Leeds Rhinos allowed Blake Austin to leave for Castleford Tigers, Wigan Warriors signed Tyler Dupree from Salford Red Devils meanwhile former Wigan star and future Hull KR centre left the NRL to join Leigh Leopards and not his future club causing a lot of surprise.
It was even more surprising with Leigh taking on Hull KR at Wembley in the Challenge Cup Final and the two wrapped up in a play-off battle.
Gildart is a former England international and was excellent in 2018 against New Zealand notching a famous try.
Despite the fact he is headed to Hull KR, he joined Leigh causing quite a stir especially when fans thought he might play against the Robins at Wembley.
Now Phil Clarke has suggested that Hull KR fans “are not happy.”
Brian Carney said: “No disrespect to Oliver Gildart, but he is a replacement and what a replacement for the injured Ricky Leutele.”
“Yes,” Clarke replied, “And I don’t think Hull KR fans are happy about it. They are not happy but tonight’s a chance for them to have a look at him.”
Recently, Derek Beaumont explained how the move happened:
“The biggest thing in any club is recruitment; and in doing that, you know, who you coach has an influence on who the agents and the players are going to be coached by,” he said on The Bench.
“And then your facilities obviously are important. I think we’re okay on that element; and then it’s the culture that you have and the fun that you create.
“The best advert for your recruitment are the players you’ve got at your club. So Oliver Gildart, okay Hull wanted to bring him early. He wasn’t keen on changing where he was at. But probably they don’t go back. There’s a lot happening this year. He’s committed to it and beyond that.
“Then we’ve gone into him when we’ve lost Ricky Leutele and because of where we are and the possible opportunities of playoffs, finals and you know, we’re going to Wembley so he’ll be part of it. It’s appealing and the form of the entertainment, the flavour of it.”
Beaumont also spoke about the impact of the club’s rebrand as the Leigh Leopards:
“It’s an interesting one though because people know, as much as it’s gone wild, it’s great how you can wear any little part of it it associates you with it.
“It doesn’t have to replica or anything with a Leigh badge on it, doesn’t matter if it’s leopard print, so then you find other fans thinking ‘damn you can’t wear that because they’ll think I’m a Leigh fan’. And the things that you see, we’re in 15 meters of going on a cruise the other week, we saw a leopard print towel, bag, things that you put around your neck on the plane, one of those, you know, obviously bikinis.
“I think it was only me walking around in leopard print swimmers I do confess.”
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