19/04/2024
It was on the first training night for the new Athboy Longhorns Rugby League Club in April 2005 that we first met Tony Dale. “Is this where rugby league’s been played ?” he asked in that what became familiar to many, flat Rochdale accent. He made his debut as a player with the Longhorns in the Kilkenny 9s season opener. Although probably twice the age of most of his teammates Tony played most games for the Longhorns in their early seasons, acting often as a player coach and mentor both on and off the pitch.
Those early seasons were hard for the Athboy side with it’s small player base but that didn’t deter Tony. He kept encouraging the young players and through that encouragement Athboy had its first A International players soon to be followed by their first Full International squad members. Over the years Athboy Longhorns became more competitive and after suffering defeats in the 2015 and 2015 Grand Finals they finally won the title in 2017. Anyone who was there that day will not forget the look on Tony’s face as the Longhorns finally succeeded.
Around this time someone created the expression “Tony Dale is RL”, it summed up the man very well. Everybody who played Rugby League in Ireland knew Tony and he knew everybody. It didn’t matter who you played for, he would be there encouraging, supporting, giving advice. Referees were regularly the recipients of Tony’s advice.
As the Longhorns grew stronger and dropped the link with Athboy, Tony started again with a new Athboy side. Once more this was an opportunity for younger players to get involved in the sport. At times this became very difficult as Tony’s health deteriorated only for him to get stronger again. One of his highlights in these years was presenting an Athboy jersey to Irish International Luke Keary at the Rugby League World Cup match in Leigh.
Tony was a well known and popular figure in Athboy, he had suffered from ill health for several years but he had an amazing fighting spirit which saw him come back strong many times throughout his illness. He loved Rugby League and many in Rugby League in Ireland loved him.
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