worst move of my career. I was unsettled at Belle Vue from the get-go and did not click with the coaching staff. Plus, I had all sorts of dramas with my contract and in the end, I just wanted to get out.”
With Tomlinson parting ways with Trinity in 2000, he reached out to his former club Batley where he ended his career on a high.
“I look at it this way, I started and finished my career at Batley and went full circle. For me, playing rugby league was never about the money, it was about seeing how far I could go whilst backing myself.
“I always had that fire in my belly and looked back on my career with a sense of contentment.
“If I had not boarded that Qantas plane back in 1991, who knows, maybe I might still have been sharpening the knives in the butcher’s shop.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 503 (December 2024)
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