Trio depart Haven
Whitehaven Rugby League can today confirm the departure of Geronimo Doyle, Will Evans & Tom Wilkinson.
Tom Wilkinson will be taking time out of the game while Will Evans & Geronimo Doyle have decided to pursue other options in 2023.
Wilkinson leaves the club after joining the club ahead of the 2019 League 1 season which of course seen the club finish the season as Champions and secured promotion to the Championship for the then curtailed 2020 season.
He leaves the LEL Arena with a total of 70 appearances scoring 6 tries. Interim CEO Ashley Kilpatrick spoke of Wilkinson’s depart saying “ Wilko has decided to take some time away from the game and the club understands his decision. He will be a massive miss in the middle. He’s your 7/8 out of 10 every week. Wilko has been brilliant since I came to the club, he just comes in and gets his head down and gets in with it. I’d like to thank Wilko and wish him all the best in the future.”
Will Evans leaves the LEL Arena after just one season making 26 appearances for the club scoring 8 tries and hitting form towards the end of the campaign which secured him the young player of the year award at the club’s end of season awards night.
Evans also made his international debut mid-season for Wales in their test vs France and will hoping to be apart of their squad for the World Cup starting next month.
Ashley Kilpatrick spoke of Evans departure saying “Will spoke to me earlier this week and informed me that he has decided to move on and further his career away from Whitehaven in 2023. Will struggled when he first came over I don’t think that’s any secret but towards the back end of the year we saw the potential Will has and showed what he can do.
Will was helping coaching the development academy and bought into what we were doing with that. I’d like to thank Will for his efforts in 2022 and wish him all the best in the World Cup as well as for 2023.”
Geronimo Doyle will also leave the LEL Arena after what has been a frustrating year for the Kiwi full back which has seen him limited to 13 appearances scoring 2 tries following breaking his arm in the 1895 cup play-off back in April which seen him make only 2 appearances after that in the remainder of the campaign.
Despite his limited appearances on the field in the second half of the campaign the Kiwi continued to play his part off the field being part of the club’s media team producing content for the club’s social media channels. Ashley Kilpatrick spoke saying “Geronimo has decided to move on for 2023. It hasn’t worked for him at Whitehaven sadly and I don’t think we saw the potential he has due to no fault of his own. Breaking his arm in the early part of the season and suffering setbacks when attempting to return hasn’t helped with that. However Geronimo did play you could see the potential with his attacking flair, I wish Geronimo all the best for 2023 and his career.
First and third picture credit - Ben Challis
Second picture credit - SW Pix