The Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project with Richard King.

Tom: Hello and welcome to the make things better podcast, today I'm joined by Richard King welcome on the show Richard how are you doing today?

Richard: thanks Tom I'm fine thank you

Tom: yeah cheers for coming on so today we're going to talk about the Sheffield Eagles heritage project and first of all I would love to ask you how you got into supporting Sheffield Eagles

Richard: um I mean I've been watching The Sheffield Eagles now since 1989 um and a club they only started in 1984 so it kind of five years into the into the club um how did I start my dad took me along um he'd been he's from Sheffield but he used to go and watch Wakefield which is the nearest kind of rugby league club in in in the area um and  he'd seen that the Eagles were playing they were five years into kind of their lifespan um they were playing a big game at brammall Lane um against Widnes who were kind of world champions at that stage um and he said just want do you want to go along um and that was at that point and in fact still is that was the biggest crowd that the Eagles had ever had so I went along to that great atmosphere the Eagles worn and we then kept going along to games after that and then got a season ticket the year after, year after that my sister came along cuz she want to see what was going on so we've all been season ticket holders for kind of nearly 30 odd years so it's that that's what you know no big thing think Sheffield's not a hot bed of rugby league Eagles were created in ' 84 kind of to try tap into the potential there um so yeah that's how it started

Tom: yeah amazing and how has that sort of support and that real loyalty to the club over 30 years with your family how has that evolved into then going and creating the Sheffield Eagles heritage project and and the Sheffield Eagles foundation and everything

Richard: I suppose um again it's part of what you know I've stuck with the club all have been home and away games furthest went was like Paris been to Wembley to watch them play um and it becomes part of all that so I said it was a chance for me my dad my sister to go every week catch up and kind of kind of see some of the sites watch the games argue um but yeah but it's interesting having done the heritage project now, there's something about the Eagles that brings that sense of family out that connection with people that people it's not hugely supported Club it's had its ups and downs over the kind of 40 years it's existed but there's that kind of loyalty to it, fans stick with it fans become friends with each other like kind of sense of looking out for each other so you know I'd been a fan all that time um about six years ago I went freelance and became kind of freelancer working in Arts and Heritage uh developing funding bids um kind of developing action plans project evaluation um early stages of freelance I'd seen having worked on lots of Heritage projects I've seen the other rugby league clubs I got money from the national lottery Heritage fund and I saw there was a potential there so I developed the application for him didn't charge him wanted to do it as my contribution to the club developed the bid and we were successful getting 92,000 pounds from the Heritage fund I never planed to run the project myself never take it on but I think the further it went along and then when the job was advertised it was think I was thinking I'd really like to do this job really you fortunate to get the job uh and deliver it from there so it was able to take it from those ideas move it forward kind of and deliver the project

Tom: Yeah and stepping back a bit do you want to share kind of what the project is what what's the purpose of it

Richard: um it's a two it started off as a two-year project we managed to get extended to two and a half years just to look at the history of the Sheffield Eagles, I said it's the Eagles celebrating in September the 40th anniversary so still relatively young Club in lots of ways but it's had lots of interesting stories and that's that was one of the things we tried to draw out the project there's lots of interesting stories but stories that people are abely aware of as I mentioned rugby league has got a relatively low profile in Sheffield, Sheffield Eagles have got relatively low profile you know so when you're competing against two football clubs hockey teams basketball teams so some of it was about making people aware of those stories but some of it was about capturing them before they lost so there's still people supporting the Eagles today that were that at that first ever game in 1984 so it's about collecting those memories within kind of the sporting Heritage world you know it's kind of classed as collections at risk and that isn't just about the physical thing so isn't about programs and photographs it's about people's memories recollection stories those kind of things so you could see that opportunity there so it was very much about collecting the stories um and it's interesting I keep talking about stories I'll come on to that a bit because that's where the websites had an influence in in how we kind of describe the project, so it's it's very much about physical as well so so programs photographs memorabilia shirts records of those having a kind of record so 40 years, 40 years worth of shirts there is no definitive record of every shirt the club's ever played in so can we get photographs of those and put them on kind of collect them and and display them drawers full of the Eagle's office of photographs that are just in a drawer can we get those scanned digitized and shared DVDs old VHS tapes just in a cupboard that without the project would just disappear but then also it's about the stories and collecting those stories from people doing interviews bit like this, doing interviews with people to share their memories collect the stories and then lodge those with the the kind of Sheffield archives and events as well events to celebrate those kind of the you know the key moments in the club's history you know bring people together you know we did um an event last year the Sheffield Eagles won the 1998 challenge cup the equivalent in in football of the FA Cup um played at Wembley in 1998 massive underdogs nobody expected us to win and the Eagles beat Wigan considered still to this day the biggest upset in rugby league history so we did an event where we brought players together from that that that game to share their memories with people put together a special brochure commemorative um badge uncovered some old footage all those kind of things so you've got that idea for a project about collecting and sharing and and laying the foundations for future but then it goes off at different tangents developing different aspects and I suppose talking with you about the website the website was always seen as a key part of this as a kind of a way of bringing out lots of the elements together cuz it's all very well having all this information but how you going to share it so the club has had um a Hall of Fame celebrating some of their key players unless you went into the eagles' office and looked behind the door you wouldn't know who's in the in the Hall of Fame, so we kind of relaunch that and we're able to put on the website and a point of access to there to share the information so obviously that website is hub for a lot of information for sharing information for collecting it and moving it out and I suppose a lot of things come in the project comes to an end at the end of September a lot of it as well is about laying the foundations for the future so you never know whether an interview you've done with a fan might become really worthwhile something in the future, I've gone through and digitized about 300 DVDs myself just leaving it ruin on the computer and it's times there when I thought what's the point Who's going to want to watch a game against Swinton where we lost in 2003 but you never know and also within those you can find the those little snippets of interviews with players or fans or those those kind of things so that kind of social history and that's kind of you know same with the programs we've got 1,400 programs now that been scanned by volunteer put on the website does anybody really want to look at a program from 1987, but they're also really interesting you capture adverts from shops of that time or little photographs of players or people in fact one of the kind of volunteers working on something we wanted to find a picture of her when she was a child in the program or you know just because we got it on the website but also we've recently done some work on developing um women's you know the history of women's rugby league in Sheffield and I was able to look through those programs and find kind of articles from there so so yes that's how it came about being flexible cuz when put the bid in it was very much about the men's team, since then a lot of the work so I work for the Eagles Foundation which is the charitable um organistion linked to the club who does a lot of work in terms of rugby league development and in the last two three years the the foundation has developed a new women's team a learning disabilities team physical disabilities team Walk-in rugby touch rugby really broadened out that participation wheelchair team as well wheelchair team have already been in a final women's team have been promoted um and so I suppose some of that is also getting across the fact how inclusive rugby league is and it is is beyond just that kind of image of a you know a muddy Northern sport played by me.

Tom: yeah it sounds like it's a very inclusive sort of project and it's about sort of bringing people together Community sharing those stories and as you said you know there's football teams and other Rugby teams and skating and I don't know there's all kinds of stuff going on in Sheffield but I think the football teams probably get the main sort of focus overall um because I guess football is probably a more popular sport than rugby league but it's like at the same time with the rugby league you know you're going to have the fans who have been going for 30 years got the season tickets and there is that Community there and it is about making sure those stories are heard and that they are kept and that they're not lost and bringing those people together and I'm really curious so for you over the last few years you would have probably gone through quite a few old articles and Collections and put that together um have you had any moments where you've been able to like reminisce moments from the last 30 years and you've kind of remembered oh yeah I remember that

Richard: yeah because my memory realized my memory is hopeless and a lot of stuff and so it has been some of the things of just talking to people or seen a bit in a program or finding a game I managed to find when I was going through all these DVDs footage of that first ever game I went to it been it had been highlight shown on television so for me be able to watch back that game I've got no recollection of that first ever game beyond the fact I know when it was and can you know so it's been looking back at that triggering triggering those memories there and it is interesting cuz the the Eagles fans are a really nice bunch and in fact I'm a long-term supporter means like last Sunday's game I could go and have a chat with one of the supporters because I needed something from him or people start coming up to me so so yeah it has triggered memories it has also made me remember that I can't remember much and some of the stuff was just complete blank some people seem to have this kind of really good recollection oh do you remember by that game like no oh your memory is different to what you think it is um but that's all valid because again it's another part of it is getting people talking and I think that's been one of the other successes of the project has been making people think about and realizing the value of those stories the Heritage uh the stories about the club are worth sharing so you know we're we're just finalizing this 40th anniversary brochure that we work with volunteers and it's not a conventional history of the club but it's people's memories what it's been like as a player what what why people started watching as a fan but just things like in 40 years the club has played at 21 home grounds it's the the club has faced challenges every step of the way they used to play at owlerton greyhound track and they you know after the hillsbrough distastor asked they couldn't play that anymore so they had a season playing at Hillsboro brolay and Chesterfield um then played at Don Valley stadium for 13 years Don Valley Stadium got knocked down so we had nine years where a home game for us was going to Wakefield or Featherston so all these challenges

Tom: it's amazing that they still exist it is

Richard: it is amazing and that and that's some now to some of the key people that have been involved all that time time fans fundraising and fans you know the fan base dwindled during that period outside Sheffield but you know that track to Wakefield for two seasons to watch games or to Doncaster there is something there that keeps people going and then trying to draw them back in

Tom: yeah have you got a favourite stadium?

Richard: I never thought I'd say it but Don Valley Stadium right um because at the time it's you know it was the big athletic Stadium um running track around the outside but it's only now that you look back go it's actually all right and you talking out memories you I found some of the my old photographs and I could immediately kind of smell remember the smell of the rubber flooring as you walk through Don Valley stadium so I think yes you do back look back and go oh it was actually it was far better than we thought and it's it was stability for years

Tom: yeah amazing and what about favorite game I know obviously Wigan comes to mind

Richard: yeah and and but again there's there's experience there's kind of Snippets of ones ones where we kind of snatched last minute Victories so we we um years ago I was at an event recently um at headingly Stadium where Leeds played Leeds rhinos kind of in the in the top flight and I remember watching us play there we stood right behind the post and we managed to get a draw in the very last second and I was fortunate to be at headingly with Mark Aston kind of one of the key players over the years and now the head coach and director of rugby and you we were headingly we're talking about the memory of that and I managed to find a video um and and look back on that as well so it it's little Snippets of when we've won a game in the last minute or we've lost a game in the last minute or just played really badly or you know even going to um in 1996 the rugby league had a investment of money from Sky uh and it kind of went to this super league and the Eagles were fortunate to be in that and played in the first ever game of super league and that was against Paris Saint Germain so my dad my sister and I went to Paris classic Eagle style we lost but we had the experience of going to to Paris for a long weekend and and watching them play.

Tom: that's amazing and in terms of the website what was your vision for that in the first place like how did you kind of want that to look and I guess you kind of talked about the purpose of it to some extent but how did you kind of envisage that and and how's that process being in terms of going from you've got that Vision to actually going and making that a reality

Richard: I think it's only now you look back and go I didn't I had got a clue what I was doing with the website and I've developed websites of projects before working with other companies I've developed my own personal website and we' set aside a budget which again realized the budget budget was just inadequate for that what did want from a website wanted something that could bring all this information together and it was about that kind of searchable but I think it was also then part of the process of working with Hive and went through a kind of commissioning process and procurement process and working with Hive as I kind of mentioned to you it sat around this table with all the team was actually helped me understand what what I wanted from the website some of the really most useful stuff of those discussions were who's the audience and we had we had a discussion you know if if the Sheffield Eagles was a fizzy drink what fizzy drink would that be and at first you got huh and in the end I came up with Dr Pepper and it's really that's been really useful all the way yeah Dr Pepper because it's always there but nobody ever gets it it's really nice when you have it but it's just nobody would choose choose that as the first one so I think those discussions around this table to look at who's your audience is what are trying to kind of who he targeting what you're trying to do and mention to early about that idea of when I kept referring to stories it was that discussion around here that got that separated out that between you know the key part of the website now is about stories and collections so collections is very much the programs the photographs the things that people want to search through and find but it's not that first point of call it there's only certain people want to find a program from 1997 but then it's the stories which is the other element which is the way of drawing people in and I think that was fundamental through this kind of kind of the workshop with the team at Hive was to go oh yeah it's stories so you, we're working with a small supporter base what do we do to make people interested and it is the story so making those really interesting so people can come in and you know read about 1998 or find links to other things so then you're using the collections as a way of illustrating the stories and that's worked really well because it has drawn people in or you can reference them or it's chance to add it and we've had volunteers writing stories and adding to those so the collection you know it's full of photographs and programs that will sit there but people won't go one by one but if we can then write a story about a season and pulling in a program and it's so easy then just to pull a program in to illustrate it because we had one volunteer who's scanned virtually all those 1400 programs in he's now also taking upon himself to write a season by season summary of every season 40 years that we can end up to the website and I think that's that kind of that timeline that was something and it came out through the discussions with the kind of Workshop was the idea of we we paired it down and paired it down you know cuz you're going oh we want a timeline we want this want that in the end the website got simplified and simplified and it all the better for it so it was very much about here's your landing page here's your collections here's your stories here's a timeline here's a page that you can add on you can add on as many pages you want we'd start off with a news page there's no need for that so we paired it down to those key elements and it just made it much more usable for me add into it but also readable for people and in terms of how we wanted to look I had got a clue it was we'd adopted the color we had adopted we inherited the color palette from The Sheffield eagles which is a red and gold we quickly realized that on a website doesn't really work because of the yellow loses against any white background so kind of Allan within the team came up with the idea this really dark Navy act as a backdrop to things as for headers and things and that worked really well and I've then adopted that across everything I do outside the website because it was that it works the fonts that was chosen for the website have inherited kind of adapted those and use those for everything so I think what's been interesting is that website has had such a wide reaching impact me thinking about how who I'm communicating with how I'm communicating what we're sharing but also how it looks and how how visually we're going to share that with people so and I think I said at the time that that impact of working with Hive on developing the website went far beyond on just the end result of a website it it really got at a time where I'm trying to explain to people what what was the project about ited helped shapex my thinking got it focused and how we're going to use it

Tom: yeah makes sense it's more than just the functionality of here you go here's the website it's like actually really understanding what is the purpose here what's The Branding that we've got you know how do we actually really convey our message in the best way possible or maybe that's bringing in stories and having user-generated content and having someone go and create like 1400 scans and adding that and the 40 season uh sort of analysis and stories and you know bring it all together and then you have the outcome but then yeah as you say it's kind of then beneficial with other in other things as well

Richard: I think one of the big things coming out that kind of workship and working with Hive is don't over complicate it why over complicate it just and various points Creating a website that really meets user’s needs you're going it's too simple it's too basic but it's not it's not because it's it's it's doing what what you want it to do is share information get that information across people can use it but also just be interesting the dangerous it can be because there so much you know there's so many stories and how do you share those how do you make it interesting so I think part of that process has been streamlining everything through the development of the website is going to had that influence impact on the wider project yeah and you know just been asked a question what you know if the Eagles was a fizzy drink what would it be makes you stop and think and think and then question lots of other things because it does then make you think well how do we you know if the Eagles and rugby league and Sheffield is is Dr Pepper how do you make sure more people try Dr Pepper or give it a goal you know that kind of it becomes part of a kind of in built into everything you're doing.

Tom: yeah yeah it's a good question that by Alan

Richard: yeah it was yeah yeah I mean it's completely confusing at first she I don't I don't know and he start oh what what is it and yeah and then he start to question why did I say Dr Pepper and then they sort of backward engineer it in some ways but but yeah it does it feels you know explaining to people that you go it's a bit daft but it it isn't I don't think because it is it it makes you look at things from a different angle to you know how do other people perceive it what you is that how you ought to be perceived how you going to share it how are going to people use it

Tom: yeah absolutely When Alan asked us this question first thing that came to mind was Henderson's relish even though it's not an actually a drink no um but I was like well you know what I'm I'm from Sheffield can you drink Henderson's relish? well maybe it's question

Richard: not too much

Tom: But yeah so in terms of collecting all of like the stories how has that kind of played a part in this project and like how's that been for you like going out and finding those stories?

Richard: I mean being a fan myself and it's it's saved and kind of we're going through a project evaluation at the moment and and I've kind of talked to other people it saved a lot of time because I know the stories already I know some of the stories I know the people and other questions to ask to kind of find find our way and there is no shortage of stories there kind of kind of wealth of them um kind of interesting point is we just recently won um national award um kind of through an organization called sporting Heritage was for we wonning the Heritage and schools category where we used that 1998 Victory as a way and worked with with Gareth Walker who's ex um Daily Mirror journalist from rugby league but set this project called literacy kicks where he uses sport to engage with primary and secondary school kids to get them to become Sports journalist he he usually works on like six weeks blocks with a school going back in but we worked with them to develop um kind of one-off projects with primary schools where that 1998 win was used as a starting point for them to write their own articles and we had members of that 1998 Squad there to share their experiences with the kids and kind of do that and it worked really well and obviously kind of won that award but I think it it was that idea of how we can use those stories and when knew I I knew a lot of those 1998 stories but then to hear Mark Aston who was kind of man of the match of that game talk about it from his experiences kind of directly there so I think it's about using those stories for a reason as well so engaging with the kids or you know making you know do it as a centrepiece of event so we got a 40th anniversary dinner come up and bringing together players from every one of those kind of generations to share their memories so yeah it's the stories and collecting those stories and the fact I'm a fan means I know quite a few of them are already.

Tom: yeah that's amazing and so in terms of like the next steps for the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project what's uh coming up?

Richard: well the project the Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project's next steps funding comes to end at the end of September so that's kind of when the Heritage fund um support ends and it's always that way it's a kind of finite amount of time so we did it originally two years as I mentioned got extended for for two and a half years so the next 3 months is about pulling together all those last bits of things so 40th anniversary brochure got together kind of working with the designers on that um commemorative badge waiting for that to come back uh organizing the event for September organizing a special game Heritage game to to mark the anniversary getting the rest of the photographs scanned getting the rest of the documents scanned getting all the photographs done of the shirts so there kind of a lot of last minute things and it won't all won't get done um so we're talking out whether we can you whether it's kind of run on a voluntary basis whether the foundation can find money to keep it ticking over whether we look at bids for for future things things um but in some ways you know I said the website will be there that will keep the foundation's committed to keeping that going um that there is a resource and that we can keep feeding into as kind of volunteers and updating um but it's achieved a lot of what it's achieved it's raised awareness of the heritage of the club it's a raised awareness within the club of the value of it so you know for example we did a kind of quite a big focus when the Disney series for um full Monty came out last year the Eagles were featured in the original film so Mark's character Dave wore a Sheffield Eagles a kit in a couple of scenes and so amongst fans that that white shirt with a Blue Eagle across it is known as the full monty shirt so to coincide with the the release of the TV series The Club did a replica kit relaunch, sold out two batches of that also then invited Mark Addy along cuz he wanted to buy a shirt invited him along presented him with a shirt of the game he was the guest of honour the players all wore that shirt I don't think that would have happened if it hadn't been for the heritage project kind of raising awareness and making suggestions feeding in so those those kind of commercial values of things but I think there's also an awareness amongst fans and players and kind of the club that there is a values to it all not commercial just commercial but but in that kind of thinking about the memories sharing the stories um the kind of the social value of making those connections so that'll carry on and again it's also then about making sure things keep getting collected so so obviously now the move to digital so all that clubs games are on YouTube and stored on the shared drive photographs are in the cloud you know making sure those keep getting archived and protected so that we don't have to 10 years from now have somebody come in again and have to sift through everything and make it collected there so part of it is about re realizing that value and and then also the fact that people can now quickly quite easily find games from 2003 or find a photograph from a specific season it's there to be kind of used and found

Tom: yeah and how can fans of the Sheffield Eagles or maybe future fans as well kind of get involved in all of this or maybe go and start getting into supporting Sheffield Eagles?

Richard: I think I mean the starting point is going on the website go the heritage project website and then that can also redirect to the club I just find what's interesting and it's it's interesting as well for the club as a whole the the club has got a planning application at the moment with Sheffield FC, so Sheffield FC are the world's oldest football club they playing drum field outside Sheffield and the two have partnered up and I've got a planning application in for a 5,000 capacity stadium at Maidenhead which will then also include a cricket Academy and an indoor arena.

Tom: wow

Richard: um and parking for sort of 500 that that's hopeful that's with the council at the moment the decision's hoped on that in the next month or so, so if that happens that could be from 2026 a brand new stadium for the clubs and the first time ever that the Eagles have had their own home ground that they own and control and have got all the catering facilities and confronting everything linked to that so and again that would make it a more more appealing to people again the stadium at the moment the Olympic Legacy Park is is good and step up from where we were but the idea of a you know covered Stadium all four kind of Corners with all the other facilities around it

Tom: so having a bit of ownership

Richard: oh yeah yeah and control and that's why we mentioned about 21 grounds in 40 years the club's never had control it's always been at the hands of other people whether it's the council choosing to demolish Don Valley Stadium or having to rent you know the ground at Wakefield or Doncaster from other people so yeah some of it is control but if wanted people yeah just come along and try again you know go on the the heritage project website and watch some of the games that you can get links to go on a YouTube channel just try a game out it is still finding enough there's support is growing because people are trying it out and learning about it and it is it's an an inclusive sport as I mentioned about wheelchair and women's but that's also off the field as well so it's I think it's close to a 50/50 mix in terms of genders, ages in terms of the supporters all you know it's a nice environment to go to games in it's not it doesn't feel hostile people don't feel threatened it's kind of a family game um which if people are looking for is worth trying

Tom: yeah I've got to admit after talking to like I really do want to go to the match now

Richard: yeah yeah now when I know after the website we' finish the website team from Hive went along to a game and watched it from The Far Side cuz it is if you've not been before you can have choose the right game it it you know even though you know someday the some of the players and you can hear the wind knocked out of them and you go how do you get up after that because it is a tough sport but it's not a violent sport it is kind of well controlled and it is just you know what the what the players can do and what they put themselves through it's well worth giving it a go

Tom: what sort of crowds do you get?

Richard: it's on the increase now so I think Sunday was 1,400 which then you compare to football but we've been down as low as 400 in the in the kind of years and when you think about the capacity of our Stadium at the moment is only 2,000 so you know you look at it from that side having had nine years outside Sheffield where you know you were down to the core of the fan base takes time to build it back up but in our division we're probably um kind of mid to higher end in terms of attendances so you got to Super league and you're looking at 8- 10,000 um but again it's it's it's it's enough it's now never enough but again it's it doesn't feel overwhelming you having been to Wembley recently you walk into Wembley and there's 65,000 people is it is kind of quite a lot when you the noise and kind of you all the atmosphere of that

Tom: yeah definitely and before we get on to the final question which is about making things better sort of as a whole and in general is there anything else that you would like to talk about in regards to the project?

Richard: no I think we've covered as and i' I've mentioned the team at Hive before it was really good working with Hive on the website it made it I actually enjoyed the process and again the fact that you could share information you could say I don't like the look of that or what about this or what about that I've always kind of myself proud myself on being a client being a good client and given clear answers but they were receptive to that and they came up with Solutions and worked around it explained things clearly always responsive so it was you know it would I've really enjoyed the experience of developing that which developing the website we we think it's a complex thing and as I mentioned before it went beyond just developing the website so I think it was that that side of it it was it was a good experience it wasn't it I know as well we got so much extra from Hive that we never you know that went beyond the kind of contract some um because they wanted to contribute so much more they took a pride in it all and kind of the the value and you Foundation appreciated that as a charity kind of you know working on grants that it was a value to how much extra we got and I learned a lot through the process as well I think that's always what you're looking at for piece work learned something through it as well

Tom: yeah that's awesome and I know the team from talking to people like loved working on this project as well because I did a podcast with Connor in here about a year and a bit ago and he was the project manager and it was his first like proper full-on project and he loved it you know

Richard: I quite enjoyed that and it's really interesting now knowing that Connor's come back to Hive as well kind of just this week um that it was really interesting working with him because you could see it was early stages of care his career so I quite enjoyed so helping him through the process and you got that flexibility from both sides to know that that was the first time he'd run a project so it was enjoyable to see him learn and develop through that and and I think that's what was really nice when Liz contacted me this week to say oh Connor's come back in a kind of in a permanent role it was that really nice to see it come full circle because he'd only been here on his placement worked with us and nice to see him come back and kind of have developed to be able to in a position to take up a job here yeah

Tom: Exactly so yeah it was just like so many mutual benefits as suppose to work on this project together so yeah love it um so yeah the final question question as we ask every guest is what do you think people can do to make things better and you can interpret this question however you like

Richard: You it's a big question I think I don't know it's it's interesting working with the it's part of the Eagles Foundation a lot of that has been a focus on and the foundation is uses mental health sport for mental health and I think it's been really interesting for me having worked as part of the foundation worked the the project to realize the kind of those the connections people can make so the connections people have made through watching rugby league the connections who people have made through playing it and I got I play as part of the the Walking rugby team um and I kind of just went along to that because the foundation had started it and I thought I'd kind of help help me out and been going that for a year there's about 12 of us there last night and it's those connections that people have made kind of conversations the WhatsApp group  during the week you're getting a bit of exercise so I think it is that kind of for me a lot of it is about the connections at a time when it's easy to get isolated from things I think it's the idea of sport or anything the heritage project is a chance for people to share to come together to talk um and I think it does make it better because people are you know you know have got feeling that got a community around them

Tom: yeah I think that shared interest it can create so much connection it makes you feel part of something

Richard: it does yeah yeah yeah and I said the fact that we had when we played at Wembley recently the learning disability team they went down and were on the pitch at Wembley um bringing out the flags so the chance for them to then you know having stood I know one of had written stories from me this morning for the website saying about how small she felt stood in the middle of Wembley pitch but what an experience it was so I think it's part of that the connections and the experiences that it can bring um that can you know take you out of your life and can bring new interests to you

Tom: yeah definitely it's incredible So yeah thank you so much for coming on the

Richard: no problem at all really enjoyed no it's been interesting and again it's I'm glad to do it it's been really nice to work with Hive so nice to come back here and kind of talk and share the experiences

Tom: yeah where can people find you in the website um the website uh let me think uh if you if you Google um Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project it will come up there I think it's top of the list there we also got a Facebook page and then that redirects you my contact details redirects you to the club from that side so Sheffield Eagles Heritage Project and you'll get to it that way.

Tom: Perfect all right thanks so much for watching or listening I hope you have enjoyed today's podcast podcast and we will see you in the next one bye-bye.