Leigh’s dependable loose forward Adam Bristow recently became only the third overseas player in club history to appear in 100 games.
Adam reached the century when leading the Centurions out at Hull Kingston Rover’s Craven Park on the 3rd September 2002.
Bristow’s name was first mentioned to Centurion supporters at an early October meeting of the Leigh Independent Association, Ian Millward informed members that he had tracked a good back row forward with great hands, good attack and punishing defence. The Association were keen and Adam Bristow signed for the club in November 1999, part of a three man recruitment drive by the Centurions who at the same press conference unveiled Paul Anderson and Simon Baldwin.
Adam Bristow’s career is typical of so many league players. Born into a keen RL family in Sydney a young Adam played from the age of 6 in the Western Suburbs District Junior Leagues. At 12 he then attended St Gregory’s College, a school with a strong rugby tradition. After leaving Adam played Rugby Union for a while before moving north with his brother to Byrom Bay.
Soon the pair were turning out for the local side in the Country Area Competition. After helping them win a Grand Final in 1995 he was spotted by Ian Millward and invited to train with Illawarra. He signed for the Steelers playing mainly in their reserve grade in 1996. 1997 and 1998 saw Adam make more appearances for the senior side before he moved back to his Sydney roots in 1999, playing 13 games with Western Suburbs before they amalgamated with Balmain. After being left out of the first team squad of the merged club, Bristow decided to look towards England and chose to come to Leigh while on honeymoon in Tahiti, after learning they were now coached by Millward.
Adam made his Leigh debut in the Centurions 26-12 Boxing Day defeat of Widnes before a Hilton Park crowd of more than 4,000. It was a solid debut in the second row but the great hands and good attack seemed to be missing from his early games. It was a less than auspicious start.
Perhaps Leigh fans expected too much, afterall Bristow replaced the popular Jamie Kennedy. Adam came in for quite a bit of criticism from the terraces in his early days with the club, especially when fellow Australian Heath Cruckshank was smashing opponents with exocet-like tackles. How wrong those early perceptions were!
After a few games, Millward switched Bristow to loose forward and he quickly made the position his own. As confidence grew, so did the string of good performances. The fans began to warm to Bristow and Leigh moved to the top of the table.
Mid-season, Ian Millward left Hilton Park for Knowsley Road and his replacement in the Leigh hotseat was Paul Terzis. Adam quickly made an impression on his new coach as Leigh continued to challenge for the Minor Premiership before eventually finishing 4th.
By the end of his first season with Leigh, Bristow was an important member of the team and gave an inspired performance in an 18-10 major semi final win over Oldham. That victory put the Centurions into the Grand Final and although the Centurions lost in heart-breaking fashion to a Richard Agar drop kick, Bristow was one of the team’s better performers.
With the season over it was decision time. The RFL reduced the overseas quota for NFP clubs from three players to one. Paul Terzis was left with one of the most difficult decisions of his coaching career – a direct choice between hard-hitting Heath Cruckshank and the hard-working Bristow.
Adam’s greater versatility won the day and Bristow was rewarded with a two-year contract.
In 2001, Bristow became joint on-field captain of the side and together with Andy Fairclough led the Centurions to Minor Premiership and Trans Pennine honours. While Terzis introduced a squad system, this didn’t include Bristow and he only missed one game all season.
Such durability has again been evident this year despite the club playing staff suffering more than their share of injuries.
Adam has been a virtual ever-present, often topping the tackle count or providing a telling pass. He is widely recognised as one of the best back row forwards outside Super League and helped himself to 18 important tries this term. Three of those came in a crucial 35-20 win at Doncaster.
After almost three years of avoiding any kind of trouble with referees Adam received his marching orders for an alleged high tackle during a recent 60-14 win over Swinton and was then put on report for a similar incident at Hull KR. Quite ironic for a player who had never previously experienced trouble from referees.
The only other overseas stars to pass the century were fullback Mick Bolewski (who had a three year spell at the club between 1909-12) and forward Tau Liku (who had five years at the club between 1994-99, and still plays in this country for Barrow).
Such was the respect commanded by Adam, few people dared criticise, and those that did are laughed at or treated with contempt. Without doubt during his time with the club he was Leigh’s Mr Consistent, one of the first names on the team sheet and a fine role model for young players.
His excellent form continued until the end of the 2003 season when Adam and his family decided to move back to Australia.
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