BY STEVE MASCORD
THE 20-metre banner at Totally Wicked Stadium later today will read “James Roby – The Greatest Ever”.
Forever, as they say, is a mighty long time.
But as Roby prepares to play his 532d match for St Helens – eclipsing the mark set by Welshman Kell Coslet – today against Salford, forever is actively being contemplated.
“I do understand that if I have grandkids my name might still be at the top of that list,” 37-year-old Roby said earlier this week.
“It may not be broken for a long, long time if ever.”
Roby is referencing the fact that 19-year careers will become increasingly rare and seasons will become increasingly short in future.
The happy hooker is reminded annually, at least, about what an anomaly he is and how rapidly he becomes more abnormal.
Team-mate George Delaney was two months old when he made his 2004 debut.
“It’s scary to think I’ve been doing this every day of his life,” Roby, who clearly has been thinking exactly that, said.
“People write you off because they read your age. But we do the right thing off the field, we look after ourselves continuously, we make sacrifices. I’m proud to be still playing.”
And while Roby will try to keep his preparation today as routine as possible, he admits game 532 hasn’t exactly crept up on him. It’s a key reason he’s still playing.
“I’ve come so close, it’s been so many years of hard work and graft and grind,” he said of his decision to go around again this year.
“You’re on the cusp of getting there.”
The great thing about sport and all those statistics and those colours and logos that remain through generations is that they give us a sense of what came before and what comes after us, too.
There is link between Coslet and Roby and Delaney which perhaps makes some of life’s abiding mysteries a little less mysterious. Put a number on someone’s back and a ball under their arm and suddenly life and death make just a little bit more sense.
Of Coslet, Roby says: “When I was a younger player, he was around as a team manager or club president sort of role. He was always there or thereabouts.
“You’d see him every now and then at awards and things like that. Kel’s a great bloke. He loves a chat
“As a young player walking around the changing rooms, you can’t not know his name because his name is at the top of the list. We have an appearance list, people who have made over 300 appearances for St Helens.
“Kel’s name is sitting proudly at the top of that at the moment.
“We all know who he is and what he’s achieved in the game. He holds records in terms of points scored and goals kicked.
“They used to play 40, 50 games a year. I don’t think we could do that nowadays.
“I’m proud to gain the mantle off someone as significant as Kel.”
That’s right a sign on the wall – not a post on the internet. One way Roby makes time freeze is that he has no social media accounts.
“People keep coming up to be and saying bits and bobs and I’m ‘how do you know all this’?
“It’s stuff that I’ve not seen that’s out there.”
Time does not make fools of us all, as it turns out. Most, yes. Time has treated Kel Coslet with respect and from today onwards James Roby can expect similar privileges.
“Hopefully,” he says, “George Delaney will be sitting here in 20 years making a similar speech.”
Image: Ed Sykes/SWpix
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