Creon praise for Mersey owner

Guildford coach Creon Raftopoulos has praised the Mersey Tigers franchise for keeping the club going this season.

Last year’s treble winners have had financial problems hanging over them for the past 12 months, and nearly went out of business in the summer, before being taken over by local businessman Steve Brookfield.

Despite losing all but one of their champion team, including Great Britain captain Drew Sullivan on the eve of the season, coach Tony Garbelotto remained at the club, and has managed to steer his low budget team to three victories this term, which keeps them just about in reach of the play-offs.

Guildford host the Tigers on Sunday in a game which could go a long way to deciding the play-off picture at the end of the season, and Raftopoulos won’t be taking them lightly.

He said: “With all the respect to their team of young players and veterans I think they have done well to remain competitive and pick up a couple of wins against some higher budget teams.

“Credit has to be given to the Tigers owner keeping the franchise going and obviously Tony and his coaching team for the hard work they put into their team.

“They lost six top players in Sullivan, Reinking, Toney, Thompson, Jones and Lawson so everyone expected them to have some struggles while they rebuild.”