After the most turbulent and tragic week in the club’s history, Keighley Cougars will attempt to get back to rugby matters on Sunday when they face Coventry Bears in League One.
The club, and the sporting world at large, was left in shock last Sunday when Danny Jones, Keighley’s former Wales international, collapsed and died during their match against London Skolars. The post-mortem concluded on Thursday that the 29-year-old was suffering from a hereditary heart condition, which was not discovered when he underwent an ECG test late last year.
At the request of his family Sunday’s match will go ahead, with Keighley donating a third of gate receipts to the fundraising effort that has already raised an incredible amount for Jones’s young family. Initially set up to raise £1,000, a goal that was comfortably passed within an hour, the fund is now heading towards £100,000 thanks to donations from players, officials and fans.
For Keighley’s chairman, Gary Fawcett, that is not enough. He wants the fundraising efforts to go much higher before the end of the season, which concludes in October when Keighley take on the Welsh national side in memory of Jones. “The fund needs to be over £1m and we should all share this target. It’s all very well having a target without a plan so I have thought about this as well,” he said this week, before calling on other sports, particularly Premier League football and rugby union, to make contributions. “As far as I can see the richest sport in the country, Premiership football, has made zero contribution to Danny’s fund. If I’m wrong about this then let me know why and I will publicise it to encourage others to donate.
He continued: “On top of this, whereas the rugby league world has been sharing most of the burden of the fundraising so far, I haven’t seen much in the way of donations from our richer brother, rugby union.
“This is an issue that can affect anyone in football and rugby so I believe that these two sports, as a minimum and collectively, should be donating significant sums into Danny’s fund.”
Fundraising efforts will be significantly boosted by Keighley’s biggest gate in years on Sunday. Their two home games in the league this season have attracted crowds of 903 and 1,011 – but on Sunday around 4,500 are expected to pack into their Cougar Park stadium. You would have to go back to the days before Super League to find the last time Keighley experienced crowds of that size, which sums up not only the popularity of Jones in the sport, but also the way that the rugby league community has reacted to the tragedy.
Fans from all clubs are expected to turn up and pay their respects to Jones, a man who served the game’s lower levels with distinction. Such was his talent, he became the fourth player in Keighley’s history to register 1,000 points for the club.
As a full international for Wales, there was always a suspicion that had he not been so happy at Keighley, a move to Super League may have emerged. The club have announced plans to retire his No6 jersey with immediate effect, and the main stand is to be named The Danny Jones Stand. Fawcett has also confirmed that Jones will be inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame.
It will be an emotional afternoon.
