Mark Moxon: ‘Fine wine’ Dale Morton ‘in the form of his life’ as Batley Bulldogs prepare for winger’s testimonial against Wakefield Trinity.

The winger, 33, started his career at Wakefield before spending six seasons at local rivals Dewsbury Rams. He moved to the Fox’s Biscuits Stadium in 2020 and has been an integral part of the Bulldogs’ side ever since.

Head coach Mark Moxon told the reporter series: “Dale has been really important to the club. He is great going forward. He has got great feet, great footwork at the line and often gets his nose through and gets us going forward in yardage. He is great for that.

“He is a great finisher as well and has scored some good tries for us. He is a really nice bloke in the group. He is the kind of bloke that players will go to speak to. He is a go-to guy. That is just his nice, calm and placid personality.

“It is important to have people like that in your group. He has a lot of experience and he is the kind of bloke that players and staff will go and chat to if they have got issues.”

He added: “For me, Dale is like a fine wine. He has got better with age and I think he is in the form of his life. He is at that age where he is thinking about when is it time to hang up the boots and I said to him, “Dale, why would you? You are in the form of your life.

“He has been one of the first names on the team sheet.”

On the preparations to face recently relegated Wakefield, Moxon said:

“I thought we took a step forward in our preparation from Boxing Day to the game with Heavy Woollen and the plan is to take another step forward in our last friendly. We are looking for a few improvements again.

“After Boxing Day I was looking for improvement in defensive domination, where we were much improved, our goalline dee, where we were much improved as we kept them to zero, and good ball execution. We were better with that but the conditions meant we couldn’t really measure that.

“We are hoping for a tough test against Wakefield.”