‘I competed in javelin at county level and cleaned up. I think my personal best was 55 metres when I stopped at 14 or 15 and football took over instead’ Long throw ace Rory Delap on his incredible trademark

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Stoke legend Rory Delap would secure a place in Premier League folklore history

Stoke City's Rory Delap prepares to launch his long throw in a game against Hull City.
Rory Delap gearing up for another long throw-in (Image credit: Getty Images)

For younger football fans, Rory Delap is probably more famous as the father of Chelsea striker Liam Delap, but ask any fan of a certain age about him and you’ll get a very different answer.

That’s because father Rory was the man who turned the humble throw-in from a functional part of the game to a deadly set-piece. If for whatever reason you don’t believe us, then we challenge you to find another footballer with a longer ‘throw-ins’ section on their Wikipedia page than the 941-word opus that Delap’s page has at the time of writing.

It was during his five-and-a-half-year spell at Stoke City that Delap hit the mainstream, but this weapon was a long time in the making.

Rory Delap on his long throw-ins

Stoke City Rory Delap

Here comes another one... (Image credit: Getty Images)

So just when did Delap realise his throw-ins were something special?

“When I was playing for Carlisle’s youth team,” he tells FourFourTwo. “I used it at every club during my career but in different ways – at Stoke it only became notorious because we had eight or nine players who were 6ft 4in and very brave.

Rory Delap of Stoke City takes a throw in

Delap's throw-ins were a deadly set-piece for the Potters (Image credit: Catherine Ivill/AMA/Corbis via Getty Images)

“But I used it at Carlisle, Derby and Southampton under Gordon Strachan – he used to like it if I threw it as high as possible, so the opposition couldn’t clear it. I used it for Ireland too.”

Delap’s throwing prowess was also born out of the skills he showed on both track and field as a kid.

“I got really good at 800m and javelin – I competed at county level and cleaned up in javelin. I think my personal best was 55 metres when I stopped at 14 or 15 and football took over instead.”

That journey saw him rise through the ranks at Carlisle, before going on to make more than 100 appearances at both Derby County and then Southampton.

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Pulis' Stoke City were not everyone's cup of tea (Image credit: Getty Images)

A short spell at Sunderland followed, before he joined Stoke initially on loan in October 2006, with a permanent move following 14 months later.

Tony Pulis’s side would go to ruffle more than a few Premier League feathers, with FourFourTwo ranking their 2009/10 side at no.9 in a list of the 30 most-hated teams ever in British football.

Delap has teamed up with bookmaker William Hill for their prediction game Final One Standing this season

Joe Mewis
Joe Mewis

For more than a decade, Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor. Mewis has had stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others and worked at FourFourTwo throughout Euro 2024, reporting on the tournament. In addition to his journalist work, Mewis is also the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team. Now working as a digital marketing coordinator at Harrogate Town, too, Mewis counts some of his best career moments as being in the iconic Spygate press conference under Marcelo Bielsa and seeing his beloved Leeds lift the Championship trophy during lockdown.

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