1973–1996: New club In July 1973, the original
Hunslet club was wound up following the sale of their Parkside ground, because no suitable new location could be found that was financially viable. The £300,000 proceeds of the sale of Parkside were distributed to shareholders. Due to the efforts of their former
Great Britain forward
Geoff Gunney (MBE), local businessmen and supporters the club managed to reform as New Hunslet for the 1973–74 season and moved to the Leeds Greyhound Stadium and erected iron American football posts. The resurrected club had a new badge depicting a rising phoenix to symbolise their rebirth. In 1974, New Hunslet adopted green and white as team colours because the traditional myrtle, white and flame colours were still registered to the former Parkside-based club, and they would not release them. The stay at the greyhound stadium was cut short when the owners closed the ground and arranged to demolish everything on the site. In 1978, coach
Bill Ramsey put a lot of pressure on the RFL and finally got permission to use the traditional colours. The club reverted to Hunslet for the 1979–80 season. With the closure of the Greyhound stadium, the next ground to host Hunslet was
Mount Pleasant, Batley, for two seasons, before Hunslet moved to
Leeds United's
Elland Road football stadium then owned by Leeds City Council. After leaving Elland Road, Hunslet had a brief spell at
Bramley. On 19 November 1995, the club, now known as Hunslet Hawks, moved to the
South Leeds Stadium, only about half a mile from Parkside. On that day,
Leigh were the guests at Hunslet's first home game for twenty-two years. They then narrowly missed out on promotion from Division Two in 1996. Coach Steve Ferres left to join Huddersfield and
David Plange took over as player-coach.
1996–2009: Summer era In 1997 the Hawks played in the first (and last) Challenge Cup Plate Final losing 60–14 to
Hull Kingston Rovers. It was the Hawks first appearance at
Wembley Stadium since 1965. Also in 1997, the Hawks were promoted to the First Division as champions. In 1999 Hunslet won the Northern Ford Premiership Grand Final against Dewsbury, 12–11, at Headingley.
Paul March was the player/coach at Hunslet, joining midway through the 2009 season following the resignation of
Graeme Hallas. March guided Hunslet to a 6th-place finish and a play-off spot in Championship 1. Hunslet travelled to Blackpool in the first week of the play-offs winning, 18–21, to set up an elimination semi-final against Oldham in which Hunslet were comfortably beaten, 54–30.
2010–present: Promotions and silverware In 2010 Paul March led Hunslet to their first silverware for over 11 years by securing the Co-operative Championship 1 title, and subsequent survival in 2011. In 2012,
Barry Eaton took over as coach. In 2014 Hunslet won the Grand Final after extra time against Oldham, thus gaining promotion to the Championship. Barry Eaton left in late January 2016 to join Leeds Rhinos and was replaced by his assistant coach and former Hunslet Hawks player
Matt Bramald. Bramald left the club at the end of the 2016 season having completed his contract. He was replaced by former Hunslet player
James Coyle. Hunslet Hawks returned to their original name of
Hunslet RLFC for the 2017 season following an overwhelming fan vote in favour of their original name. Fans were then asked to choose between the clubs' original 'Rampant Lion' crest and the 'Phoenix Rising' crest adopted by the club in 1973 when the club was reformed. Fans voted 54% to 46% in favour of the lion. On 13 October 2024, Hunslet earned promotion to the championship after beating
Swinton 22-20 in the relegation/promotion playoff match. In the 2025 RFL Championship season, Hunslet finished bottom of the table recording just two wins all year. ==Colours and crest==