IT’S not a bad compliment when someone who regularly appears on the BBC, Sky Sports and Channel 4 credits you with helping launch their media career.
Danika Priim is far too generous in putting her success down to a helping hand from me.
The former Leeds Rhinos, Bradford Bulls and England rugby league player is now a popular pundit on TV coverage of the sport she played with distinction.
And she has clearly taken to her career behind the microphone as successfully as she played the game.
Last year she was shortlisted for Sports Pundit of the Year at the Broadcast Sport Awards alongside sporting greats Ian Wright, Rio Ferdinand and Gary Neville from football plus Formula One’s David Coulthard and horse racing’s Ruby Walsh
The nomination came for Danika’s work on Channel 4’s coverage of Super League, but she also appears on Sky and on the BBC covering last year’s Rugby League World Cup.
“I don’t know whether all this would have happened without David inviting me to speak at the Lord’s Taverners Balloon Debate back in 2018,” she told the audience at the latest Fresh Thinking Network event this week.
Of course, talent will always out, my good fortune was being introduced to Danika before anyone else discovered she was as articulate with a microphone as she was with a rugby ball on the field.
Reflecting on her award nomination, Danika, who retired from rugby in 2021, told the audience at the Fresh Thinking Network event at Banyan Bar & Kitchen in Leeds: “It’s insane.
“After I retired I have had the chance to do something I really love and now I find myself up against people who do this for a living.
“Ian Wright came up to me at the awards ceremony and introduced himself and said he really liked my work!”
Don’t worry about all this media attention going to Danika’s head.
Her day job as a teacher at a Leeds school for children with social, emotional and mental health needs is a great leveller.
“I go into school on a Monday having been covering a match on TV at the weekend and the kids say to me: ‘We saw you on the telly, but you’re still a ****’!”
Joining Danika on the panel for a discussion about the business of sport at the Fresh Thinking Network event were former Leeds United footballer Ben Parker who is now a pundit for the club’s LUTV channel, Warwick Andrews, the managing director of Leeds Knights ice hockey team and Chris Allen, managing partner of law firm Blacks which has a successful sports law department.
Fresh from the announcement of the appointment of Javi Gracia as Leeds United’s new manager, Ben said that as both a fan and an employee, he was hoping that the club can stay in the Premier League this season.
Unlike some in football he has an honesty and humility in his approach to both life and sport and a gratitude for still being able to work close to the sport and team he loves despite his career as a player being cut short by injury.
Warwick Andrews has spent his career working in sport as an advisor and consultant and admits that he was contemplating early retirement before he was offered the chance to run the Leeds Knights ice hockey team last year.
The professional team plays in the National League at Planet Ice Leeds, another sporting venue on the city’s Elland Road and Warwick told the audience that the team are in with a chance of achieving a quadruple of honours this season having already won the Yorkshire Cup, they are competing for the National League, the Playoffs and are in the National League Cup Final against Peterborough Phantoms next month.
Attendance at matches is growing, often pushing 2,000 a game, and Warwick said his ambition is to see someone wearing one of the team’s shirts walking through the centre of Leeds.
Chris Allen has always brought a buccaneering approach to the marketing of his law firm, Black Solicitors.
When you arrive at Leeds City Station or fly into Leeds Bradford Airport, you will be welcomed by images of its lawyers and its distinctive black and yellow logo.
As well as traditional legal disciplines, the firm is involved in sports law and Chris gave a fascinating insight into the good, bad and ugly side of dealing with sports agents and the complexities of running a testimonial year for a professional sports person.
Launched by Leeds-based finance business Fresh Thinking Capital, the Fresh Thinking network is aimed at helping support personal development and networking opportunities for young professionals in Leeds.
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THERE was a time when I owned a prized collection of branded items from law firms, property firms and accountants from across the length and breadth of Yorkshire.
Branded golf tees, balls and towels, polo shirts bearing garish logos, mugs, glass ware, cufflinks, beer, chocolate and even stress balls.
I once wrote a tongue-in-cheek item in my Yorkshire Post column suggesting that the only positive to emerge from the constant renaming and rebranding indulged in by law firms was that at least they had to send you an umbrella with their new logo.
By 5pm I’d had half a dozen brollies delivered to my desk in the newsroom.
Oh the power I then wielded.
I miss it.
It meant that every Christmas so much wine and champagne was delivered to the newspaper’s business desk that we grudgingly had to give some of it away to the less fortunate.
We called them news reporters and sub editors.
There were some ‘perks’ of the job that weren’t as useful as the festive cases of wine.
Most ties I have been presented with – they used to be a fixture of Wooden Spoon and other charity lunches – lie unworn still in the plastic cover at the bottom of a sock drawer, or even thrown in the next bag of clothes earmarked for the local charity shop.
But Chris Allen, the managing partner of Blacks Solicitors, a man with a marketeer’s approach to his firm coupled with a pension for sharp clothes, was modelling a tie in the firm’s colours – black and yellow, matching it rather fetchingly with a puppytooth check suit.
The tie has a retro design I rather like. Black with a thin yellow stripe down the centre.
I could imagine Lucky Luciano wearing it in his heyday, when he made you an offer you couldn’t refuse.
I’m sure Chris Allen’s negotiating tactics involve a lot more charm and a more positive outcome for his clients.
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SINCE when was it compulsory to wear a black hoodie and scarf across your face when riding an electric scooter?
It appears to be the look du jour for scrotes buzzing about our cities.
If there was ever a look that suggests you are up to no good, that’s it.
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I READ a headline the other day that said: ‘New Leeds council funding for business innovation’.
The story underneath said that Leeds City Council had launched a range of initiatives intended to help aspiring business innovators to receive new funding.
Councillor Jonathan Pryor, the local authority’s executive member for economy, culture and education, commented: “Leeds is a city bursting with ideas and talent, and the council is determined to do everything it can to harness that energy in a way that benefits us all. We therefore want to encourage innovative business activity which makes a real difference to people’s lives by driving inclusive growth, promoting collaboration and tackling inequalities.”
That should be positive news.
Call me cynical, but I don’t quite see it like that.
I don’t believe that the best way to encourage business growth is to give local authorities money to invest in entrepreneurial fledgling firms.
Because when was the last time a local council was described as innovative?
And when was the last time that a business put its success down to a grant from the local council?
Good businesses will succeed without handouts and in my experience the people that get money out of councils are not the entrepreneurs or the wealth creators who are far too busy running and growing their own business.
Those bagging the grants are much more often likely to be the talent-lite, opportunists who couldn’t do anything without a handout.
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I TOOK my car in for a service the other morning and decided to wait in the cafe of the nearby Morrisons supermarket.
I got my laptop out, did a bit of work and then prepared to log into a Teams call with a client.
Sitting at a table close by were four builders in high viz jackets all tucking into the Morrisons speciality Full Breakfast, their plates loaded with two sausages, two bacon rashers, two hash browns, a fried egg, mushroom, tomato, baked beans and a slice of toast.
As I consumed my soya milk porridge with honey (that request brought a questioning look from the lady on the till), I listened to the conversation at the neighbouring cafe table.
It was taken up by a discussion about Leeds United’s imminent appointment of former Watford boss Javi Gracia as its new manager after the search for a replacement for Jesse Marsch had taken the club up a few blind alleys.
I got the impression that Gracia’s appointment was not greeted with universal approval, if this quartet were any reflection of the fanbase.
“I think the lad will do a good job, he got Watford to an FA Cup Final,” said the older of the group.
“I think he’ll be no good for us, you f***ing k***head,” said one of his younger colleagues.
I’m presuming the discussions over the appointment were rather similar in the Leeds United boardroom.
I am away next week so the blog will return on March 10.
Have a great weekend.