'Ageless' Gene looking forward to brand new challenge with Halifax

HE MAY not get chance to irritate Super League opponents any more but Stanley Gene has no plans of easing up.

The top flight will be a less colourful place this season without the charismatic Papua New Guinean thundering around.

Whether it be with Hull KR, Hull FC, Bradford Bulls or Huddersfield Giants, Gene has thrilled supporters for the best part of the last decade with his indomitable style. Equally so, he has battered opponents with his downright brutal toughness.

However, approaching his (alleged) 36th birthday, and after his beloved Rovers failed to offer him a new contract, the versatile veteran has dropped down into the Championship to feature for his fifth Yorkshire club – Halifax.

"They'll be pleased I'm going, that squat little half-back!" joked Gene, contemplating the re-action of players no longer having to try and contain the force many likened to a piece of granite.

"I've really enjoyed my time playing Super League. I played at the top for a lot of years. Every year, people kept asking how old I was but I kept proving people wrong. Now this (Halifax) is another challenge."

How old the hardened Gene really is has been one of the longest-running debates in the game. His former Bulls coach Brian Noble reckons he saw a passport which put him down as 42 and that claim was made two years ago.

There has never been any birth certificate provided to clear up the issue but then again such paperwork was of no real concern as Gene grew up in tribal village life amid the jungle around Goroka.

Regardless, with his boundless energy and spirit, the legendary player has constantly produced performances which belied whatever age he actually is.

Halifax, hoping to go one better than last season's Championship Grand Final defeat, realise they have secured someone who still has plenty to offer and Gene believes the same about his new employers.

"They have some talented young kids and a couple of older heads while Matt Calland and his coaching staff are great," he said.

"Halifax were once big in Super League and in a couple of years I think we can see them there again."

No-one would put it past Gene, who has signed a two-year deal, to somehow march back up there with them if they did achieve their ultimate dream. He has already expressed a desire to resume his international career.

"I'd like to play for PNG again," admitted Gene, whom many thought had finished with the Kumuls after the 2008 World Cup.

"Hopefully, I can play in the Four Nations at the end of this year. I broke my wrist so couldn't play last season but never say never."

It was after shining in the 1995 World Cup with his homeland that Gene won his first contract with Hull KR, going on to become a Robins legend with an incredible 94 tries in just 111 games while they were still in the National League.

He first had a taste of Super League after switching to Hull FC in 2000 but, after a sole season at KR's arch-rivals, moved on to become a hero at Huddersfield.

Gene then won the World Club Challenge with Bradford Bulls in 2006 before making a fairytale return to Rovers for their first season in Super League the following year.

As inspirational as ever, he helped them reach the play-offs for the first time last season, achieving their highest finish of fourth.

However, Gene was surprisingly denied the chance to say farewell to the Craven Park faithful when Justin Morgan controversially left him out of the squad that lost to Wigan in their elimination play-off.

"I was very disappointed not to play but you can't worry about it," he recalled.

"You have to look on the bright side. When they're playing on Friday and Saturday nights I'll be able to go back and watch as a supporter. I've so many friends there. Rovers did actually offer me a coaching role with the young kids and I do love the club so I could have stayed there.

"But it wasn't enough to put bread and butter on the table. It's not like I'm living back home where I could just eat from the land; I've got a mortgage to pay with every day costs and bills.

"I was pretty gutted to leave but I'm not going to moan about it. I'll be back there on the terraces soon."

Gene is enjoying plenty of benefits now operating as a semi-professional footballer.

"I've been playing full-time for a long time so I am just trying to get my head around training three nights a week," he added.

"It's great to spend some time with the kids, though.

"I haven't been doing that in the last couple of years but now I've got time to myself I can pick the boys up and take them to school and get them their tea before I go training.

"It is quite weird getting home at 10 or 11pm at night but it's all a new challenge."

Gene was supposed to make his Halifax debut yesterday in former Huddersfield team-mate Eorl Crabtree's testimonial but that fixture fell victim to the weather.

The postponement continued his frustrated run of never having managed an appearance back at his old stomping ground since leaving the Galpharm at the end of 2005.

Meanwhile, much has changed in the lower league since Gene last featured there with relegated Huddersfield in 2002.

"The level of football is definitely much higher now," he asserts. "There's some really good teams in the Championship – Sheffield, Halifax, Barrow and Featherstone, who can all play good football. It's an exciting time and I'm looking forward to the season."

The main decision for Calland, who played alongside Gene at Huddersfield, is working out where best to utilise his new star: second row, loose-forward, stand-off, scrum-half or hooker? "I'll play anywhere, I'm not bothered," he insisted. "They know what I'm about and that's the same whichever position I'm in."

Soon it will be Championship players knowing all about Gene, with the bruises to prove it.