HULL FC fans may only have seen their new recruit Connor Bailey once before.
If so, they’d be forgiven for failing to remember the teenage halfback who made his professional debut against them more than five years ago and is now an addition to their back row.
Bailey was called up by Wakefield for his bow in September 2020, when Covid meant supporters had to watch games on TV and matches were played all over the place – in this case, a Thursday teatime in St Helens.
Despite a late Wakefield fightback, Hull held on to win the match 26-23, and Bailey went on to add four further Super League appearances as the heavily-disrupted season drew to a delayed conclusion.
Only now is Bailey getting another shot at the top flight, after three seasons (the first on loan) at Newcastle Thunder and two with York.
In that time, he has successfully transitioned from halfback prospect to fully-fledged member of the forward pack.
“All my career I was playing halfback, and I only merged into the middle when I went to Newcastle,” explained the 25-year-old.
“I played at 13, and then a bit of back row. Then when I went to York, I became a backrow permanently.
“I went to Newcastle as a halfback but they’d just signed two halfbacks (Josh Woods and Jake Shorrocks) as they had a new coach (Eamon O’Carroll) coming.
“I moved into that 13 role, then an injury happened and I was put into the back row, and that was it. I don’t think I could play halfback anymore, I’m a bit too heavy now.”
Every single one of his 29 appearances last season at York came in the back row, as the club won the 1895 Cup and Championship League Leaders’ Shield before losing the Grand Final, Bailey’s last game in Knights colours, to Toulouse.
Bailey had agreed a future move to Hull right at the start of that campaign but he said: “I made it clear I wanted to finish my year at York.
“I’m happy I did that, otherwise I’d have missed out on Wembley and a Grand Final and that incredible year.”