Dewsbury coach Lee Greenwood hopes prop Tom Garratt’s forthcoming move to Hull KR will show others aspiring to reach Super League that playing for the Rams can help them achieve their ambition.
And the former Siddal team chief also believes the deal underlines the strength and value of the community game.
Former Huddersfield junior Garratt, 26, joined Dewsbury ahead of the 2020 season after playing for leading amateur club Siddal, where Greenwood was in charge before his Rams appointment in October 2018.
Garratt’s impressive form for the Championship side persuaded Rovers to pay an undisclosed transfer fee and hand him a two-year deal, starting next year, and Greenwood is looking forward to seeing him in red and white.
“We’re sorry to lose a good player, of course we are, but Tom is a talented lad who has worked hard and has got the chance to play at a higher level, and we wouldn’t want to stand in his way,” he told League Express.
“I can see him doing well in Super League, because he has great stamina, he has a fair bit of experience under his belt now, and he certainly has the physicality, which is what some players lack when they move up.
“Tom is also a great listener who thinks about his game and is always looking for those little ways to improve, and he’s going to have a great coach to learn from in Tony Smith.
“He has benefited us, but I think we have benefited him also, and hopefully, other players will look at his situation and realise that while we might not be the biggest payers around, we will work to improve them and give them a platform.
“We showed that with Kyle Trout, who had been at Wakefield, had a spell in the Championship with us, then also got a move to Hull KR, and there are others who are more than capable of being later entrants to Super League.
“Some of them are at amateur clubs, because plenty of lads who have been in Academies end up back at their local clubs. They might see it as a failure, but if they are at say high Conference level, they have got something and they are developing by playing against full-grown blokes.”
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