Mark Moxon has stepped up this year and helped Batley continue to defy the odds.
ON THE face of it, Mark Moxon faced a considerable challenge when he took charge at Batley Bulldogs ahead of the 2024 season.
In over a decade working as an assistant coach at the club – following a successful playing career that included featuring in Super League for Huddersfield – Moxon had worked under two serial over-achievers in John Kear and Craig Lingard.
The pair helped the Bulldogs consistently defy expectations outside of the club, mounting genuine promotion challenges and regularly beating clubs with significantly bigger budgets.
Moxon was handed the task of emulating those feats with the Bulldogs again being out-spent elsewhere, and then saw key players depart before the season even kicked off in Josh Rourke, James Meadows and Samy Kibula.
Although there was a superb Betfred Challenge Cup run that ended with a gutsy home defeat to Lingard’s Super League Castleford, the league campaign kicked off with just one win from their opening six games.
Perhaps some felt that Batley’s days of punching above their weight were coming to an end.
Moxon concedes he did feel some pressure at that point, but fast forward to the time of this interview, and the Bulldogs are back knocking on the top six door once again, after their coach has overseen an upturn in fortunes.
“I felt a bit of pressure I guess, but I’ve always had faith in this group and trusted the group,” Moxon tells Rugby League World.
“It’s always different at Batley because of the resources and budget we’ve got, and then we lost a few players that had signed for this year but had Super League clauses.
“We are all about player development at Batley and wanted them to chase their dream of playing full-time in Super League, but letting them go put us a bit behind the eight ball and we lost a bit of quality from the squad that we thought had tied up.
“It took a bit of sorting out, but we found a way to move forward.
“I’ve really enjoyed being a head coach. If rugby is in your bones and your blood then you enjoy every part of it.
“It’s been a seamless transition to be honest because under Linners I was given plenty of rope to do what I wanted. I was as close to being a head coach as I could be without being a head coach because he just let me do my stuff.
“There’s more to the off field side of it now – dealing with players, agents and the recruitment side of it. It’s difficult because I still have a full-time job and I know a lot of the Championship coaches are effectively full-time.
“But I’ve enjoyed it and it’s been a really competitive league again, a really exciting and tough division.
“We didn’t start the season so well but we’ve found a bit of momentum now and we’re looking back up as opposing to looking down. But a couple of wins or losses in this league can completely change the dynamic again.”
Although the past successes of Kear and Lingard might have added to expectations at Batley, Moxon says that both men have helped him considerably since he took charge.
“I still speak to John most weeks, he’s like my rugby dad! Certainly if we’ve been beaten or a result has gone against us that normally we should win, John gives me a ring which is really nice.
“He’s always there when I need anything, and I still work with him for Wales so that connection is always there on the end of the phone.
“I speak to Linners every week through the dual reg’ we have with Cas and ultimately we’re friends – he respects what we’re trying to do. It’s great to have those good relationships.
“It’s a good pressure that has been put on us by over-achieving in the past, but there’s also pressure that we put on ourselves as a group.
“This group has been together a long time now and we expect to achieve. That does make it difficult but that’s sport, you want to push yourself to achieve.”
Moxon continues to combine the role with his long-standing job as a firefighter at Leeds Bradford Airport, and is appreciative of the club’s stance to allow that.
Now he is hoping he can repay that faith with another unlikely play-offs appearance, where few clubs would relish facing his side.
“I’ve got a good job that I enjoy and is fairly secure, and I’m lucky that Batley allows me to continue that, I probably couldn’t do it anywhere else,” he adds.
“I’m enjoying the challenge here. When you love the game and you’ve got that passion for it you never really want to put the ball down.
“I think this year’s Championship has been the toughest I’ve ever been involved in. It’s so tight underneath the top four or five, everybody is fighting for that last spot in the play-offs but you have to look behind you as well. It’s going to go right down to the end.
“It would be a major success for us to make the play-offs. Every coach will say that at the start of the year, but it’s a massive achievement for a club like Batley with the budgets and resources we have.
“We can’t fly under the radar any more and people expect us to do well now.
“But those that know the real truth of it know it’s a massive achievement for us to make the play-offs.”
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 500 (September 2024)
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