Eagles are soaring once again after decade in rugby league's doldrums

MARK ASTON will never forget the devastation he felt when Sheffield Eagles suffered at the hands of one of ruby league's most embarrassing episodes.

But out of the wreckage of their ill-fated merger with Huddersfield Giants, the South Yorkshire club started from scratch and is now possibly in the strongest position of its history.

They may not yet be back in Super League but that alone does not always equate to strength.

The Eagles are the RFL Community Club of the Year and have just recorded their best-ever finish since falling out of the top flight, having already initiated a thriving junior set-up which is proving their real pride.

Excited by an imminent move into Sheffield United's Bramall Lane ground, Sheffield are also one of those increasingly rare breeds – a rugby league club not drowning in debt.

"I'm a big believer in developing success so it's forever; if you buy it, it's not," said Aston, the club's most famous player and general saviour who now combines his coaching role with that of chief executive.

"It has been long and hard but we can see light at the end of the tunnel and have done so for the last three or four years.

"I'd have said you were mad if, 10 years ago when we were starting up again, you'd have said we'd now be in this position – third in the Championship, so many squads running, 10 kids signed up for the Academy and a lot more coming.

"But we are there and people see that. We are getting that bit of recognition and are finding players who do want to come to Sheffield."

Having won the Lance Todd Trophy in the side that produced one of the biggest sporting upsets of all time – the 1998 Challenge Cup final giant-killing success against Wigan – scrum-half Aston envisaged rugby league finally really taking off in football-mad Sheffield.

Instead, the following year, with none of the expected upsurge in crowds and financial problems, they accepted a 1million pay-off to merge with Huddersfield as part of a re-structuring of Super League.

The alliance did not coin the phrase 'Shuddersfield' for no reason. It did not sit well and, as quickly as the ill-conceived partnership was formed, it disbanded with Sheffield dumped altogether and Huddersfield continuing on.

"It was heart-wrenching at the time," recalled Aston, who had played with the Sheffield side since 1985, signing in only their second season following formation and proving an influential figure in their rise through the divisions.

"I'd been part of the club more or less since it had begun and I'd put a lot of time personally in working with the schools, giving kids the opportunity to play rugby league.

"I can remember I thought the decision (to merge) was wrong. Sheffield had just won the Challenge Cup and we'd never finished in the bottom three.

"We were closer to the play-offs and as a group of people, the team we had was doing something right.

"It was so disappointing, especially now when you look at what they've done in going back up to 14 teams.

"They sacrificed two – us and Gateshead – to do it all originally and to put it back up again is a smack in the chops. But we've moved past all that now."

Within just three months of their demise, Aston quickly helped re-form the Eagles in a semi-professional guise, and he has spent the last decade and more continuing to spread the word in Sheffield. And it seems people are listening.

Working in tandem with education providers, and encouraging the development of local talent through their impressive Academy set-up – "I don't have to go to Castleford, Wakefield or Leeds looking for players anymore" – the club has built real foundations.

"We started our scholarship which is very successful," said Aston. "Through that we've got our Academy running full time and things like that are massive for us. It's probably the biggest thing this club has done in the last 25 years bar Wembley.

"Equally, so is the importance of having education working with sport. What I hate is when kids come out of rugby with nothing to fall back on.

"They have to start studying again or find an apprenticeship and find an income. That's wrong.

"The promise I make to all parents of kids at the Eagles is that none of them will come out of our system with nothing to fall back on.

"Whether it be college courses, apprenticeships or going on to university, we help them learn off the pitch as well as on it.

"Not everyone can go on and play Super League but there's a part for everyone to play in the game."

Under the astute chairmanship of Ian Swire, the Eagles are no longer a club which spends what it has not got.

Leaving Don Valley, their home since 1990 after a previously nomadic existence, is seen as crucial in the next phase of their development.

The need to increase crowds and create more atmosphere – the athletics track surrounding Don Valley has traditionally deterred both – sees them move in with Sheffield United next season and Aston hopes the partnership can bear fruit.

"The deal took a bit of working on but it's the way forward for us as a club," he said. "Sheffield United get 20,000 crowds down there and if we can just tap into a percentage of that, it could be fantastic."

The desire to return to Super League is obvious but Aston and Swire will not risk the Eagles flapping again in order to achieve that aim.

"We're hoping our move will generate another 1,000 supporters," said Aston. "That would put us into a very, very strong position to apply (for Super League) next time.

"We want to be a Super League club again and we want one of those franchises.

"But, if we're not ready, we're not ready and we won't go for it.

"It's not the be all and end all. What is, is our Academy. That's developing us forever."