lefty goldblatt wrote:
Some blasts from the past there, Sally
I'd forgotten the Clarke rumour, and can't remember Terzis' name. Old age, eh?
Paul Terzis was an Aussie coach who Leigh brought over to replace Ian Millward when he left for Saints. In that season he had taken Leigh to new levels, they smashed everyone in the Championship (called the NFP back then), he'd brought Neil Turley over from Wigan U21s and he had a Bevanesque season. Terzis was seen as the next big thing in coaching. If I remember rightly, we were mocked a bit for being linked with him, the view was "as if Terzis would go to Wire, he's going to wait for Wigan/Leeds to come up".
He was a bit of a chip off the Millward block was Terzis, liked to talk a lot and be in the media and was on the radio with Trevor and Jack all the time. He seemed to enjoy that Rugby League Raw programme that ITV did as well, and seemed to ham up his coaching speeches and reactions a bit for the cameras. I remember thinking I'd be quite pleased if he took us over as he seemed to be a good coach, but I did think there was something a bit over the top about him.
Leigh ended up getting knocked out in the semi final by Mike Fords's Oldham, a major shock. After dominating the league all year they had one bad half and went out without even making the NFP Grand Final (Neil Kelly's Widnes beat Oldham). Terzis' coaching stock never recovered. The next year, he had to contend with a TS-coached Huddersfield who were a full-time team in a semi-pro league, and the year after, Salford came down and also went full-time. Terzis was bitter about the fact it wasn't a level playing field. He left at the end of that season Salford went up, and disappeared from rugby league.
He's still remembered fondly in Leigh as far as I can tell, he had them playing good rugby and was definitely a charismatic and big personality.
