Mark Aston: Sheffield Eagles boss vows to ‘cleanse’ club’s ‘toxic’ environment

Sheffield surrendered a two-score half-time lead against fellow strugglers Dewsbury Rams at the Keepmoat on Sunday to end the match on the wrong end of a 24-20 scoreline and fall to their third consecutive loss.

The long-serving boss admitted he tried to motivate his troops to ‘Do it for Rob [Worrincy]’ – the influential winger has announced his intention to retire at the end of the season – to no avail.

“It’s not a great environment at the moment,” Aston said post-match.

"There’s people thinking about where they are going, what they are doing [...] so it’s not nice for us.

"It’s toxic at the moment and people don’t care enough. What I will do, hopefully next week, is make a few points [...] have a look at some of these guys, some of the guys that want to play and improve.”

Aston said the club has also faced a cash flow problem in recent weeks, which has seemingly impacted some players’ futures.

He added: “We knew it was coming, I said to the staff six weeks ago: ‘This next six weeks is going to be tough’ because of where people are with their heads and where they are going to be next year.

"The lateness of the funding that was coming into the club and all that, it means that players have been talking and out there [sic] and they have been snapped up.”

Sheffield Eagles face Swinton in the penultimate game of the 2021 season on Sunday (4.30pm kick-off).