Sheffield Sharks' season over: Atiba Lyons laments injuries and gives verdict on impact of referees row

Sharks lost a two-legged play-off semi-final to Leicester Riders in overtime, bringing a shuddering halt to a 2024/25 campaign that had promised so much - and still delivered a fair amount.

Injuries sustained by playmakers Donovan Clay and Prentiss Nixon in the quarter-final victory over Cheshire Phoenix a week earlier were untimely, the latter playing only half the minutes across the two legs and the former - Lyons’ player of the season - missing all of Friday’s first leg and managing only 12 minutes on Sunday.

“It was a fantastic season at large, but I think we were fighting a lot of injuries all at the wrong time,” rued Lyons.

“We had guys playing that weren’t quite 100 per cent. Jordan (Ratinho) had a bronchitis infection that he was fighting through, Donovan had the bad ankle he was playing on, as much as he tried.

“Prentiss was in and out of the mask after the bang on the face, so was still in pain.

“Leicester came out really physically. We struggled at first and just gradually ran out of gas at the end of a long, tough season.

“But I was really proud of the effort, the fans were great, and it’s been a really good season.

“We did win something this year, that’s always got to be at the top of what we’ve accomplished. We pushed for everything. If we were healthy and we lost it would be a missed opportunity, but this is sport…we only had Donovan for 10 minutes and we took the lead when he was in. If we’re healthy, we like our chances.

“You can have the greatest team but if health is not on your side then there’s nothing you can do.”

Lyons often described the roster he had assembled with the backing of new owner, Vaughn Millette, as one of the best in his long stewardship of the club.

But in a mad seven days in March their season peaked and troughed, with victory in the Super League Basketball Cup final bringing a first trophy in nine years swiftly followed by Millette’s social media attack on a referee.

That sparked a race row in the sport with Lyons the centrepiece. Prior to that, Sharks had been on an 11-match winning run. After it they went 9-8 as games were postponed due to the resulting referees’ strike while a crew of Canadian officials had to be flown in for Sheffield’s games.

Asked if the controversy had an effect, Lyons told The Yorkshire Post: “Some of the things that had an effect on us were needed for the game, and overall they were conversations that needed to be had, to clear the air a little bit.

“But we also had a two-week lay-over which we weren’t expecting when we were playing really well coming off a big win - I’d like to get those back and drop a couple of games in there.

“It might have broken our rhythm a little bit, but it’s hard to say, you can’t look back too much. I don’t think it was detrimental to our season.”

He added: “It’s been a successful season, we’ve brought home silverware for the first time in a long time, we pushed for the league title down to the last couple of weeks.

“We had so much unfortunate types of things happen to us, and we weathered them all and were able to maintain a good level, so you’ve got to look at it from that angle and not just focus on what we fell short of.

“We did a good job and I’m proud of them all.”

As Leicester and Newcastle Eagles now prepare for Sunday’s SLB Play-off final at London’s O2 Arena - and their stablemates Sheffield Hatters as well after reaching the women’s final - Lyons must now hold exit interviews with players and final team meetings a week earlier than hoped.

Sharks have no players under contract for next season but have a history of running it back with as many players as they can; last summer being the only exception to that norm when Lyons brought in a host of new faces to start the season and only returned four players.