Hunslet R.L.F.C.

1973–1996: New club

In July 1973, the original Hunslet club was wound up following the sale of their Parkside ground, because no suitable new location could be found that was financially viable. The £300,000 proceeds of the sale of Parkside were distributed to shareholders.

Due to the efforts of their former Great Britain forward Geoff Gunney (MBE), local businessmen and supporters the club managed to reform as New Hunslet for the 1973–74 season and moved to the Leeds Greyhound Stadium and erected iron American football posts. The resurrected club had a new badge depicting a rising phoenix to symbolise their rebirth. In 1974, New Hunslet adopted green and white as team colours because the traditional myrtle, white and flame colours were still registered to the former Parkside-based club, and they would not release them. The stay at the greyhound stadium was cut short when the owners closed the ground and arranged to demolish everything on the site.

In 1978, coach Bill Ramsey put a lot of pressure on the RFL and finally got permission to use the traditional colours. The club reverted to Hunslet for the 1979–80 season. With the closure of the Greyhound stadium, the next ground to host Hunslet was Mount Pleasant, Batley, for two seasons, before Hunslet moved to Leeds United's Elland Road football stadium then owned by Leeds City Council. After leaving Elland Road, Hunslet had a brief spell at Bramley.

On 19 November 1995, the club, now known as Hunslet Hawks, moved to the South Leeds Stadium, only about half a mile from Parkside. On that day, Leigh were the guests at Hunslet's first home game for twenty-two years. They then narrowly missed out on promotion from Division Two in 1996.^[1] Coach Steve Ferres left to join Huddersfield and David Plange took over as player-coach.

1996–2009: Summer era

In 1997 the Hawks played in the first (and last) Challenge Cup Plate Final losing 60–14 to Hull Kingston Rovers. It was the Hawks first appearance at Wembley Stadium since 1965. Also in 1997, the Hawks were promoted to the First Division as champions.^[1]

In 1999 as a possible merger between Hunslet and Bramley was debated.^[2] In 1999 Hunslet won the Northern Ford Premiership Grand Final against Dewsbury, 12–11, at Headingley.^[1] After that game the Hawks were denied entry to Super League by the Rugby Football League who cited a document called Framing the Future as justification. This caused a number of players to leave the club and for the average attendance to fall by more than 1,200 to 800. A link-up with Leeds Rhinos saw Plange go to Headingley as Academy coach.

2004 saw the re-establishment the annual friendly against Leeds Rhinos for the Lazenby Cup, a trophy that had previously been contested between Hunslet F.C. and Leeds since 1912.^[3]

Paul March was the player/coach at Hunslet, joining midway through the 2009 season following the resignation of Graeme Hallas. March guided Hunslet to a 6th-place finish and a play-off spot in Championship 1. Hunslet travelled to Blackpool in the first week of the play-offs winning, 18–21, to set up an elimination semi-final against Oldham in which Hunslet were comfortably beaten, 54–30.

2010–present: Promotions and silverware

In 2010 Paul March led Hunslet to their first silverware for over 11 years by securing the Co-operative Championship 1 title, and subsequent survival in 2011.

In 2012, Barry Eaton took over as coach. In 2014 Hunslet won the Grand Final after extra time against Oldham, thus gaining promotion to the Championship. Barry Eaton left in late January 2016 to join Leeds Rhinos and was replaced by his assistant coach and former Hunslet Hawks player Matt Bramald. Bramald left the club at the end of the 2016 season having completed his contract. He was replaced by former Hunslet player James Coyle.

Hunslet Hawks returned to their original name of Hunslet RLFC for the 2017 season following an overwhelming fan vote in favour of their original name.^[4] Fans were then asked to choose between the clubs' original 'Rampant Lion' crest and the 'Phoenix Rising' crest adopted by the club in 1973 when the club was reformed. Fans voted 54% to 46% in favour of the lion.^[5] On 13 October 2024, Hunslet earned promotion to the championship after beating Swinton 22-20 in the relegation/promotion playoff match.^[6] In the 2025 RFL Championship season, Hunslet finished bottom of the table recording just two wins all year.^[7]

1973–1980: Leeds Greyhound Stadium

The new Hunslet club's first ground was the Elland Road Greyhound Stadium in Beeston after they were told they could not play at Parkside. American football posts were erected to be used as goal posts.

1980–1982: Mount Pleasant

In 1982, the greyhound stadium closed and Hunslet were left homeless. For two seasons they ground-shared with Batley while they searched for a permanent home in Leeds.

1983–1995: Elland Road

In 1983, after leaving Batley, Hunslet negotiated a deal with Leeds City Council to play at Leeds United's Elland Road, which the council owned at the time.

1995–present: South Leeds Stadium

Hunslet moved into the South Leeds Stadium, Beeston, Leeds after it was built in 1995. The stadium is used to host athletics and also has a swimming pool and other facilities the club can use. The stadium has one main stand that accommodates the grounds 5,000 capacity.

Gains

More information Player, From ...

Player	From	Contract	Date
Mo Agoro	Oldham	2 years	24 September 2025
Bailey Aldridge		1 year	3 November 2025
Emerson Whittel	Rochdale Hornets	2 years	3 October 2025
Myles Harrop			6 November 2025
Darcy Simpson		1 year	21 October 2025
Elijah Simpson
Eddie Battye	Sheffield Eagles	1 year	9 October 2025
Matty Dawson-Jones			17 November 2025
Dan Abram	Swinton Lions	1 year	20 October 2025
Lewis Hagan	Bradford Bulls	1 year	28 October 2025
Alfie Leake		Loan until end of 2026 season	10 February 2026
Zach McSwiney	Wakefield Trinity	1 year	5 November 2025
Jack Ward	Huddersfield Giants	2 years	14 November 2025
Keelan Foster		1 year	14 January 2026
Jimmy Morgan	Hunslet ARLFC	1 year	15 January 2026
Charlie Graham	Halifax Panthers		14 February 2026

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Loans In

More information Player, From ...

Player	From	Contract	Date
Bureta Faraimo	Doncaster		20 February 2026
Isaac Misky
Presley Cassell	Leeds Rhinos		5 March 2026
Ben Littlewood
Tom Nicholson-Watton
Matty Laidlaw	Hull FC	One month loan

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Losses

More information Player, To ...

Player	To	Contract	Date
Jordan Syme	Rochdale Hornets	1 year	26 September 2025
Ethan Wood			29 September 2025
Matty Fletcher	Waterhead Warriors ARLFC		2 December 2025
Mackenzie Scurr	Harrogate RUFC		1 September 2025
Greg Eden	North Wales Crusaders	1 year	9 December 2025
Bailey Aldridge			15 February 2026
Bailey Arnold
Brad Clavering
Ryan Hall
Sam Webb-Campbell
Liam Welham

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Retired

More information Player, Date ...

Player	Date
Matty Dawson-Jones	28 January 2026

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Players earning international caps while at Hunslet

• Frank Davies won a cap for Wales while at Hunslet in 1978 against England
• Robert 'Iain' Higgins won caps for Scotland while at London Broncos, and Hunslet 1997…2001 1-cap + 1-cap (sub)
• Charlie Wabo won caps for Papua New Guinea while at Hunslet
• Michael Mark won caps for Papua New Guinea while at Hunslet
• Neil Lowe won caps for Scotland while at Hunslet
• Lee Hanlan won caps for Ireland while at Hunslet
• Arthur Clues won caps for Australia while at Wests, and won caps for Other Nationalities while at Leeds, and Hunslet

Super League era