Rugby League: Fox builds after double tragedy

FOR THE Rochdale Hornets' player-coach, Deryck Fox, this winter has been a trauma he would like to forget, but which he knows he never will.

The former Great Britain scrum-half has been to the funerals of two of his players, one of them his closest friend in the game.

The death of Karl Marriott in the autumn, at the age of 27, was a devastating blow in itself. "I only coached him for a few months, but I had a great respect for him as an opponent, for his strength and toughness," Fox said. "But Roy going as well and so suddenly, I'll never really get over that."

When Roy Powell died, like Marriott from a heart attack, at the end of December, it brutally severed a bond between him and Fox that went back to their days playing together as 12-year-olds for St John Fisher in Dewsbury.

"He was just as big then," recalled Fox. "The biggest, strongest lad you'd ever see. Even then we called him the gentle giant."

Their professional careers initially took them in different directions -- Powell to Leeds and Fox to Featherstone - although they later played together for Bradford, Featherstone and Batley as well as in Test matches, before Fox brought his great friend over the Pennines to be his assistant.

"He would have been my right-hand man and obviously we're going to miss him badly."

There was a fear that the loss of Marriott and Powell, two tragedies in such quick succession, could seriously damage Rochdale's prospects for the new season in the Northern Ford RFL Premiership before it started, but Fox believes that he owes it to his friend not to let that happen.

"I didn't know how we would react on New Year's Day, but we went out and played really well against Oldham. It was a mark of how far we've come." They start the league season with a much sterner test on Sunday when they go to Featherstone, a club that went so close to winning promotion to Super League last season.

"It's my old club and Roy's old club, so it's going to be an emotional afternoon all round. They've gained some good players as well as losing some, so it's a real test for us."

With a full off-season - albeit one marred by tragedy - to work on the fitness and organisation of his squad, Fox now feels that Rochdale are his team, after the damage limitation when he took over midway through last season.

His own craft at scrum-half, alongside the flair of Willie Swann, gives them an immediate advantage over most clubs. He has brought in two experienced forwards in Andy Burgess and David Stephenson and he is tipping Danny Sculthorpe, brother of Great Britain's Paul, for a big season now that he has buckled down to serious training.

And Fox also has a legacy from Powell. "He wanted to go into coaching and he wrote down everything he heard from all his coaches that he thought he could use. It's a pile of paper about two inches thick and his wife, Helen, passed it on to me last week. He's left me plenty to read."

So Roy Powell is still looking after his little friend, just as he used to on the field.

"They say that everyone has a guardian angel," he said with a grin, "and I feel as though the big fellow's up there looking after me."