Halifax Panthers have their off-field financial problems, but new coach Kyle Eastmond and his squad of players have defied expectations to become early-season front-runners in the Betfred Championship.
WHEN Halifax-born musician Tom Bailey was singing “here’s to future days” with his Thompson Twins bandmates on their 1985 album of the same name, it is unlikely he was thinking too much about the fortunes of his home town’s rugby league team.
Nevertheless, the hope that better times might be just around the corner will have been something Halifax Panthers fans have been clinging onto since those heady days of the mid-to-late 1980s when, for a fleeting few years, the West Yorkshire side stood atop the British game.
The summer era particularly has not been kind; the infamous Blue Sox rebrand, relegation from Super League, and recurring financial issues have overshadowed the highs such as the 2010 Championship triumph, the 2019 run to the Challenge Cup semi-finals and the 1895 Cup victory at Wembley two years ago.
Yet a flying start to the 2025 Betfred Championship campaign after surviving the threat of liquidation last September due to a tax bill has Halifax supporters dreaming of the glory days again, and long-serving player James Woodburn-Hall has rarely known it to be like this.
“It’s a dream start and in all my time at Halifax, I don’t think we’ve ever had a start like this,” Woodburn-Hall, who has been with Halifax since 2016, told Rugby League World. “We’re very happy and we can’t really ask for more, so we’re absolutely buzzing.
“It’s been different, now I’m more of a senior player. In previous years I’d been in and out of the squad, so for me it’s a bit different in having to drive stuff and lead stuff.
“It’s a new feeling. We’ve had the good runs, but maybe I’d felt like an outsider looking in but now I’m a key member of the squad it’s a different feeling and it’s trying to keep that feeling going as well.
“There are going to be times in the year where maybe it’s not going as well because it’s not always going to be good performances, so it’s when it comes to that, that’s where I’ll know where we are as a team.”
Halifax’s record, at the time of writing, of six wins from their opening six Championship games is impressive enough on its own. After all, even the class of 1985-86 – the most recent of Fax’s four top-division titles – only ever managed as many wins in a row once that season and opened the league campaign with a draw and four defeats before finding their feet.
But beyond that, only the Super League giants of Wigan Warriors and St Helens have scored more than the Panthers’ 204 points across rugby league’s three professional divisions, with them averaging 34 points per game and conceding just 11.33 in those opening games.
That defensive record particularly is a point of pride for rookie head coach Kyle Eastmond, who was announced as the replacement for now-Huddersfield Giants assistant Liam Finn in October last year.
The former dual-code England international has placed a big emphasis on defensive effort since taking charge at The Shay Stadium and is, so far, reaping the rewards as the club which finished ninth out of 14 and six points outside the play-offs in 2024 lead the way.
However, Eastmond is trying his best to ensure everyone remains level-headed with barely a quarter of the season gone, even if he does not hide they are deriving plenty of enjoyment from both their performances and the excitement among the Panthers fanbase.
“Internally, in the playing group and the staff, we’re definitely not getting carried away,” Eastmond said.
“We think there is still improvement in a lot of parts of our game, but I do see around the place that people are enjoying coming and seeing the lads perform the way they do.
“It’s a great feeling. We’re enjoying ourselves, we’re working really hard, and what the players are delivering in terms of in training and transferring it into games is just good to see.
“It’s something we’ve got to keep doing and we will do.”
Eastmond’s coaching career began shortly after he announced his surprise retirement at the age of 31 just two games into his return to the 13-a-side code after signing a two-year contract with Leeds Rhinos in 2021.
Working his way up the ladder in rugby union with Rotherham Titans and Jersery Reds was followed by returning to league in July last year, in a skills coaching role at Warrington Wolves which focused on developing their up-and-coming youngsters.
Eastmond has not only spent time putting in the hard yards as a coach since hanging up his boots four years ago, but has the benefit of having worked under some of the sharpest minds in either code during his playing days too.
Daniel Anderson, Mick Potter and Royce Simmons all oversaw his development at St Helens, while Richard Agar coached him at England academy level before bringing him back to league with Leeds.
On the union side, fellow cross-coders Dai Young and Mike Ford – the latter now a rival Championship coach overseeing Oldham’s revival – are among those to have had an influence too.
Eastmond is drawing on all of those experiences from his unusual career, although he acknowledges what he did as a player counts for little now he is in the top job.
“I’ve had a different journey to a lot of rugby league coaches or players, and plenty of good coaching and plenty of different ways to look at or dissect a game,” Eastmond said, soon after being confirmed as Halifax head coach.
“Anything I can bring from outside of rugby league or my network of looking at the game, then I’ll be doing so.
“Whether you’ve played at the highest level or not, it’s really irrelevant – it’s how good are you at what you’re doing and how much you’re willing to put into it.”
Woodburn-Hall is in no doubt as to the influence Eastmond has had, not least of all on his own game where the former back’s advice has proven invaluable following the Jamaica international being moved from full-back to stand-off.
Although a lot of the work done by Eastmond has been building on the foundations laid by predecessors Finn and modern-day Halifax cult hero Simon Grix, there are several areas Woodburn-Hall identified as being points of improvement.
One is their end-of-set play in making sure kicks are followed by a strong chase and big defensive effort to restrict their opponents’ gains, along with changing the mentality of the squad by leaving them in no uncertain terms about the standards expected of them.
“He’s a dual-international in both codes, he’s played in Grand Finals in league and had that experience of knowing what a successful environment looks like,” Woodburn-Hall said.
“The big thing with Kyle is you know what he expects and anything which falls short of that is not good enough.
“In previous years, we’ve had games where maybe we should win based on the team we have and we’ve put in a lacklustre performance or we’re not quite there mentally.
“He won’t allow that to happen and he’s been driving that, and it keeps us on our toes and makes sure we’re ready to go every game.”
That Championship triumph 15 years ago came amid a run of five consecutive play-off appearances where Halifax made it to at least the semi-finals on each occasion.
Since then, the Panthers have only featured in the play-offs twice following back-to-back third-place finishes in 2021 and 2022, and ranked only 20th out of the clubs in all three divisions in last October’s IMG gradings.
Despite the impressive start this time around, Woodburn-Hall knows they cannot get too far ahead of themselves if Halifax are to match the ambitions set both on and off the field.
“It’s a long season and we’re happy for a good start, but we’re by no means getting ahead of ourselves,” Woodburn-Hall said.
“We’re definitely ambitious and have big plans for the future, and it’s good to be a part of that and seeing how the club has evolved over the past few years and the direction they want to go.
“It’s an exciting time and we’re playing with confidence, but we’re under no illusions. It’s what happens at the end of the season, not what’s happening now.”
Here’s to future days, indeed.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 508 (May 2025)
