Milestone man John Kear aiming for same ‘standard’ ahead of Batley Bulldogs’ trip to Doncaster

The milestone 700th outing for the rugby legend at home to Fax ended in disappointment as the Bulldogs surrendered a 16-6 lead with only 15 minutes remaining to agonisingly lose 18-16.

“I was delighted with their efforts,” Kear said. “I thought the workrate, toughness and physicality was absolutely first class and that was against a very good Halifax team.

“But I do feel as if we lost the game rather than them winning it. The tries they scored at the end came on the back of our errors. It was a great opportunity that we had in our grasp that we failed to take.

“I certainly didn’t feel we were being threatened that much until we came up with those errors deep inside our own half.

“And then Halifax took full advantage of them.”

The display, despite defeat, has marked a steady improvement for Kear since he took over the reins again at Mount Pleasant last month.

And he is hoping there is more to come from the side, starting with an away trip to Doncaster this weekend.

The South Yorkshire club has won four out of their last five Championship games - including a 50-12 thrashing of Batley in what turned out to be Mark Moxon’s last game in charge.

He said: “That was the best they have played since I have returned. The performance was better than Sheffield. And it was certainly a great response to the disappointment at Barrow.

“Going forward, that is the standard we have set now. That is the standard we need to be aiming for week in, week out. And if we achieve that standard then we’ll be in the game. You might lose one, like we did on Sunday, but you have every likelihood of winning one as well, which hopefully will come this weekend against a very good Doncaster team.

“They ended up with 11 men against Widnes and still managed to win. They have certainly got some character, toughness and size about them.”

Kear’s remarkable journey in rugby league, which started in his hometown of Castleford as a schoolboy, has now seen him lead 700 games - a glowing statistic uncovered by Wakefield Trinity club historian Lee Robinson, despite two other statisticians claiming otherwise!

An honoured Kear said: “I had about three statisticians, one put me above 700, one put me below and one put me on exactly 700. I will take that it was the 700th!

“It was Lee Robinson, the Wakefield statistician, who informed me, and he’s got all the records of every game so I can’t really disprove it. I will be very happy to accept the plaudits for 700 games and hopefully we can chalk up another few wins now we’re in the 700.”

Asked if it brought it home to him how much he means to rugby league, and vice-versa, he replied:

“I think it does. Rugby league obviously means an immense amount to me. I have been involved in it since I was a schoolboy at Castleford when I was five. I have seen many, many games and it has given me great joy.

“Hopefully I have served it well with a bit of dignity, and the teams that I have played in and coached for have been good teams. Hopefully people have enjoyed watching and we have entertained a few people.”