Cheyse-ing success

Cheyse has truly embedded himself not only in Daryl Powell’s team but also in the community of Cas, settling into into life as an Australian man in Yorkshire alongside his family.

On April 12th 2019 the official social media feeds for Castleford Tigers began teasing an announcement of a new signing with Kit Manager Stu Vause getting out a new shirt and the number 35 to use on the print press. Fans were clamoring to know who it was and when it would be made public, later in the evening live on Sky Sports Brian Carney announced the Fords agreeing to bring over Cheyse Blair from the Melbourne Storm on a three-and-a-half year contract. No doubt moving from Melbourne to Castleford was a culture change but the 6 foot 4’ Aussie has always insisted he settled well into life in England and the competition of Super League.

“I settled in really well and quickly, obviously I didn’t have my family for the first month but I’m a pretty laid-back sort of guy, so it didn’t really phase me to be honest and coming over in the summer probably helped,” he said.

“I started playing straight away and got used to the surroundings of England, but I wasn’t overly happy with my football and that’s changed this year because I’ve had the full pre-season to get embedded in.”

Cheyse, nicknamed Cheese, had to hit the ground quick getting put into the starting lineup immediately after landing on these shores, and during that opening month as a Tigers player he was helped by a fellow Australian.

“I stayed at Millo’s (Grant Millington) for the first month because he took me in to show me the ropes of Castleford, I actually played against him back in 2012 and I knew of him but I’d never met him personally until then. He was really great to live with, he never let me do anything, I offered to clean the dishes or to make dinner and he wouldn’t let me, he cooked some good feeds and I appreciate everything he did for me in that first month I was here.”

Originally playing in that #35 shirt last year, in 2020 Cheyse has been given the #18 jersey and is reaping the rewards for continued hard work, looking more and more impressive with strong showings in defence and especially this season in attack scoring four tries in the league and surpassing his tally from last season. It took him a little while to get that maiden meat pie and when it did finally happen he was made to wait just a little bit longer when it got sent upstairs to the video referee after an awkward finish.

“I’d played thirteen games up to that point and hadn’t scored, the boys had been into me about never going to score and it felt that way for a bit. I got unlucky coming close to the line or I’d get held up and then that try came, I knew because I felt I’d put it down but it went upstairs to the video ref and all the boys were going; ‘that’s not going to be a try’ but it was. I was just happy to get off the nude run to be honest. After the first one I scored again the following week after that, personally it should have been a lot more playing in the centres but it is what it is.”

Joining a side during the season and from the other side of the world means that naturally supporters will be keen to see good performances and the pressure of wanting to impress can add up.

“I don’t really like to find excuses when you’re playing the game but I felt a lot of eyes on me and I had to excel to show why I had come over, I was getting frustrated with myself that it wasn’t happening. I had to learn a lot, play with different players and work on a few things to fix up through the season and into pre-season.”

We here at ROAR love an old classic rugby league cliché and one that Cheese had heard a lot of was; ‘it takes overseas players a year or a pre-season to settle in’. As he mentioned already in this feature, he settled in quick last season but was struck with an injury in the final play-off matches in 2019. This effected his ‘settling in’ pre-season of 2020.

“In our first play-off game against Warrington I suffered a foot injury and we weren’t sure what it was, my foot didn’t swell up and I could keep on running and got through the week to play Salford in what was our last game. I got through but it didn’t feel any better after that Salford loss and I went in for a scan. We picked up that I had a fracture in my lisfranc, a little bit of bone had come detached and it’s one of those injuries in your foot where it could go a bit pear shaped if something bad happened, we spoke to surgeons about potentially getting surgery and I didn’t want it to be honest because it puts you out for long periods of time.

“We did 12 weeks rest, including the off-season, meaning I would miss a big chunk of the pre-season but I was around everyone and still a part of it and my foot feels absolutely fine right now.”

Part of the strong start to Blair’s 2020 campaign might be down to his shift from the centres to the second row, a position Cheyse was more than happy to fill in after a couple of conversations with Head Coach Daryl Powell.

“I think the pre-season had me a little on the backfoot anyway with Pete & Shenny in the centres who had really strong pre-seasons and so, by the time Toronto had come around I’d only been back in for a few weeks, it had been discussed and I was more than happy to try it out and I’m enjoying it.

“You get the ball a lot more, you run at halfbacks which is even better and that was the biggest difference, the workload, I made 35 tackles in that match and topped the tackle count in that game which is unheard of for me playing in the centres, sometimes you make a maximum of five tackles in a game. So, a bigger workload which I’ve had to take on, but I’ve really enjoyed it so far and I’m just in the game a lot more I feel, you’re working with your halfback non-stop throughout the game and in your training as well where we build our combinations, I’ve got my hands on the ball more and making more of an impact.”

Castleford’s last match before the season got suspended due to COVID-19 prevention measures was a brilliant victory over the Champions St Helens 28-14, following the game the RFL & Super League made the decision to bring the sport to a halt and as such the First Team players have begun home training programmes.

“It feels very weird and it’s hard sometimes obviously during a lockdown you never think of anything like this happening to you in your lifetime and you might watch a movie about stuff like this. It’s surreal that it’s happening, I’ve got two little kids at home and they’re keeping me and my partner Tam very busy.

“It’s hard to get out of the house of course and do a bit of training but it’s our job and without knowing how long this could potentially go on for, we have to keep ourselves in good shape and safe. Plus, we get to enjoy being around our families, we’re away from them a lot due to training or matches but now we can try to enjoy this time with them whilst we wait to see what’s going on.”

The club wishes everyone well during these unprecedented times and urges that everyone also follow the guidelines and advice issued by both the Government and the NHS. For the Tigers it’s a shame that they cannot keep their momentum going after an impressive victory as Cheyse discusses.

“It’s annoying, we’ve started the season well and joint top of the table and I know it’s early days but a good start is what helps out at the back end of the year. For it to come to a halt is disappointing but it is what it is, this isn’t just Super League either it’s around the whole world and we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do and come through it all together.”

Following his try against St Helens Cheese emerged from the bundle of rugby league players around him to celebrate with a fist in the air and his fresh new look firmly on display, a bald look.

“I think I’m getting to that stage where I probably will shave it all off, me and a few of the boys did a charity thing a few weekends back for Macmillan Cancer Support and cut our hair which was the main reason but I sort of like it shorter. I think it was about £750 raised just that night between me, Daniel Smith, Nathan Massey and a few other people down there and we were happy to get behind it.”

The ’Bald Blair’ is probably the sixth or seventh hairstyle Cheyse has tried since coming over to the UK. In the last twelve months he’s had a rattail, a mohawk, a mullet and anything else he was willing to try!

“It’s just whatever floats my boat really and I’m not a person who cares too much, I’m the one with all the bad haircuts not like the good-looking ones like the young fellas have. I haven’t got time for that sort of stuff so it’s either mohawk, mullet or clean shave it doesn’t really worry me. As for my beard it’s just about me being a bit lazy sometimes it takes me so long to shave it, so I just leave it.”

Once rugby league action returns the Tigers will be looking to keep up the standard they set against St Helens and then kick on to fight for a piece of silverware. There is no doubt that lifting a trophy with Castleford is one of Blair’s career aims.

“There’s three bits of silverware up for grabs with the Grand Final, the Cup and the shield and tt’s always in the back of our mind and that’s why we play the game and what we want to achieve, winning those big games like the one against Saints just shows the belief that we have in the team and what we can do. Like I said before that performance is our minimum standard now and we need to still improve from that and continue to get better and better.”

Listen to Cheyse speak more about his time at Castleford so far, his move to the second row and answering fan questions on Tiger Talk Podcast, available on Tigers TV.

This article is taken from April's edition of Castleford Tigers' monthly club magazine ROAR which you can read digitally for free HERE.