ONE of the superstars in Super League has called on the powers that be to “make sure there’s a good future” for York City Knights.

Former England, Great Britain and NRL ace Gareth Ellis, now the captain at Hull FC, counts York as his first professional outfit and, while he can’t wait to kick off the Super League season next week, he admits to being concerned by the current state of affairs back at the club that helped to launch his career.

Hopes are high that a new board of directors at the Knights can get them back into the project, but they are currently homeless after being ejected from Huntington Stadium and the community stadium plan.

“It’s where I played my first (pro) season and my dad, Ken, played for York so I have an affinity to the place,” said Ellis, speaking at the Rugby League Rocks event last night that launched the new Super League campaign.

“It’s sad to see the current state of affairs with them being homeless at the moment.

“Obviously there are a lot of amateur clubs around the area as well so it’s important to support these areas and, touch wood, everyone can work together to make sure there’s a good future for the pro club - and the first step is getting somewhere to play.”

Ellis, now 33, played for one of those amateur clubs as a junior – at under-8s and U9s level for his local outfit Selby Warriors, then called Whitemoor Warriors - before moving to the Lock Lane club in Castleford.

He arrived at York Wasps in the late 1990s, aged 17, playing for their academy, after starring for York Schoolboys. He returned to Lock Lane for winter rugby before signing for Wakefield Trinity the following summer season, making his first-team debut in 1999.

He went on to find superstardom with Leeds Rhinos and down under with Wests Tigers, where he was three times a Player of the Year, before returning to England with Hull in 2013. He has been capped 15 times by England and before that 17 by GB.

He signed a contract extension with Hull last August to keep him at the KC Stadium for two more years and is looking forward to a much-improved season with the Black and Whites - but he has not forgotten where it all began.

“It’s where my career started really, so I have a lot to thank them for,” he added of York.

“It seems a long time ago now but going to York’s academy was great for me. It was a step up from the amateur arena. It was a step up in coaching and it was the first time I felt like I possibly had a career in rugby league.”
 

* York Acorn ARLC’s first-round Ladbrokes Challenge Cup tie at Shaw Cross Sharks was postponed.

The game was one of three round one ties to fall victim to the weather, while Scarborough Pirates crashed out 60-6 at Oulton Raiders.