Leigh Centurions stand-off Martyn Ridyard has revealed how he tried to orchestrate a loan move to Bradford earlier this year, but he now hopes to regain his place at his hometown club.
Ridyard ended up spending one match at Rochdale Hornets on loan after being unable to force his way into John Duffy’s unbeaten side at the start of the season.
Prior to that he had contacted the Bulls about a spell there, and turned down moves to Whitehaven, Workington and North Wales.
But he still hasn’t given up on regaining his Centurions’ place after becoming the third highest points scorer in the club’s history.
In an in-depth interview with Leigh Centurions TV’s Ryan Taylor, which is available through the club’s social media accounts, he discussed the details of his temporary exit earlier this year.
Ridyard explained: “Last year I never got told I would be third or fourth choice.
“This year I was told I’d be third choice and we hadn’t signed Jarrod Sammut then.
“The week after that we did sign him, so then I’ve gone to fourth choice. But I thought this has happened every year, so I’m not really that fussed.
“I just needed to keep training hard and plodding on. So I did, and it was the hardest I’ve trained and the fittest I’ve been in a long time.
“I still didn’t get anywhere near the starting shirt and that bothered me.
“The only time I’ve ever been bothered about a squad number was this year, just because my testimonial logo is Ridyard6.
“I’d had it that long and I don’t think Duffs realised it until I spoke to him in about February.
“But that’s done and dusted; you can’t do anything about it and just have to carry on.
“He said he wanted lads to have game time and he didn’t want me to go to Saints reserves because it’d be demoralising for me playing against a load of 16- and 17-year-old kids.
“He said he thought better of me than that and I appreciated it.
“I tried to sort my own loan deal out to Bradford because I wanted to be playing at a high standard.
“Then it came about that it was Workington, Whitehaven or North Wales, and I didn’t want to do all that travelling when my main income is work now.
“I couldn’t put that on the back burner to travel for three hours for a game of rugby to keep fit.
“Then they said Rochdale and I was working in Rochdale at the time.
“I never had plans for staying there – it was go for four weeks, come back and fight for my shirt.
“I played one game there and that’s probably me done there because if we do start back I’ll not be on loan, as we’ll need as many players as we can get.”
