2024 thread on other Championship teams

Doncaster have also released their squad numbers and I can see 10 in there who have played for FEV!!

1 hour ago, fevnut said:

Doncaster have also released their squad numbers and I can see 10 in there who have played for FEV!!

Doncaster RLFC known as the Dons now with the FEV contingent will they become the Doppelgangers    

Well, seeing as Fev have spent the last ten seasons signing every promising Championship player they could it is hardly a surprise that there are so many "ex Fev" players in other squads is it? It would be informative to know just how many players have passed through the club in the last ten seasons.

17 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

Well, seeing as Fev have spent the last ten seasons signing every promising Championship player they could it is hardly a surprise that there are so many "ex Fev" players in other squads is it? It would be informative to know just how many players have passed through the club in the last ten seasons.

That was definitely true until about 5 years ago but since then Fev's modus operandi has been more about signing veteran ex-SL players, in fact of those 10 in the Doncaster squad I think only one was signed from another Championship team.

There are a few reasons for that, partly that it became hard for us to hang on to those young signings for long ourselves (eg James Harrison and Frankie Halton), but also the ever-decreasing player pool meant that most promising youngsters in the Championship were quickly snapped up by SL clubs. It now seems to be Hull KR, not Fev, that sign up Dewsbury's best player each year for instance!

47 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

Well, seeing as Fev have spent the last ten seasons signing every promising Championship player they could it is hardly a surprise that there are so many "ex Fev" players in other squads is it? It would be informative to know just how many players have passed through the club in the last ten seasons.

Dose that answer your question BSJ ?  The answer below your question.

59 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

Well, seeing as Fev have spent the last ten seasons signing every promising Championship player they could it is hardly a surprise that there are so many "ex Fev" players in other squads is it? It would be informative to know just how many players have passed through the club in the last ten seasons.

I have the stats somewhere put I severely doubt Featherstone will have used notably more players than any other Championship club over the last ten years. Every club has a significant turnover of players every year. 

2 hours ago, marklaspalmas said:

I have the stats somewhere put I severely doubt Featherstone will have used notably more players than any other Championship club over the last ten years. Every club has a significant turnover of players every year. 

Indeed. At most Championship matches the pre-game fun is counting those "players who used to play for us". The fact that many of them have also played for another four or five clubs seems to elude some fans of all clubs. They aren't quite in the Terry Clawson mould just yet, but some can't be far off.

10 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

Indeed. At most Championship matches the pre-game fun is counting those "players who used to play for us". The fact that many of them have also played for another four or five clubs seems to elude some fans of all clubs.

Playing for four or five clubs is old hat, the pre-fun game for us now is "players who have had four or five stints with us". Ben Reynolds' 3rd "debut" for us could well be overshadowed by Kyle Trout's fourth "debut".

2 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

Indeed. At most Championship matches the pre-game fun is counting those "players who used to play for us". The fact that many of them have also played for another four or five clubs seems to elude some fans of all clubs. They aren't quite in the Terry Clawson mould just yet, but some can't be far off.

Maybe in the Clawson mode for changing clubs, but not as a player.

45 minutes ago, Gooleboy said:

Maybe in the Clawson mode for changing clubs, but not as a player.

Quite.

12 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

Well, seeing as Fev have spent the last ten seasons signing every promising Championship player they could it is hardly a surprise that there are so many "ex Fev" players in other squads is it? It would be informative to know just how many players have passed through the club in the last ten seasons.

The answer is that in the ten seasons from 2014 to 2023 there have been 176 players who have appeared for Fev. In alphabetical order:

Great list Chris, although Curtis MacDonald never played for us.

A very high proportion of players who only played in one season, a significant number of players who've had more than one spell at the club, and a very small number of "home grown" players. We've probably had more local lads Briscoe, Ferguson, Reynolds come to us from other clubs rather than joining the club directly (Cooper, Gale, Hardcastle).

11 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

Great list Chris, although Curtis MacDonald never played for us.

 

MacDonald I believe belongs to a separate category of players who were named in the 17 but never got on the field. He was an unused bench player in home game against Leigh.

That tactic was a feature of Jon Sharp's incumbency, I seem to remember Sam Day being an unused sub on a number if occasions.

18 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

Indeed. At most Championship matches the pre-game fun is counting those "players who used to play for us". The fact that many of them have also played for another four or five clubs seems to elude some fans of all clubs. They aren't quite in the Terry Clawson mould just yet, but some can't be far off.

              Think Terry had 14 moves in his career.playing for a couple of clubs twice.Older supporters will notice he never played for Cas and there is a story about why.He even refused to play for a combined Fev and Cas team against the Australian tourists.He was a character on and off the field.

1 hour ago, sentoffagain2 said:

              Think Terry had 14 moves in his career.playing for a couple of clubs twice.Older supporters will notice he never played for Cas and there is a story about why.He even refused to play for a combined Fev and Cas team against the Australian tourists.He was a character on and off the field.

Featherstone 1957-1965 and 1978 (in the 1977/78 and 1978/79 seasons)

1 hour ago, sentoffagain2 said:

              Think Terry had 14 moves in his career.playing for a couple of clubs twice.Older supporters will notice he never played for Cas and there is a story about why.He even refused to play for a combined Fev and Cas team against the Australian tourists.He was a character on and off the field.

Back end of his career S he played a few games for  wakey huddersfield and hull and retired 1980  aged 40

3 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

MacDonald I believe belongs to a separate category of players who were named in the 17 but never got on the field. He was an unused bench player in home game against Leigh.

That tactic was a feature of Jon Sharp's incumbency, I seem to remember Sam Day being an unused sub on a number if occasions.

Yes indeed. There's more players than I imagined in that niche club. Jamie Rooney's brother for one.

On 28/12/2023 at 11:58, fevnut said:

Featherstone 1957-1965 and 1978 (in the 1977/78 and 1978/79 seasons)

All detailed in one of the best RL autobiographies ever: "All The Wrong Moves".

38 minutes ago, Blind side johnny said:

All detailed in one of the best RL autobiographies ever: "All The Wrong Moves".

Cracking read that.

On 28/12/2023 at 12:06, POR said:

Back end of his career S he played a few games for  wakey huddersfield and hull and retired 1980  aged 40

   About 5 years before he died Terry and Alan Marchant came to Sheffield dog track.I worked paying out or doing the floor for one of the bookies.So i went over and had a chat knowing them both from years ago.Me and Alan had a laugh about when i backed one of his greyhounds at Whitwood before Alans team got their money on.Alan grabbed hold of me and we ended up rolling about on the floor scrapping.I would have been in my early twenties and Alan had just retired from playing for Hunslet.A crowd gathered round watching and up strides Barry Kear ex Cas Salford and Hull Fc who pulled us up and said that's enough.Good lad was Barry and a very good forward.I went in the Liberal Club in Normanton as my mate was a member and Terry's dad Fred was steward so i got to know him quite well.Happy days never a dull moment.

On 28/12/2023 at 12:06, POR said:

Back end of his career S he played a few games for  wakey huddersfield and hull and retired 1980  aged 40

Thank you for that. I had never noticed the three games he played for Huddersfield in 1979 but have now added it to the records

So first post this year on this thread which meandered slightly at the end of last year...I watched Wakefield's game against Wigan which is now available on YouTube.

It's hard to take too much from pre-season games - apart from the fact that our floodlights are no longer the laughing stock of the Championship  - and Wigan were missing a lot of their keyplayers in pivotal positions, and seemed to treat the game as something of a hit-out, as is often the case.

They did field quite a strong pack however and Wakefield coped with them quite comfortably, winning the arm wrestle throughout, Wigan didn't really get into the game at all. It's difficult to see Wakefield losing many this year, hardly surprising as they've spent around three times anyone else in the comp (probably the biggest disparity ever, maybe barring Toronto) and are full time, that is bound to tell and they look to be very solid across the park and although their starting pack has a few ageing players they have signed a bunch of younger forwards too.

Whether they quite have the star quality of the Leigh 2022 team I'm not so sure (Ipape, Asiata, Ferguson, Lam etc) and it will be interesting to see if they can develop into that sort of team, or whether they are more likely to be a bit like us last year - generally dominant but beatable if a team can manage to hang with them and go toe for toe.

Bradford look likely to be the "benchmark" team this year - their squad hasn't changed much and we know what to expect from them - so the season-opener at Belle Vue should tell us whether the comp this year is going to be a one-way romp for Wakefield or whether other teams can shake them up.

Not a Championship team any more but a quirky stat, London who are giving Hull a fright this afternoon have now scored 5 tries this season and all 5 have come from kicks.

And again not a Championship team but Oldham at admittedly a very early stage of the season not really living up to expectations under Sean Long, being crushed at York today, though they do have one or two missing including Kopczak and Taylor.

Elsewhere Bradford look to be struggling to put away Swinton, who seem to be going very well so far this season.

Looks like London give Hull one hell of a fright . Last minute try to win it, Can Smith keep his job at Hull methinks.?

        Went to the Sheffield v Batley game and in perfect conditions for Rugby League both teams made plenty of mistakes.Batleys passing and ball control was poor.Eagles never looked like losing and in the centre Chris Welham had a good game,looking leaner and fitter than when he played for Rovers.Eagles played their usual style passing the ball quickly and making far more ground in most sets than Batley.They could be a top 5 team.Batley look a bit disjointed despite some decent individual efforts and most of their threat comes from kicks.Not as dominant in the middle as previous Batley sides.I did have a fancy that Swinton would turn Bradford over this afternoon but i got that one wrong.