Hagan had some happy times here
Published Date: 19 November 2008
Players at clubs on both side of the world are reporting for pre-season training at the moment regardless of the ongoing World Cup.
One man is pottering around at home though, helping his wife with the chores and preparing his daughter for her driving test.
For the first time in more than 25 years, Michael Hagan is not involved in professional rugby league after resigning as coach at Parramatta Eels for personal reasons.
It has been an Australian career taking in playing stints at Canterbury, Newcastle and Queensland plus coaching at Hunter Valley, Canberra, Newcastle, the Eels and Queensland in State of Origin.
At various times he has also been a journalist, a part-time car salesman and worked in sales and marketing at various clubs.
It is for his two separate spells at Thrum Hall that "Hages" is affectionately remembered in Halifax though.
He made 92 appearances and never missed a game throughout his time with the club.
His first period was the 1984/85 season when Aussie accents dominated the home dressing room at the end of the tiled pavilion corridor.
With the season Down Under differing from its British counterpart in those days, it was an ideal time for young Aussies with potential to come and literally winter over here.
Many became household names.
Some, like Tony Anderson, never went home.
Others, like Martin Bella, took English wives back with them.
Hagan came as a result of the close bonds forged between Fax president David Brook and the Canterbury club when he was in Australia in 1984 as his firm, Modern Maintenance Products sponsored the Lions tour.
Boothtown boy Brook had been enticed onto the Halifax board by Stanley Ackroyd and four years of buoyant success began.
The first concrete example of the Thrum Hall-Belmore link was probably when Bulldogs supremo Peter "Bullfrog" Moore suggested his son-in-law, a chap called Chris Anderson, as a potential coach.
Playing-wise, it also manifested itself in the shape of lads like Paul Langmack, Geoff Robinson and Hagan whilst Anderson went back for a spell with Canterbury.
The club even adopted the Canterbury shirts as their away kit at one stage!
The 20-year-old Hagan soon stood out as a consummate professional after his arrival in October 1984 and his halfback partnership with Balmain's Ron Ryan had the Scratchin' Shed entranced.
He went home as leading tryscorer and with the club's first division safety ensured, a big thing for what was at the time a "yo-yo club."
The ironic thing is that he wouldn't have been back in 1993 had Malcolm Reilly succeeded in signing Nigel Wright from Wakefield.
But he had just retired as Newcastle captain and wanted a couple more seasons in the game, and Fax were happy to oblige.
The pace may have lessened but someone had to make the bullets for John Schuster, John Bentley and Mark Preston to fire for another two happy seasons....
Hagan always maintained his links with Halifax. When he was in the UK for the World Club Championship in 1997 with Hunter Mariners, he arranged to use Thrum Hall as their training base.
