Jump to content

Match Thread: Championship Semi-final, Featherstone Rovers v Halifax Saturday-2nd-October-2021


The Phantom Horseman

Recommended Posts

It's a bit early for a game thread as we don't know our opponents yet, but the dust is starting to settle and I think the clues are there now for what our line-up might be for the semi final.

The back five is starting to look settled. Walker has played every game at full back since he arrived. Blackmore has been left out the last two games, and his only route back into the team would be via Hall being switched position, which looks unlikely. Minns didn't make the 21-man squad for the Sheffield game and it's hard to see him displacing Hardcastle and Welham, both of whom have been going well, for the semi final.

At half back Brown on the right and Chisholm on the left look the obvious choices. But the last couple of weeks have shown that Webster probably wants Holmes in the 17 too as it gives him more options for injuries (or if he wants to change things up at half back).

Kopczak and Lockwood are guaranteed starters in the middle. We look set with Halton at right back row and Ferres on the left.

The season-ending injuries to Day, Harrison and now Springer are big blows, though the return of Bussey does mitigate the Springer injury a little. I think Bussey is a certainty to be in the 17, either starting or on the bench, especially after Webster's comments about how hard he had worked to get fit. We don't seem to have much information on whether there's any chance of Moors making the semi following his pec injury.

So we have Bussey, Davies, Cooper, Field and Ferguson, and maybe Moors, in contention for one starting spot and three bench spots for the semi final.

Based  on what Webster said in his interview after the Halifax game - where he said Fergie could have played prior to his 2-game ban but he wanted to prepare somebody who had more chance of being fit for the play-offs - he doesn't think Fergie's match fitness is at the level required. So unless he's had a change of heart, or Fergie has really impressed in training, it must be doubtful whether he'll be selected. That won't be popular with the fans if so, of course.

Field seems to be ahead of Cooper in the pecking order, so I think he'll probably start at 13 with Holmes, Bussey, Davies, and Cooper or Moors (if fit) on the bench.

As mentioned earlier I think the last couple of matches, and Webster's own comments, suggests that he wants to go with one hooker rather than two and have Holmes on the bench, so I think Parata will miss out too. Parata was outstanding in the first half of the season but Jones has probably been the better of the two in the last few weeks, and it's worth noting that Webster selected him as coach's player of the year.

Webster did say after Sunday's game that there were a couple of positions he still hadn't decided on, so plenty of the above might be wrong though!

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 181
  • Created
  • Last Reply

For webbo the world is his oyster

HE  could rest chizzy  and play two hookers 

HE could rest callum and play JD on the right  and bring Beckett into the 21

HE could  rest our goalkicker to save him for the final

HE could put fergie on the bench to see what he's got in his locker

HE could  play blackie and save welham for final

HE could give Junior another week to get fit  

                                                   OR 

HE could  take the easy option and  just put  Cooper on the bench to replace Springer

Decisions  decisions decisions don't you just love it when a plan comes together🤣

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • marklaspalmas changed the title to Match Thread: Championship Semi-final, Featherstone Rovers v Halifax/Batley/Bradford Saturday-2nd-October-2021
  • marklaspalmas pinned this topic

I think there's no way on God's green earth that a coach should be resting or rotating players in a semi-final "for the final" as that's the perfect recipe for never making the final.

We go with our strongest XVII

If Moors is not fit, we'll have 20 senior players.

One of the five three quarters will miss out. That's tough, but it could be Blackmore.

One of the five halves/hookers will miss out. That's tough, but it could be Parata.

One of middles will miss out. Again, tough call, but if Bussey is good to go, it's down to Fergie v Cooper

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

I think there's no way on God's green earth that a coach should be resting or rotating players in a semi-final "for the final" as that's the perfect recipe for never making the final.

We go with our strongest XVII

If Moors is not fit, we'll have 20 senior players.

One of the five three quarters will miss out. That's tough, but it could be Blackmore.

One of the five halves/hookers will miss out. That's tough, but it could be Parata.

One of middles will miss out. Again, tough call, but if Bussey is good to go, it's down to Fergie v Cooper

I agree. You can't rest players for the final🙄. That particular fixture might or might not come to pass.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

Half-backs at full-back for the biggest game of the year so far? Not for me.

 Walker has been OK but nowt special.You probably need Chizzy in the halves and for me Holmes has not been doing enough Brown although a different type of players has been better.I think Parata gives us more pace up the middle ,What if Jones gets crocked early on and we don't have cover for him?.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

What if Jones gets crocked early on and we don't have cover for him?.

I think Jones getting crocked early on and being replaced by Holmes (or by Brown with Holmes moving to half back) is much more manageable than Chisholm/Brown getting crocked early and having to be replaced by a non-half back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

19 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

 Walker has been OK but nowt special.You probably need Chizzy in the halves and for me Holmes has not been doing enough Brown although a different type of players has been better.I think Parata gives us more pace up the middle ,What if Jones gets crocked early on and we don't have cover for him?.

Yes mate, its tough to decide. I think Webbo likes the specialist fullback otherwise he'd probably have stuck with Hall.

Jones gets injured? Holmes off the bench in the halves and Brown to AHB. 

"What if" with injuries applies all across the park, and it looks like Webbo thinks two hookers is an unnecessary luxury

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I think Jones getting crocked early on and being replaced by Holmes (or by Brown with Holmes moving to half back) is much more manageable than Chisholm/Brown getting crocked early and having to be replaced by a non-half back.

  It's all about opinions i think Webster may leave Parata out of the 17 because he is leaving.Otherwise why has Parata not been picked recently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

  It's all about opinions i think Webster may leave Parata out of the 17 because he is leaving.Otherwise why has Parata not been picked recently.

You know Parata did 80 minutes on Sunday.

Webbo will pick the team to win, and nowt to do with anything else.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

  It's all about opinions i think Webster may leave Parata out of the 17 because he is leaving.Otherwise why has Parata not been picked recently.

Think we've had this conversation before. Webster said after the Fax game: "I changed it up, we've played 2 hookers all year, the reason I didn't play Dean was because, realistically, we've never had to take that hooker off, we always do it just because we feel we have to, to give the other person a game... I wanted to see how far Connor was on, and also do we need some more cover in other positions, is it better that, we've got Nu Brown and Holmesy that can play hooker anyway, but if a half back goes down or a full back in a big game, are you better off having some cover there?"

Nothing to do with Parata leaving, otherwise he'd be dropping Halton too (and Harrison if he were fit), not to mention the fact that Parata played the full game against Sheffield.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think we have been a better side with Walker at full back so the back 5 who played against sheff are set in stone but in the halves we lack a kicking game with Chizzy on the bench but when he’s running at tired defence he’s unplayable the forwards pretty much pick themselves I’d bring fergie in as a straight swap for springer even if he only does 2 15 minute stints he has a big impact 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

Yes mate, its tough to decide. I think Webbo likes the specialist fullback otherwise he'd probably have stuck with Hall.

Jones gets injured? Holmes off the bench in the halves and Brown to AHB. 

"What if" with injuries applies all across the park, and it looks like Webbo thinks two hookers is an unnecessary luxury

And I totally agree I've  never understood this urban myth of having two number nines  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, POR said:

And I totally agree I've  never understood this urban myth of having two number nines  

I think it's evolved (or evolving) out of the game. Hookers are now built like half backs rather than forwards and are more than capable of doing 80, and probably have to do more often with the reduction in number of changes. For what it's worth I still think it's a specialist position and if the choice is between Parata and Holmes on the bench I think I'd go with Parata.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

You know Parata did 80 minutes on Sunday.

Webbo will pick the team to win, and nowt to do with anything else.

   Course i do but when Webster knew Parata was leaving he left him out of our 17.Over the last 6 weeks Halton and Jones have been our stand out players with Halls goal kicking also top class.Whelham seems to be finding a bit of form in the centre and Gale seems to have recovered from injury.For me over the last few games Chizzy when playing has been just ok and Locky looks tired.Ferres has stepped up when we were short in the forwards and i give him credit for that.Hope Webster has a couple of get out of jail moves for us if we need them in the last game or games.Both tries on Sunday scored against our left edge defence again.but as they were from good kicks they go down for me as 50/50's.Hope the players remember you can't win a game in the first half hour but you can go a long way to losing one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Think we've had this conversation before. Webster said after the Fax game: "I changed it up, we've played 2 hookers all year, the reason I didn't play Dean was because, realistically, we've never had to take that hooker off, we always do it just because we feel we have to, to give the other person a game... I wanted to see how far Connor was on, and also do we need some more cover in other positions, is it better that, we've got Nu Brown and Holmesy that can play hooker anyway, but if a half back goes down or a full back in a big game, are you better off having some cover there?"

Nothing to do with Parata leaving, otherwise he'd be dropping Halton too (and Harrison if he were fit), not to mention the fact that Parata played the full game against Sheffield.

All this rubbish about webbo dropping parata because he s leaving do you think a coach would be that petty and compromise his job his job and to put it into context just counting last six games parata has only missed FAX and Broncos 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, POR said:

All this rubbish about webbo dropping parata because he s leaving do you think a coach would be that petty and compromise his job his job and to put it into context just counting last six games parata has only missed FAX and Broncos 

   I can't work out how Webster thought John Davies wasn't good enough for our 17 early in the season.Admitted he has had the results but we have  the best squad i can remember in the last 20yrs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.