'Proud' Blue and Golds chief dedicates award to Acorn

10:04am Tuesday 20th May 2008

ALFIE Hill was a proud man when he picked up the BARLA Coach of the Year award - but he said it was an accolade for all at York Acorn ARLC.

Hill, 56, was given the prestigious gong at the BARLA (British Amateur Rugby League Association) end-of-season awards night, held at Brighouse.

It followed a wonderful season in which Acorn beat the odds to win promotion to the National Conference premier division - the highest tier in amateur rugby league - for the first time ever.

Hill said: "It's not the coach that wins these awards, it's the players. If you make your players play you get results, and this season I've made my players play. I think it's great for the club. We had the BARLA Player of the Year a couple of years ago when Johnny Waldron won it, and now we've got the BARLA Coach of the Year."

He added: "People have knocked us before and said we're not a good club, but when you're winning awards like this, you can't be doing badly."

Hill had been sent a letter by BARLA saying he had won a special award and inviting him to the bash, where he was fittingly presented with his trophy by Spen Allison, the York-based BARLA chairman, who is also on the Acorn board.

"It was quite a shock when they sent me the letter," said Hill. "I think it reflects on services over a number of years, not just this particular season, or it seemed that way when they read it out.

"I've had nine seasons as Yorkshire coach, and we've won the BARLA County Championship in six of those, so it's probably for that a bit. And this season we (Acorn) were tipped for relegation and we got promotion."

Hill is already planning for Acorn's debut season in the top tier - pre-season training starts tonight with ex-York City Knights centre Ian Brown as the new player/ conditioner - and he said this award could even help with that.

"I hope it does," Hill added. "I hope somebody says, I'm off to play for him as he's the Coach of the Year,' and we get a couple of good signings."

The BARLA Player of the Year was Skirlaugh's Trevor Penrose, while the Club of the Year were Leigh Miners Rangers.

Acorn also held their own end-of-season awards, in which the first-team gongs were shared by six different players - which Hill believes reflects the team effort at Thanet Road.

"It tells you it was really a team performance, the fact that nobody has cleaned up the awards," he said. "Some of the awards could have gone to other players as well, which shows you it was an all-round team effort."

Hill's son, Tom Hill, the BARLA Great Britain Under-23s captain, picked up the Players' Player of the Year award.

The Liddell family also scooped two awards, with former Knights hooker Jonny the Man of Steel, while his brother, full-back Danny, was Coach's Player of the Year.

Hill explained: "Danny set us on the road. In the first ten games he scored 12 tries and 40 goals and he was a main reason why we set off well. Towards the end of the season he seemed like a senior player; when it was tight he was getting a bit more out of the lads. But, like I said, it was a real team effort."

Young Player of the Year was Jason Smith, Most Improved Player was Matt Withers, and Supporters' Player of the Year was Alan Willitts.

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