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5 new signings....


Rarefrith

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5 minutes ago, Gav Wilson said:

I'm pretty sure Tim is retiring now (what a career!)

Will Sharp is moving on (replaced by 26 year old Tyme Nikau)

Jack Teanby is 24.

Tim's been one of my favourite players over the years. Never anything flash but 100% every game.

Will Sharp will always be remembered fondly by Fev fans. Had a great stint with us highlighted by his amazing last-second leap against Sheffield to clinch our 4th league leader's shield in a row.

Jack Teanby is quoted as having a DOB of 8/4/1987 on the York City Knights website, so I'm blaming whoever's in charge of media over there 😜

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7 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Tim's been one of my favourite players over the years. Never anything flash but 100% every game.

Will Sharp will always be remembered fondly by Fev fans. Had a great stint with us highlighted by his amazing last-second leap against Sheffield to clinch our 4th league leader's shield in a row.

Jack Teanby is quoted as having a DOB of 8/4/1987 on the York City Knights website, so I'm blaming whoever's in charge of media over there 😜

Jack was born May 96 making him 24.

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On 15/09/2020 at 12:52, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think Bradford's 2010 squad, as well as ours, is being eclipsed by York's. They have just announced Ryan Atkins (35 next month), who has joined Tim Spears (36, if he returns for another year), Danny Washbrook (35 this week), Danny Kirmond (35 in November), Will Sharp (34), and Jack Teanby (33). Plus add in Chris Clarkson who is only 30 but was playing SL in 2010. Interesting to see which clubs' veteran signings pay off.

Yeah I saw York announce Atkins, I genuinley thought he had retired and I expect him to have very little impact on the championship except for collecting his wages. Regarding the signings, Fev obviously have a very solid squad to start with so I dont see much change in that. York were on the cusp of having a chance of becoming a regular top half team in my opinion but have now split their team up so it will be interesting to see how they go but I really don't see them been as good as they were in 2019. Bradford were way off and I still think they will be, Ive not seen a single signing of note that makes me think they will be better than they have been in recent seasons.

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4 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

 York were on the cusp of having a chance of becoming a regular top half team in my opinion but have now split their team up so it will be interesting to see how they go but I really don't see them been as good as they were in 2019. Bradford were way off and I still think they will be, Ive not seen a single signing of note that makes me think they will be better than they have been in recent seasons.

York have parted company with their starting halves from last year, that's a fairly drastic measure. I don't know what the circumstances were but I'm not surprised to see Johnston dropping down to League 1 as for me he's never been that good anyway, but Robinson was solid. Presumably York will have at least one half-back signing still to announce to play alongside Morgan Smith.

It was strange how on paper they looked stronger last year with the addition of the likes of Washbrook, Clarkson and Green in the pack plus Will Sharp and Keinhorst in the backs but it didn't show in their results, admittedly they had a tough start to the season and maybe needed more time to gel but they had a very moderate start to 2020, maybe they will gel better this time round.

Bradford I guess a lot depends on how Brough goes, they have some good youngsters coming through and I don't think they were that bad this year, they gave us a game and nearly beat Wakefield in the Cup, a Kear team on that narrow pitch at Dewsbury is always going to be hard to beat. When Brough faces Sykes there I think the ref should just put cotton wool in his ears.

Leigh were going well this year and are clearly throwing money round again, they're bound to be one of the leading contenders. Will be interesting to see if they do add any more halves besides Ellis and Wallace. Ellis spent a year in this league in 2017 and I don't remember him creating much of a splash, indeed on a couple of occasions after we played HKR I looked at their forum and they were all wishing they could swap their halves for ours (which were Thackeray and Briggs). Wallace has a tremendous side step but I never thought he got the Toronto attacking moves running as slickly as Mellor did.

Toulouse look to have made some good signings and are sure to be thereabouts, the one thing I did notice is that they seem to be steadily moving away from home-grown players, there was a thread on their forum about this where someone listed a potential starting 13 and there was only one French-born player in there.

The team with questions to answer in terms of recruitment is London, they appear to have done very little and seem to be waiting for more details on funding. They weren't that good last year having lost a chunk of players from their SL days, we absolutely rolled them  at their place when their middles looked absolutely tiny, when you just saw the teams lined up at the first kick off it stood out a mile how small London were up the centre of the park.

They seem to have aggravated some of their fans by setting up another supporters group to rival one the fans had set up themselves, their commercial manager has been engaged in some "prickly" discussions with fans on their forum, and at the moment they have lots of questions to answer on and off the field, though there's meant to be some "exciting news" coming soon.

Widnes should be a bit stronger this year, their pack looked very weak last year but they have added Matt Cook, Lee Jewitt and Paul Clough. They have a fair spine in Owens, Craven, Smith and Tompkins, I have doubts about their outside backs but they might push for top 5, they do need to improve a lot though.

We haven't been too busy in the transfer makret but that's because we have so many players tied up for 2021 already. Think a lot will depend on how Nu Brown goes as half back play is so important in this league. We looked good when we put it all together against London this year but some of our other wins were workmanlike, hopefully we can be one of the leading challengers again though.

Hard to see any of the teams I haven't mentioned being leading contenders. Halifax have finally had a bit of a clearout, long overdue but whether they have added enough quality to make an impact this year remains doubtful. Dewsbury were going quite well last year and should be top half of the table. Sheffield look a mid-table team at best too, a lot of solid Championship veterans in their squad but a few whose best years are behind them.

 

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PH,

 

I think that is a really good assessment of where clubs are at the moment. Just to reinforce this I have pinched the following details posted on the London Broncos forum on Tuesday

------------------------------------

Batley Bulldogs
Ins: Kieran Buchanan (Hull FC), Keegan Hirst (Halifax), Jodie Broughton (Halifax), Ben Kaye (Free agent), Josh Tonks (Hunslet)
Outs: Tyler Dickinson (Released), Shaun Lunt (Barrow Raiders), Jo Taira (Rochdale Hornets)

Bradford Bulls
Ins: Danny Brough (Wakefield Trinity), Brad English (Doncaster), Aaron Murphy (Huddersfield Giants)
Outs: Connor Farrell (Retiring), Cobi Green (Swinton Lions), Luke Littlewood (Rochdale Hornets)

Dewsbury Rams
Ins: Bayley Liu (West Wales Raiders)
Outs: Tommy Brierley (Released), Luke Nelmes (Oldham), Martyn Reilly (Oldham)

Featherstone Rovers
Ins: Fa’amanu Brown (Free agent), Jacob Doyle (Castleford Tigers), Callum Field (Leigh Centurions), Frankie Halton (Swinton Lions), Harvey Spence (Leeds Rhinos), Joe Summers (Castleford Tigers)
Outs: Conor Carey (Released), Brandan French (Released), Louis Jouffret (Ottawa Aces), Jack Richardson (Released), Alec Susino (Released), Bradley Wright (Released), Nathan Wright (Released).

Halifax
Ins: Connor Robinson (York City Knights), Greg Worthington (Toronto Wolfpack)
Outs: Paul Brearley (Released), Jodie Broughton (Batley Bulldogs), Reece Chapman-Smith (Released), Dan Fleming (Castleford Tigers), Tom Gilmore (Ottawa Aces), Keegan Hirst (Batley Bulldogs), Tommy Lee (Released), Scott Murrell (Keighley Cougars), Steve Tyrer (Widnes Vikings)

Leigh Centurions
Ins: Jamie Ellis (Hull Kingston Rovers), Adam Walker (Free agent), Blake Wallace (Toronto Wolfpack)
Outs: Sam Brooks (Swinton Lions), Callum Field (Featherstone Rovers) Liam Forsyth (Swinton Lions) Nick Glohe (Released) Ben Reynolds (Toulouse Olympique), Martin Ridyard (Swinton Lions)

London Broncos
Ins:
Outs: Olly Ashall-Bott (Ottawa Aces), Matty Fozard (Ottawa Aces), Morgan Smith (York City Knights)

Oldham
Ins: Tyler Dupree (Leeds Rhinos), Luke Nelmes (Dewsbury Rams), Martyn Reilly (Dewsbury Rams)
Outs: Harry Aaronson (Retiring)

Sheffield Eagles
Ins:
Outs: Corey Makelim (Released), Zack McComb (Released), Lewis Taylor (Released)

Swinton Lions
Ins: Sam Brooks (Leigh Centurions), Cobi Green (Bradford Bulls), Liam Forsyth (Leigh Centurions) Nick Gregson (Rugby union), Martyn Ridyard (Leigh Centurions), Luis Roberts (Salford Red Devils), Jacob Smillie (Free agent)
Outs: Gavin Bennion (Rochdale Hornets), Rob Fairclough (Rochdale Hornets), Frankie Halton (Featherstone Rovers)

Toulouse Olympique
Ins: Mitch Garbutt (Hull Kingston Rovers), Ben Reynolds (Leigh Centurions), Latrell Schaumkel (Villeneuve)
Outs: William Barthau (Retiring), Clement Boyer (Released), Tony Maurel (Released), Con Mika (Released), Stan Robin (Released)

Whitehaven
Ins: Liam Cooper (Widnes Vikings) Ryan King (Free agent)
Outs:

Widnes Vikings
Ins: Paul Clough (Huddersfield Giants), Matt Cook (Castleford Tigers), Lee Jewitt (Barrow Raiders), Steve Tyer (Halifax)
Outs: Jay Chapelhow (Ottawa Aces), Ted Chapelhow (Ottawa Aces), Liam Cooper (Whitehaven), Jack Johnson (Ottawa Aces), MacGraff Leuluai (Released), Pat Moran (Ottawa Aces), Sam Wilde (Ottawa Aces)

York City Knights
Ins: Ryan Atkins, (Wakefield Trinity), Daniel Barcoe (Wakefield Trinity), Harry Dodd (Wakefield Trinity), Danny Kirmond (Wakefield Trinity), Tyme Nikau (North Wales Crusaders), Morgan Smith (London Broncos)
Outs: Josh Jordan-Roberts (Rochdale Hornets), Connor Robinson (Halifax)

 

I'm sure I'll think of something funny to say soon.

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I think we are 2 or 3 years away from having a chance to compete for the top 2. We have brought in enough in the offseason to be around the same group going for 4th/5th or so and could possibly improve on that if we could sign some props but there are no real good ones about at the moment which is a worry as we look decent in the squad but you do not do well in the championship without a couple of good props and we have been lacking in that sense since Mitch Cahalane left. Dan Fleming going to Cas really only emphasises the standard of prop that is available at the moment at this level. From squads so far I expect Fev, Leigh and Toulouse to shoot it out for top spot and then a whole raft of clubs to fight for 4th and 5th. I think those clubs are a long way off the standard that the top 3 will set.

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19 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

I think we are 2 or 3 years away from having a chance to compete for the top 2. We have brought in enough in the offseason to be around the same group going for 4th/5th or so and could possibly improve on that if we could sign some props but there are no real good ones about at the moment which is a worry as we look decent in the squad but you do not do well in the championship without a couple of good props and we have been lacking in that sense since Mitch Cahalane left. Dan Fleming going to Cas really only emphasises the standard of prop that is available at the moment at this level. From squads so far I expect Fev, Leigh and Toulouse to shoot it out for top spot and then a whole raft of clubs to fight for 4th and 5th. I think those clubs are a long way off the standard that the top 3 will set.

That's a very reasonable assessment of the team squads as they stand. What next season brings though is up in the air, let's all hope we can finally get to see some rugby and enjoy a few jars with all our mates in the rugby world irrespective of who we support, bulls excepted of course❗😀 🍺👍

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Bulls fan in peace. Great write up PH on teams for next year. I think it will be a very competitive league next year. Teams seem to be recruiting strongly and not only that, recruiting in the areas they need. 

Widnes had a great spine and a very weak pack. They've addressed that with Cook, Jewitt and Clough. Fax needed to move on from Murrell and have got a real coup in Robinson. Featherstone already had a very strong squad and if you pull off the rumoured Welham signing that will be huge. Toulouse signing Mitch Garbutt. Leigh will recruit strongly and very impressed with the capture of Wallace. Batley, probably not consistent enough to get in the play-offs, but Broughton and Hirst are two great signings and Kieran Buchanan could be one of the best players in the league next year. York have taken a bit of a gamble with replacing their talisman of the last couple of years but they didnt start off how they would have liked (they weren't blown away though) Morgan Smith looks a quality HB though and I think Atkins could cause damage in this league. Going into a cracking new stadium, if they start well we know how hard they are to stop when they have momentum, hence their superb 3rd place finish last year. London don't look great in terms of recruitment but still have Danny Ward who is a superb young coach. I'm Sure they'll pick up a few players stil. How well did Dewsbury start last year. They're a very tough fixture under Greenwood's coaching. 

On us, I know Blue Ox joked we're a 2010 squad but I think Anthony England was the only player over 30 in the opening games last year. I think the average age of our 17 was 22 or something ridculous. Brough is the signing we've needed since we were relegated 6 years a go. An old head who we need to play in a dinner jacket. He could win games on his own just from his left boot on some of the smaller sloping pitches like ours at Dewsbury. Also he's a goal kicker. I've last count the number of games we've lost the last couple of seasons on our rubbish goal kicking. Obviously a gamble at 37 with injuries. Murphy I think is a superb capture as well. Apart from those two I think we only have 3 players 30 or over for next year (so far) but we desperately needed experience. 

Fev, Toulouse and Leigh will be your top 3, God knows which order, it will just be whoever plays the best. I don't think it will be like Toronto last year where 1st place had 1 defeat to their name. I think who ever finishes top could have as many as 5/6 defeats to their name. Widnes, Bulls, Fax, York and London to fight over the last two spots. Injuries will play a part. Very few fixtures any team csn turn up, play badly and still win like seasons gone by. 

Can't wait for the season to start and watch some great competitive rugby again. Should be a cracker of a season. 

 

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