Sheffield Eagles stalwart extends stay to play on in 2024: ‘I guess we’re going again!’
Anthony Thackeray in action for Sheffield Eagles in 2023 - Alamy
Sheffield Eagles have confirmed a new one-year deal for club captain Anthony Thackeray, meaning that he will play on into the 18th season of his professional career come 2024.
Hull-born Thackeray will turn 38 in February, soon after the start of the new campaign. He first joined Sheffield ahead of the 2019 season, and has scored 70 tries in the 104 appearances he’s amassed in the five years he’s spent there since then.
Those tallies include the 2020 campaign which was cut short – and curtailed – after the Eagles had played just six games due to the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Having helped guide Mark Aston’s men into the Championship play-offs this term, knocked out by London Broncos who would go on to get promoted up to Super League, the veteran will now enter his sixth season with Sheffield.
Sheffield Eagles stalwart Anthony Thackeray to play on into 18th season of his career in 2024
Half-back Thackeray has also featured both at full-back and in the hooking role throughout his lengthy career, which began with York in 2007 as a loanee from hometown outfit Hull FC.
In a career which has seen him ply his trade in the second tier for the most part, he’s also pulled on a shirt for Castleford Tigers, Widnes Vikings, Halifax, Dewsbury Rams and Featherstone Rovers.
Thackeray has 11 Super League appearances to his name, but more notably, his next run out in the Championship will see him hit the milestone of 300 appearances in the second tier.
The Eagles announced his contract extension with a jovial video posted on their Facebook page, in which Thackeray initially made it sound like his time was up, saying: “I want to thank Sheffield Eagles and the club’s supporters for the last five years.
“I’ve really enjoyed my time there, and I love the club to bits as you all know. The club is growing and will continue to grow.”
The playmaker’s children then got involved, asking him to go around for one more year, and eventually the cat was let out of the bag as the veteran said: “I guess we’re going again!”