Morrison: I am here to stay

Dewsbury head coach Glenn Morrison is entering the final year of his contract with the club but he is very much committed to the Rams and has bright ambitions for the future.

Morrison joined the Rams as coach at the end of 2012. This season Dewsbury finished eighth in the regular season and fourth in the Championship Shield.

“It is up to the club what they want to do but I am very much looking forward to trying to progress the club even further,” Morrison told Love Rugby League.

“Since coming to the club, we have been in the top eight every year.

“We have brought some good players in. We also have some good youngsters who have Super League experience.

“Keeping all of our players on the field and the same seven or eight each week will have a huge impact on our progress next season.

The club is also making some very good progress off the field which is always pleasing.”

Dewsbury have signed Lucas Walshaw and Mitch Stringer to permanent deals, while Karl Pryce has retired and joined the club’s coaching staff.

Fifteen of the Rams’ 2016 squad has been retained while new signings have been maded in Gareth Potts, Hamish Barnes, Brad Foster, Aaron Ollett and Robbie Ward.

Whilst the past season has been a struggle the Australian admitted there were encouraging signs.

“I would say it has been on par,” Morrison said.

“It has been a tough year. We have had some very good results and games that we would have liked to forget about.”

The Rams were twice as many points away from making the Middle 8s compared with the previous season, but Morrison admits there were various factors which made it difficult from the start.

“There was a completely new half-back partnership which had to get up to speed.

“We also lost [Ben] Reynolds after four weeks.

“I still don’t think we were that far away. There were a couple of games against the bottom teams that didn’t go our way.”

Despite losing to Bradford in the semi-final of the Championship Shield, Morrison was happy with the overall level of performance they showed throughout the competition.

“In the past month we beat Halifax away,” he said.

“We beat Sheffield away. In the semi-final we were poor in the first half and then we won the second half but more importantly we were competitive.

“It shows that when we get the players together that we can compete against the best.”