Swinton Lions head coach Paul Wood has hailed the progress his young group of players made across a “good season” where the club finished third in League One.
Wood, who represented England twice during his playing career, inherited a depleted squad on the back of an underwhelming Championship campaign that saw the club relegated after a play-off defeat to Hunslet.
Relegation prompted the Lions to part company with former coach Alan Kilshaw, as Wood took the reins, managing a senior side for the first time.
Wood highlighted that it was a “challenge” taking charge of a club in a period of flux, but explained how it has allowed him to maintain Swinton’s reputation as a talent factory, which develops young players.
“It’s the DNA of Swinton. We try to sign young talent who have been playing in good youth systems at Wigan, St Helens and Warrington.
“Ahead of the season, we brought in a couple of lads who were playing in the amateur game, who initially struggled and there were moments where we felt a bit disappointed, but we probably maximised our ability and finished in a respectable position.”
When asked why he joined the League One outfit, Wood’s response was immediate.
“I wanted to head up something, and it appealed to me when I spoke to Swinton. There is a lot of passion and willingness to drive the club forward,” he said.
“I had a lot of experience working with Scholars and at Warrington’s academy. Also, I have experience working in other industries and felt that I could support the club’s growth and bring some leadership.
“It is a club in transition so we have to be realistic, but we are improving and we could be far better next season. The average age of our team in League One was 22 years old, so the players will be much better having had the experience of playing physical rugby week-in week-out.”
“I said to the directors before the season, ‘sometimes you have to go through short-term pain,’ but we did not suffer too much in League One because the players performed well.
Next season, Swinton will compete in an expanded 21-team Championship. While Wood acknowledged that expectations should be tempered as the club is set to face stronger opposition, including potentially the Salford Red Devils, he remains optimistic.
“The club is moving in a good direction from top to bottom,” Wood explained.
IMG placings reflect the clubs that score highest across a range of assessed criteria, including fandom, on-field performance, finance, stadium and community. For the second consecutive season, Swinton Lions’ IMG grading fell.
Wood says he takes no notice of this, and affirmed that the club is on an upward trajectory. This view was echoed by Swinton Lions CEO Steve Wild, who said in a statement: “Swinton Lions RLFC’s IMG rating score of 6.54 and overall position of 28th belies the significant strides made at the club over the last 12 months.
“Our relegation at the end of 2024 clearly did not enable us to improve our average three-year league position, but season 2025 did allow us to reset with the recruitment of Paul Wood and the building of a young team full of exciting potential –
a squad which has been retained ahead of season 2026.
“The raw numbers also do not reflect the growing impact our club is having on our local community, with the emergence of our Lionesses as a force in the women’s game, the launch of our wheelchair team, the progress of our own internal player pathway systems, and the growing impact of our extensive community programmes on the young people of Swinton, Salford and Greater Manchester as a whole.
“Our digital online presence improved significantly in 2025 in comparison to previous years, reflected by the fact that we were awarded extra credit for a 10% increase across three of the four digital parameters. However, due to a re-assessment of
IMG’s processes for 2025, which set the points scoring ceilings at higher levels, our Digital score actually went down from 2.2 to 1.85 despite actual significant progress.
“Our Finance score went down from 1.25 to 1 which is reflective of playing in League 1 in 2025 with fewer matches and smaller crowds, which puts more pressure on the club’s Directors to address shortfalls – this being despite significant economies being made against player spend. Lower attendances in League 1 also impacted slightly on our stadium utilisation score, calculated by dividing average crowds by stadium capacity, which reduced from 0.8248 to 0.8166.
“Our Community score remained at 1.5 which is based on our Foundation’s income, but also the catchment area of Trafford where we play home games. It’s a somewhat disappointing fact that if Trafford’s population had been 250,000 or above, rather
than its actual of 241,000, we would have scored another 0.5 of a point.
“The fact that our Foundation delivered programmes in four local authority areas of Greater Manchester in 2025 is not recognised within the IMG system – a point we argued against but without success. Nonetheless our Lions Foundation continues to punch significantly above its weight in respect of social impact outcomes and is a shining
light for us all to be proud of.
“Next year, Swinton Lions will celebrate its 160th birthday, and despite having played the last 33 years outside of our traditional boundaries we continue to be a relevant force both in the sport of Rugby League and within the communities we serve.
“We are a historic, unique and proud club with magnificently loyal supporters, and with a growing band of wonderful sponsors and key partners who believe in the club and the potential of our brand.”
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