Leeds Knights: Dawn of another new era as Ryan Aldridge targets opening night triumph over Telford Tigers

A fourth-place regular season finish, runners-up in the Autumn Cup, possessing the league’s leading points-scorer in the prolific Kieran Brown and the significant growth of crowds at Elland Road Ice Arena all helped add up to a positive first 12 months for owner Steve Nell and his team back in April.

But, certainly for coach Ryan Aldridge and his players, there was a sense of disappointment over how that first season in the second-tier ended.

Heading into the play-offs, there was plenty of optimism among the Knights’ roster that they could make it to Coventry’s SkyDome Arena for the Final Four Weekend, maybe even win it.

Two weeks later, their season was over, all six play-off games lost.

Time to move on. Since the curtain came down on a campaign that was memorable for so many positive reasons, a lot has changed, both on and off the ice. Chief among those changes has been the roster itself.

Gone are the likes of Joey Coulter, Ross Kennedy, Bobby Streetly, Jordan Fisher and Jamie Chilcott - many under their own steam - along with bit-part contributors such as the popular Harry Gulliver and Ben Solder, both on two-way deals.

In on permanent contracts are import forwards Grant Cooper and Zach Brooks, experienced centre Matt Haywood, along with a host of new, younger faces that include wingers Carter Hamill and Tate Shudra, as well as youthful ‘D’ in Josh Hodgkinson and Bailey Perre.

And it is those significant changes to the locker room that leads Aldridge to believe that how last season ended means little.

Having replaced the sacked Dave Whistle midway through last season, we are entering Aldridge’s first full season behind the Knights’ bench. It is effectively the dawn of a new era, albeit just 15 months on from the first such fresh start when Nell first took over the club following the demise of the ill-fated Leeds Chiefs franchise.

“We have to park how last season ended, for lots of different reasons,” said Aldridge, whose team play host to defending regular season champions Telford Tigers on Saturday night (face-off 6.30pm).

“First of all, we are a young team, still a very young team. (Last season) the boys were fried, their brains were fried and I think it was just too much for them at the end of the year.

“But we’re a different group now. We can’t sit here and talk about last year when this group is completely different from top to bottom.

“It’s a different mindset, a different looking team and a different skill level. That locker room as a whole is night and day compared to last year.”

Having hopefully negotiated their way past Tom Watkins’s team on home ice, the Knights embark on one of their longer away trips on Sunday when they visit Raiders IHC in Romford, where former team-mate Gulliver will be waiting for them, having signed for Sean Easton’s team in the summer, stepping away from the two-way status he enjoyed being part of Manchester Storm’s Elite League roster.

Pre-season saw the Knights post a 100 per cent record in the Yorkshire Cup, beating Sheffield Steeldogs and Hull Seahawks twice each. But, while it is no doubt always satisfying to watch his team triumph - however much or little is at stake - the experienced Aldridge knows the serious business starts on Saturday night.

“Pre-season has been good, it’s been successful but, essentially, it means nothing,” he added. “Last season we ended the season in terrible form and we need to make sure we start this season in good form.

“Telford are a tough team - they are obviously very well-coached, very well-organised, so that is our first worry. Then we can start worrying about London more on Saturday night and Sunday. These are going to be two tough games.”