O'Reagan's Vikings Ready For Premier Season Two

By Peter Mann

England’s ever-industrious north-east has long since been known as being a footballing hotbed, that sport with the round ball, and a place where many a legend was either born, or has played, in over a century of sport.

In recent decades, and basketball aside, another sport has been attempting to take hold, with the Gateshead Senators and Darlington Steam, but the flagship franchise in the area, that now belongs to the recent rise of the Newcastle Vikings.

Last season, 2024, was their first at the top table, they eventually plying their trade in the British American Football Association (BAFA) Premier North, after their now former Head Coach, Bryce Stevenson (now of East Kilbride Pirates) led them to the promised land.

With the returning Kevin O’Reagan leading the way last season with his second spell in charge (they’ve had five HCs since their formation in late 2013, early 2014), the Vikings are aiming to go even better in this, 2025 season, kicking off this Sunday, away to divisional newcomers, Nottingham Caesars (13 April, at David Ross Sports Village, Beeston Lane, Lenton Abbey, Nottingham).

As a context for history, the Vikings began their BAFA tenure with that of Mick Tyler, Lee Lamb (both still at the club), Brian Carmichael, and the coaching duo of Ben Johnson and John Rooney, whilst on the playing side Conor Joyce, Robbie Brumpton and Misba Islam were not only at the first meeting, but are still present at the club to this very day.

Accepted into the league for the 2015 season, in Division Two North, it’s been a slow yet steady rise since; they became the Northumberland Vikings in late 2017 following a merger, and began the 2018 campaign as that; they’d be seen to claim back-to-back North titles through 2018 to 2021.

Having been on those fringes, 2023 would finally be the year they would earn a much sought after promotion, winning the NFC1 Central Division with an undefeated, 10-0 record, before whitewashing Chester Romans 30-0, then seeing off the Caesars, at home, 34-13, to clinch promotion, for the Northern Divisional title.  

Despite losing the overall Division One Championship game, 27-21, against Hertfordshire Cheetahs, the Vikings finished that season with an impressive, 12-1 winning record; moving into the Premier North would see the north-east franchise revert back to their original name, the Newcastle Vikings.  

Last season they impressed, and it’s expected that they do the same again this time around, HC Kevin O’Reagan saying: “There was apprehension going into the season, but the opener against Edinburgh, and to start 2-0 was great.

“It showed that we belong at this level and afforded some positive momentum; the first half of the game with Edinburgh though, that, essentially, was our pre-season.

“The season though, it was a big success, especially as we were new in the division and tipped to go down.

“But we made the National semi-finals, so we’re looking at building on that this season.   

“The game against London (Warriors) told us where we are at and what we need to do in order to compete, it was certainly an eye-opener and really showed us a lot.  

“We’ve more belief though, that we belong, and that we can compete and play with the best of them.

“We’ve also completely overhauled the coaching staff and recruited well through the local universities and are now ready to go again.”

Although there will be no main, team captains at the Vikings for the upcoming season, Coach O’Reagan instead will be working from a positional leaders’ standpoint with his gameday quartet being selected on his players’ performances throughout the previous week. 

As for the Vikings’ coaching staff, along the HC, there to be a new-look with that of Rhys Astrop (defensive backs), Jack Hunter (wide receivers), Lewis Hunter (defensive linemen), Saskia Köttler (general assistant), Jack Marley (defensive co-ordinator), Scott Smith (running backs, as well as being a local legend), and Joe Timmons (quarterbacks).  

Having achieved the first part of the franchise’s five-year plan from when O’Reagan arrived, the Vikings are now looking at pushing things on in 2025 where they’ll face powerhouses, Manchester Titans, the dangerous East Kilbride Pirates, the re-named Coventry (formerly Tamworth) Phoenix, and those newcomers, Nottingham Caesars.

The Vikings beat the Caesars to the punch at the end of the 2023 season, overcoming an early deficit before running out 34-13 victors, and gaining promotion; the Caesars, they had to make do with another season in Division One, before finally gaining promotion themselves at the last time of asking.

It’s a game both sides are looking forward to, this weekend, in the season opener, with O’Reagan seeing it as a platform for their success this season.

“(Nottingham) Caesars will be spicy and running it back to 2023,” continued the San Francisco 49ers fan, who returned for his second spell ahead of the 2024 campaign.

“Our goal this year this year though is to win the division, have home advantage in the play-offs, then go on and win it.

“When I came back, we had a five-year plan, and Year One’s aim was to stay in the Premier – the R word is banned.

“Moving forward we want to win national championships, and see professional football, and we will try and get there ourselves.

“We’re kind of on an island up here in the north-east though, in terms of catchment areas, although we do have five universities in which to pick players from.

“Coaches (Ben) Johnson and (John) Rooney, they are legends of the game up here, and I’ve followed their coaching methods; whenever I’m not involved myself, I’ve always been watching, but it’s frustrating to do that, from a fan’s perspective.”  

Ahead of the 2025 BAFA Premier North season, the Newcastle Vikings held a two-day pre-season training camp at Durham City’s Maiden Castle Sports Complex, in mid-March; a tete-a-tete with club veterans, Conor Joyce (defensive back) and Robbie Brumpton (linebacker), afforded insight into what the Vikings are all about, last season, as well as going into this one.

The pair, having been at the club since day one, are perhaps best placed to go behind the scenes at, and discuss all things Vikings, and that debut season in nations’ top division.

“Last season was pretty good and we probably went into it expecting to stay up, after which who knows,” began the Vikings defensive back.

“You don’t know what you’ve got though until a month before the season begins, because of universities and staffing, things like that.

“We’ve a pretty strong core of players here, but not as much depth until say, game two or three.

“I didn’t have any expectations in my head though and, once we had started winning games, that’s when we thought we could push on to the play-offs, which was the ideal goal for us.  

“Against Edinburgh, pre-game, you just don’t know what you’ve got, and perhaps we caught them off-guard, although you’re not sure yourself, did you have a good game, or did they play well, etc.

“And then Manchester rolled in, and you know they’re good, and don’t really have many off-games, and in that game, arguably, we should have beaten them in what was really a 50/50 game.

“At one point we were tied with them, and nearly managed to pull it back near the end.”

Team-mate and powerhouse linebacker, Robbie Brumpton added: “You don’t really know how to prepare for a Premiership season if you’ve never done it before, that and you really don’t know what the standard will be like that you’re walking into.

“All you’ll have to go on is some film, and any games you may have had the opportunity to watch yourselves.

“It was actually a bit like having imposter syndrome at the start of last season; we went to Edinburgh, who were what, the second-ranked team in the north, possibly the country, and just got stuck into them.

“That’s what shattered the imposter syndrome, and we started to realise that we deserve to be here.

“We had a really good game at home, against Manchester (Titans) as well, and that again, helped us, showed that we can mix it with the big boys.  

“There were games in which we circled on the calendar, East Kilbride (Pirates) being one of them; they’ve got a few former team-mates, and our former HC (Bryce Stevenson) there. It was a game we wanted to win, wanted to take care of.

“The ‘Bryce Stevenson Hatred,’ that doesn’t exist; we knew that he was a guy based up there (Scotland), and has a lot of ties there, to that area.

“We just felt it would it would have been nice to have known what was happening, sooner.”

Come the end of that debut season the Vikings found themselves, at the first time of asking, in the play-offs, having finished the regular season with a 7-3 record.

However, that’s when they came unstuck, against an unbeaten, 10-0, London Warriors juggernaut who completely whitewashed the Vikings, before going on to defeat, 31-10, Bristol Aztecs, in the Britbowl, their seventh success in eleven visits, between 2011 and 2024.

“We knew it would be a hard game,” continued Conor.

“They (London) were much better across the board, on the day, and there’s no real excuses, they were just better than us.

“We’d had a ropey pre-season, so the start wasn’t ideal; London just showed us how good they are, and they are where they are for a reason.

“They were a different class, and showed us who the best team is right now.

“There’s really nothing in which we could have done, changed, that would have overturned a result like that.”

“The (London) Warriors, we went into that as underdogs,” added Robbie.

“We had a long way to travel, and went there with a small squad, as well as carrying a lot of injuries, all of which impacted us.

“We didn’t hit our top form, and because of that, it was always going to be a tough game.  

“We’ve struggled all year to be honest, in away games, because of how we’re set up, especially the further distances, as we can’t always take a full squad with us.”

Continuing about Bryce Stevenson, and his impact at the Vikings, which in turn leads into the new season, and the opener against the Nottingham Caesars, Conor said: “There’s no hard feelings there, and he helped us to achieve promotion to the Premiership.

“As for Nottingham, I’ve got a lot of respect for them, and that game (2023) had a wider margin than we all thought it would have.

“It just got away from them after they’d had a really good first half.

“It was a really good game of football though, and I feel that they’ll be the team to watch.

“They won’t be a weak side and I can see them competing for the playoffs straight away in what is a very good division across the board, so it could be a cracker.

“This year though, this division, is one of the most competitive I’ve seen, and any team in it can either go down, or go on and win it.

“I am looking forward to that first game, and seeing what Grant Lawless does on offense; it’ll be interesting, but there’s also no easy game.”

The Nottingham respect continued with Robbie as well, the season opener looking like a barnstorming highlight on this season’s calendar; continuing, he said: “Nottingham was our hardest game when we got promoted.

“They’re a really good team with a lot of GB players and some really good coaches.

“There’s always been a pretty good record between North-East, and Nottingham sides though, but yes, they’re very good and we definitely need to prepare for them.

“I think they’ll be a good team this season, and we do need to be ready; their OC was threatening to hit us with 20-30 different formations before the end of the first quarter, when we last played them.”

With the season beginning, for both the Vikings and the Caesars, this coming weekend, the Vikings run-down will see the following – Nottingham Caesars (A, 13 April), Coventry Phoenix (H, 23 April), Manchester Titans (A, 11 May), Coventry Phoenix (A, 1 June), East Kilbride Pirates (H, 15 June), Manchester Titans (H, 22 June), East Kilbride Pirates (A, 6 July), Nottingham Caesars (H, 10 August) – home games for the Vikings will be played at Druid Park, Woolsington (NE13 8DF).

Expectations meanwhile, are understandably high in the Vikings camp, Joyce and Brumpton laying it down when they finished by saying what they’d like to take from the 2025 season, the former admitting that: “We’ve got to aim to do better this season than we did last, reach the playoffs again, and challenge at the top, to compete with Manchester, that has to be our aim,” whilst the latter was more, in-house with his goals, adding: “Making the playoffs again would be good, but for me, I want to see some of our positional groups improving.

“If we can do that, and it leads to winning more games, then that’s great.”

Keep up-to-date with everything at the Newcastle Vikings via their Facebook https://www.facebook.com/NewcastleVikings, X/Twitter https://x.com/vikings_afc, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/Vikings_AFC/, and website https://newcastlevikings.co.uk/

PETER MANN

NFL ANALYST

PETER IS A LIFELONG SPORTS FAN, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR BASED IN COUNTY DURHAM. HE HAS FOLLOWED THE NFL AND THE RAIDERS SINCE THE 1980s, AND LOVES BOTH SPORTS AND FAMILY HISTORY. PETER HAS A DEGREE IN SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, AND CAN BE FOUND ON TWITTER @petermannwriter

 
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