The Blues Ox

On one hand its a real shame for Halifax that so many players from the area go to Huddersfield and other teams but they really stand no chance of competing with the SL clubs. On the other hand its great to see so many players from the area having a chance in SL as it just shows the talent that the area still produces. At Siddal at the moment it almost feels like Wigan and Leeds get first choice and then Huddersfield take the rest.

Halifax putting old games on their Youtube channel everyday for anyone interested.

Job seems ideally suited to Jose Mourinho.

Haha I did wonder about that signal.

I thought the ref at the LSV had a great game to be fair. I thought Leigh could have had an extra card for a nasty late tackle on Murrell but hey ho he did well especially after the red when Leigh were racing in after every penalty Fax conceded, at one point we conceded a penalty for offside and the player who conceded it was surrounded by about 10 or 11 Leigh players pushing and shoving but again well done to the ref and his team. As for Fax an abysmal second half put paid to any hopes of a surprise win. Carrying too many players who probably should have gone at the end of last season.

My perspective changed massively about 3 years ago when I got involved with grass roots rugby and I am ashamed to admit that at times in games before that I thought the ref was going out of his way to "cheat" my team and would shout as much from the terraces. I never got in to all the more personal abuse, I suppose calling someone a cheat is bad enough, but I honestly believed that refs could be biased against teams. As I mentioned that changed as in my role as a coach I obviously could not be seen to be shouting abuse at referees but would see many parents and coaches losing their cool over decisions in games involving players U16 and to be honest I were embarrassed for them. Watching young men and young women try to ref amatuer games and having split seconds to make decisions, my respect for referees is now as high as it ever has been. Im lucky that my team has a really good bunch of parents and Ive not heard much if anything in the way of referee abuse from them. That starts with the team and they are told from the outset how to treat the person in the middle, thats yes sir, no sir but at the same time been told they are only human, they will make mistakes as we all will but you can also have a laugh and a joke with them, I mean its a lot harder to abuse someone when you get to know them. I don't always agree with every decision made and if something goes against my team I will be frustrated or even annoyed but I will not show it as me showing it sets a very bad example. It takes a hell of a lot of bottle to be a referee and I thank every one of them that gives up their time just so we can have a game especially considering the abuse they get for doing a job they love.

Im praying Toronto find a way to win enough games to stay up. It would be a disaster for the champonship if they came back down.

Toulouse Olympique v Batley Bulldogs (Toulouse -18) Bradford Bulls v Sheffield Eagles (Sheffield +2) Featherstone Rovers v Swinton Lions (Fev -16) Leigh Centurions v Halifax (Leigh -14) Oldham v Dewsbury Rams (Oldham +10) Widnes Vikings v Whitehaven (Widnes -14) York City Knights v London Broncos (York +6) Potential to be a few blowouts this week. I may be tempted by Fev up to -20, Leigh up to about -24 and London giving up about 10 on York. Expecting a blowout for Widnes as well so will keep an eye on that one.

Have to agree to disagree after I have watched him nearly every week for the last 4 seasons.

Johnston is certainly not a liability in defence. Ive watched him a few seasons now at Fax and for his size you could argue he was pound for pound Fax's best defender. Its very rare he misses tackles and I would say his defense is possibly his best quality, personally for me though I don't want my half backs best quality to be his defense.

I didn't like to say as much.

A lot of stuff posted about your halves is stuff that was posted on the Fax forums last season......

No I think York were dire although if we had played like that against Dewsbury we would probably have won that one so in that sense it were an improvement. I doubt we will compete with Leigh next week but its not a game anyone had us down to win anyway but I thought by the time we got to the bash we would have only lost 2 or 3 games which was Fev and Leigh away and allowing for another and then our tougher fixtures after where we would likely drop away from the top 3 so the loss against Dewsbury could really hurt come the end of the season.

Still obviously quite a bit cheaper to stand but how do our prices compare to other teams? I dont think they are that much out of line are they? I know Bradford used to be way over the top at Odsal but did they reduce with their move to Dewsbury?

A lot of Fax fans were happy to see us freshen up our halves this season and thought it should have happened a season or 2 before. When playing with Johnston it was easy to see all the pressure was on Murrell and we said it would be interesting to see how it worked out at York when Johnston signed for them. On that showing York looked a lot like Fax last season. One thing that got me about York last year was how quick they seemed to do everything and how enthusiastic they looked and they seemed devoid of both yesterday. Obviously not a great start from York but they will pick up wins and I think we could end up with quite a large group going for the last 2 play off spots with the top 3 out of sight.

Im surprised how much of a shadow of last seasons team York looked. After pre-season I had this down as a win for us but the way we have played I didnt think we would get close today so that was a bit of a shock.

Results wise today Fax probably has to be the shock, not many people will have seen that coming after performances so far this season. I had Batley down as scratch on the handicap so that could have gone either way. I dont see the Fev result as that big a surprise I think we will have a top 3 that is some distance better than the rest come the end of the season. I were a bit surprised Bradford did as well against Oldham but its a good result for them and hopefully can propell them back in to SL where they belong and Haven were always going to struggle against Toulouse I just didnt expect it to be such a blowout.

I expected Fax to be around +4 for this game so yeah I would be backing York as you can get them at +4. Although York off scratch looks tempting.

Maybe a team set up in Satander that can use the motto "You can bank on us" to drive their journey to SL. That would be pretty cool.

Just over 8000 days ago.

Quite a bit out this week on the actual handicap:- Batley +6 Dewsbury +8 Halifax -4 London -4 Oldham +14 Swinton +22 Haven +18 Going on those I like the look of Batley, Widnes, York and Oldham.

For the betting I will go something like this:- Batley Bulldogs v Sheffield Eagles (Scratch) Dewsbury Rams v Widnes Vikings (Dewsbury +14) Halifax v York City Knights (Halifax +4) London Broncos v Featherstone Rovers (London -4) Oldham v Bradford Bulls (Oldham +10) Swinton Lions v Leigh Centurions (Swinton +18) Whitehaven v Toulouse Olympique (Haven +16)

As has been mentioned, a pretty uninspiring draw with only 2 ties standing out for me, the Newcastle game and the Hull Kr V Leigh game.

Murrell's talking to the ref is quite a bit different to Sykes.

I think we were lucky not to have another yellow or possibly red when I think its Garside shoves the Dewsbury trainer. Obviously we don't know what was said but he really shouldnt be putting his hands on anyone outside of the players and was just another example of our poor discipline. Our coach should have been out slamming our players but from his interview he seems to be leaning towards blaming the ref.