‘You would call him a Batley-type player’ - Mark Moxon praises ‘leader’ Brandon Moore after signing from Halifax Panthers

Moore left The Shay by mutual agreement last week with Moxon acting swiftly to get his signature ahead of the 2024 campaign.

Moxon revealed: “It was a little bit out of the blue. We are obviously short of a few middles to be honest. Samy Kibula left a bit of a gap that we needed to fill but I didn’t want to just get anybody. We thought we would be patient and wait for the right person to come up. And Brandon came up.

“He is very similar to a lot of our experienced players in that he has played a lot of Championship rugby. He is a very good, established Championship player. He is tough, hard working and you would call him a Batley-type player, which is honest and hard working.

“He is going to fit right into our group. He offers leadership qualities and he leads by his actions. He will form part of our leadership group where I want all my senior players to be leaders.”

On where Moore is likely to feature within the side, Moxon said:

“He can play middle but he can also play nine. He has played a lot of his career at nine. I signed him mainly as a middle but as cover for nine as well.

“I said I was going to give Oli Burton a chance at nine and I am still going to give him that chance to transfer what he is doing on the training field onto the playing field. I haven’t signed Brandon to replace Oli. He can cover nine.

“My plan was to have Leaky (Alistair Leak), Oli Burton and Ben White and Blakey (Luke Blake) to cover nine. Losing Jimmy Meadows means White is going to revert back to six, in which case he can’t cover six and nine at the same time, so I have lost a bit of cover there, which is why Brandon fits in really well.”

Moore scored the Panthers’ only try at Wembley last August when the side’s met in the 1895 Cup Final, with Fax holding on to beat Batley in their first ever appearance at the national stadium.

Asked if Moore had apologised for causing that heartache to the Bulldogs, Moxon jovially replied:

“Not yet! But from the conversations I’ve had with them there is a mutual respect between the two clubs and the battles we have had over the last few seasons, particularly last year at Wembley, there is a mutual respect between the two clubs and between the players and the teams.

“He is going to fit in just right.”