Eight years after his sole appearance for the club, Mitch Clark has returned to the York Knights. Clark has signed a two-and-a-half year deal following his release from the Sheffield Eagles. A day after Sheffield Eagles confirmed the departure of Mitch Clark, head coach Craig Lingard explained why the 31-year-old ended his brief stint with the Rugby League club.
Clark was released from his contract by mutual consent on compassionate grounds, and during a press conference at The Wave in Sheffield on Wednesday, coach Lingard was asked about Clark’s release in the lead-up to the game between the Eagles and Doncaster Knights RFC.
Lingard said when he joined the Eagles last year, the head coach was keen on improving the connection between the players and management at the club. The former Castleford Tigers head coach said he had urged the players to reach out to him if they had reservations about extending their stay at Sheffield Eagles.
Clark said: “Mitchy came to me at the start of the week, he had personal issues at home in terms of travelling, it was quite a long way away from Sheffield. His wife is currently pregnant, so he is spending a lot of time away from home, leaving the house for work at seven o’clock in the morning, not necessarily getting back home until after 10, quarter to 11 at night.”
Clark has joined Championship rivals York Knights after bidding farewell to his former teammates at Sheffield. Eagles head coach Lingard believes that the forward’s departure is unlikely to have any major effect on the club’s performance moving forward. The 47-year-old also mentioned that the Eagles will have Clark’s replacement within the next three weeks.
“I think that what you tend to find in team sport and in working life as well, you do a number of jobs and work with a lot of different people, but you quickly move on and that’s not a negative, but you’ve got to focus on the job in hand,” Lingard explained.
“Mitch is a great, real nice and personal bloke, but we’ve got to make sure that we move on. He came in last night and said his goodbyes to the players and we connected with our phones, you are only a call or text message away. I don’t think it’ll impact us too much,” he concluded.
A seasoned campaigner in the Super League and Championship, Clark had stints with Bradford and Hull KR in the build-up to his arrival at the British top flight. The former Eagles star was recruited by Wigan Warriors in 2020. The Kiwi forward represented Castleford for two seasons followed by his transfer to Newcastle Thunder.
