As Brian Noble strolls around Headingley as a welcome guest of the club, it's hard not to wonder how it sits with him. As proud a Bradfordian you will find, his entire life has seen him programmed to hate Leeds Rhinos.
Yet on a bitterly cold January afternoon, Noble takes a stroll with Gary Hetherington around a stadium that has given him anything but warm welcomes. As both a player and coach, Noble is synonymous with Bradford Northern and the Bulls. He is also a love-to-hate figure across West Yorkshire's border having had more than his fair share of run-ins with Leeds both on the pitch and in the stands.
The Leeds and Bradford rivalry isn't what it was. The Bulls' decline has meant these great enemies haven't played in the same division for eight seasons. In that time, Bradford have played in the third division while the Rhinos have won another two Super League titles. Once upon a time, you wouldn't dare move between the clubs. Nowadays, the pair have a dual-registration agreement that will see the Rhinos provide them with players week-to-week. These two clubs are now allies.
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Yet nobody would deny that the quench to reignite the rivalry remains, many on the terraces yearn for the days when sellouts were common and hostility ran rampant. Noble falls into that category.
"It still exists for me and many Bradfordians," he told Rugby League Live. "The fact there has been a fall from grace hasn't been ideal for Bradford or the game. It got to the point where this was the biggest derby game bar none. I coached at Wigan and I don't mean that with disrespect, it's just an observation.
"The games were stunningly exciting, full of controversy and crazy decisions from everybody on both sides of the fence. People focus on the Sinfield goal kick but there were about eight both ways in that Challenge Cup game.
"But I have so many memories of the vitriol and the happy memories. This game is a massive game in the world of sport and I genuinely mean that, some of the best moments I've had in this game have been at Headingley and Odsal where it's been packed, properly packed, when you can't get in. It created a desire for something."
There are too many incidents to try and reel off to explain the history of the West Yorkshire derby. Noble, who played in multiple derby matches and coached many more, has his own fond memories from those days.
"I never used to get sent off, I was quite disciplined as a player, but I got involved and ended up hitting Colin Maskill off the ball. I had to walk the full circumference of the pitch down at Headingley getting booed, tea and whatever else thrown at me. We're lifelong friends and we laugh about it now but I whacked him.
"The other involved a player called Paul Harkin. The one thing you didn't do back then was leave Bradford to join Leeds. You could go anywhere you want but not Leeds. He was in the inner sanctum with Hobbs and the Fairbanks. We just couldn't accept he'd signed for Leeds. I think we played them in the second game of the season and we still had a violent pack, for sure with Pendlebury and the Fairbanks.
"Anyway, they had a kit man here called Barry who was a fantastic bloke, lovely man. We wanted to upset Harks before the game so we got a little velvet bag with twenty-sixpences in and judas inside. I went over to Barry and told him we want to show there are no hard feelings and asked if he'd give him this bag. Anyway, he's given him this bag and by all accounts, he fell to pieces.
"They were the lengths you'd go to in order to get an advantage. As a coach, it was no different. The week leading up to Leeds games you were after every snippet of information you could get. I remember reading about Marcelo Bielsa and spying on Derby, well I can tell you for a fact that all went on. I laughed when I saw Frank Lampard say Bielsa had someone at the training ground, we'd have two or three!
"Honestly, I won't give up all my secrets but I wanted to make sure we knew intimately how they were going to play and who would be playing. Tony Smith was the coach at Leeds back then and I actually convinced Smithy that he had a mole in the camp. One of their players told me he held a meeting and told them if he found any of them were giving information you'll be dead, that sort of thing. At the end of the day, both sets were brilliant athletes, they went hammer and tong and the fans sensed that."
Back at the Bulls now as a consultant, the aim is to ensure the Bulls can restore that rivalry moving forward. "I understand there are a whole heap of questions that come with that and the dynamics of the club. But I miss the fixture, I think everybody does, and those involved yearn for it to be back one day. We hope, over time, we can make that happen."
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