Remembering Terry Newton

Correspondent

Despite the controversy surrounding the ending of Terry Newton’s career, many rugby league fans and watchers will choose to remember him as a committed and passionate player for both club and country.

On the field Terry never took a backwards step; an attitude that resonated with the supporters, and made him a fans favourite at Leeds, Wigan, Bradford and seemingly throughout the whole rugby league community. Playing as he did, for three of the giants of the domestic game, Terry was one of the prominent figures of the Super League era, and actually featured in four Grand Finals. Sadly for him, he was on the losing side on each occasion.

As a Wigan fan, the one regret I have from Terry’s career is that he didn’t stay at the Warriors for longer. The beginning of Ian Millward’s disastrous reign as Wigan Head Coach saw Terry leave for Bradford – in a swap deal with Mickey Higham – but Wigan were later to try without success to prise Terry back, with Brian Noble the unlucky architect of the deal.

Nevertheless, it was with Wigan that Terry enjoyed his most successful years – playing 186 games, and scoring 62 tries for his hometown club. He also won 11 of his 18 international caps during his time at Wigan.

The media may chose to paint Terry in a different light, but most of those he played with, and the supporters that cheered him on, will undoubtedly share the sentiments of his former team-mate Adrian Lam, when he said “I’ve got nothing but great memories of him.”