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2023 Squad


marklaspalmas

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51 minutes ago, philcow said:

Very well i would say be good if we got him

Indeed. I think we'd have little chance were it not for the quota as a SL team would probably be in for him but most of them will be either close to the maximum seven or may not want to risk a quota/overseas player spot on someone with so little NRL/SL experience (2 games in the NRL).

As an aside on that subject, I think I'm right in saying that as they spent their formative years playing for ESL teams our two recent French acquisitions (and maybe Gadwin too) wouldn't count as overseas players if we happened to make it to SL, there will be plenty of Championship clubs with something to say about that anyway of course. But that might be part of our thinking.

Edited by The Phantom Horseman
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4 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Matt Shaw linking us with PNG half back Kyle Laybutt. Not that we have a very good record with PNG signings, but he has gone pretty well in the World Cup.

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/featherstone-rovers-open-talks-papua-25407146

I’d be very happy if this is true - been impressed with his displays in the World Cup. I was at Donny last night and mentioned to my dad that we should go in for him- reminds me of Jacks in the way he plays, especially near the line

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Like TPH said and some appear to have forgotten - Weve been here before with PNG halfbacks shining at big tournaments & looking world beaters and then flopping at club level for us months later

Boas was on top of the world & a coup signing a few years ago, raved anout by many, but didnt get through the season and cant even get in a Doncaster team every week now if still there 

I wont be jumping on the bandwagon till hes done it on a cold wet sunday afternoon at Batley

Edited by elppaxr2i
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25 minutes ago, elppaxr2i said:

Like TPH said and some appear to have forgotten - Weve been here before with PNG halfbacks shining at big tournaments & looking world beaters and then flopping at club level for us months later

Boas was on top of the world & a coup signing a few years ago, raved anout by many, but didnt get through the season and cant even get in a Doncaster team every week now if still there 

I wont be jumping on the bandwagon till hes done it on a cold wet sunday afternoon at Batley

To be fair, he’s an Australian whose grandmother was from PNG. Plus he’s played a couple of NRL games and plays for a half decent semi professional team in Oz. Any overseas signing is a risk, but on what I’ve seen and his background, he looks good to me.

 

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49 minutes ago, elppaxr2i said:

Like TPH said and some appear to have forgotten - Weve been here before with PNG halfbacks shining at big tournaments & looking world beaters and then flopping at club level for us months later

Boas was on top of the world & a coup signing a few years ago, raved anout by many, but didnt get through the season and cant even get in a Doncaster team every week now if still there 

I wont be jumping on the bandwagon till hes done it on a cold wet sunday afternoon at Batley

He did it in a cold wet night in Doncaster! 

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16 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

To be fair, he’s an Australian whose grandmother was from PNG. Plus he’s played a couple of NRL games and plays for a half decent semi professional team in Oz. Any overseas signing is a risk, but on what I’ve seen and his background, he looks good to me.

 

Exactly M and he's been getting rave reviews in the Queensland cup apparently no one in the family had ever said owt about grannie until four years ago when he told her one of his, mates grandad was Italian and then she told him which means PNG got a good player and kyle got to play international rugby a great deal for all sides 🥳

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Looking at where the squad is at the moment, we already have a strong-looking group of 21 players and are likely to see more additions over the next 2-3 months.

On paper, we are again going to have one of the strongest squads in the league, but obviously games aren't played on paper. I think most neutrals would have said our 17 in the semi final against Batley was stronger "on paper", but they outplayed us for much of the game. So where do we need to improve?

I finally sucked it up and watched the Batley game again (couldn't stomach doing it until now). It didn't get any easier viewing second time round.

The thing that stood out was our inability to complete tackles properly, either because we allowed offloads or we couldn't put the man to the ground and the ref called held.

So yes I know it's a bit sad but I kept count of how often this happened for both teams. In the whole game, we had just one instance in the game of the tackle being completed whilst our ball-carrier was still standing, and two offloads, both of which were just passes as the ball carrier came into contactwith the defender really.

But for Batley there were 13 occasions where the tackle was completed without the ball carrier going to ground, and on a further 13 occasions they offloaded in the tackle. 17 of those 26 combined occasions came in the first half when they really won the game and that was a major factor in the result.

We had a big pack but our contact and technique just wasn't good enough defensively and for me that was our biggest problem all season, yes the attack was clunky and a bit unimaginative but we racked up plenty of points, it's the defence we really need to improve., we leaked yardage and points all season.

We've hired a coach whose reputation is based on attacking play and I'm confident we will score loads of points in 2023, but if we want to be a dominant team at this level I reckon  it's the defence that needs to improve.

 

 

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1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I finally sucked it up and watched the Batley game again (couldn't stomach doing it until now). It didn't get any easier viewing second time round.

The thing that stood out was our inability to complete tackles properly, either because we allowed offloads or we couldn't put the man to the ground and the ref called held.

So yes I know it's a bit sad but I kept count of how often this happened for both teams. In the whole game, we had just one instance in the game of the tackle being completed whilst our ball-carrier was still standing, and two offloads, both of which were just passes as the ball carrier came into contactwith the defender really.

But for Batley there were 13 occasions where the tackle was completed without the ball carrier going to ground, and on a further 13 occasions they offloaded in the tackle. 17 of those 26 combined occasions came in the first half when they really won the game and that was a major factor in the result.

We had a big pack but our contact and technique just wasn't good enough defensively and for me that was our biggest problem all season, yes the attack was clunky and a bit unimaginative but we racked up plenty of points, it's the defence we really need to improve., we leaked yardage and points all season.

I realise it's going over old ground, but you really have to wonder what the funk McDermott was doing with them in training all season. Perhaps he was so busy holding one-to-one confidence-destroying workshops he didn't have time for defence.

If Longy is mostly focused on the attack, he could consider bringing someone in to specifically coach the defensive stuff, maybe on a player-coach basis? I'd guess there are always older SL players with the right skillsets who may be after that kind of opportunity.

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I'd be delighted to see us bring in Kyle Laybutt, he's looked impressive for PNG and looks to have a pretty decent kicking game to boot (no pun intended), which is something we really need.

If we do sign him, I'd be inclined to sign a livewire half to play alongside him and encourage Ford to 'move on'. Dare I say it, and if his body is still up to it, we could always get Chizzy back............

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1 hour ago, Adam B said:

 

If we do sign him, I'd be inclined to sign a livewire half to play alongside him and encourage Ford to 'move on'. Dare I say it, and if his body is still up to it, we could always get Chizzy back............

That ship has sailed though hasn't it, Chizzy will be playing for Keighley next year.

Must admit I'm a bit puzzled by the number of Fev fans who are ready to write off Ford. He's a proven quality player at this level, a regular nominee for the end-of-season awards, and he's only had 7 starts for us. Granted he was a bit rocks and diamonds in the games he did play in but he showed plenty of glimpses of how good he is at putting teammates through a gap (something we lacked from Smith and Jacks in my opinion) and he's the sort of player who needs to build up an understanding with those around him.

For sure the jury is still out on whether he's a success for Fev or not but I hope our fans get behind him. I was trying to think who Ford reminds me of and then it hit me, I remember when I was a lad hearing fans on the terraces getting on John Newlove's back all the time and I think he was a similar player, tall and skinny and with a languid, almost casual way of going about things, but he was a quality player who read the game very well and for me Ford's from the same mould.

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7 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Looking at where the squad is at the moment, we already have a strong-looking group of 21 players and are likely to see more additions over the next 2-3 months.

On paper, we are again going to have one of the strongest squads in the league, but obviously games aren't played on paper. I think most neutrals would have said our 17 in the semi final against Batley was stronger "on paper", but they outplayed us for much of the game. So where do we need to improve?

I finally sucked it up and watched the Batley game again (couldn't stomach doing it until now). It didn't get any easier viewing second time round.

The thing that stood out was our inability to complete tackles properly, either because we allowed offloads or we couldn't put the man to the ground and the ref called held.

So yes I know it's a bit sad but I kept count of how often this happened for both teams. In the whole game, we had just one instance in the game of the tackle being completed whilst our ball-carrier was still standing, and two offloads, both of which were just passes as the ball carrier came into contactwith the defender really.

But for Batley there were 13 occasions where the tackle was completed without the ball carrier going to ground, and on a further 13 occasions they offloaded in the tackle. 17 of those 26 combined occasions came in the first half when they really won the game and that was a major factor in the result.

We had a big pack but our contact and technique just wasn't good enough defensively and for me that was our biggest problem all season, yes the attack was clunky and a bit unimaginative but we racked up plenty of points, it's the defence we really need to improve., we leaked yardage and points all season.

We've hired a coach whose reputation is based on attacking play and I'm confident we will score loads of points in 2023, but if we want to be a dominant team at this level I reckon  it's the defence that needs to improve.

 

 

It’s right what you say about the Batley game but even in the Final there were times when Leigh were struggling to put the Batley players down so you’re right it’s the kind of thing that we need to work on.

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I'm quite happy to blame McDermott for everything that went wrong last year and move on without worrying too much about anything else.  

As far as Ford goes I thought he wasn't given much of a chance by supporters initially.  Imo he's a classy player who can open up defences on his day but he can look totally out of of place at times and far from that leader / midfield general that can lead us around the park - the type we've been looking for over the last few years

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21 hours ago, RobLambert said:

I'm quite happy to blame McDermott for everything that went wrong last year and move on without worrying too much about anything else.  

As far as Ford goes I thought he wasn't given much of a chance by supporters initially.  Imo he's a classy player who can open up defences on his day but he can look totally out of of place at times and far from that leader / midfield general that can lead us around the park - the type we've been looking for over the last few years

Think that's a pretty reasonable assessment, there were times in the Batley game when he seemed to be ad-libbing and the players around him clearly weren't on the same wavelength as him, by contrast when he used to play with Kheirallah at Toulouse they always seemed to be in sync. Hopefully a full pre-season and extended playing time will see him link up more consistently with his team mates, there were still moments when he showed his class such as the double-pump passes for Leilua's try at Halifax and Hardcastle's try in the semi final.

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1 minute ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Think that's a pretty reasonable assessment, there were times in the Batley game when he seemed to be ad-libbing and the players around him clearly weren't on the same wavelength as him, by contrast when he used to play with Kheirallah at Toulouse they always seemed to be in sync. Hopefully a full pre-season and extended playing time will see him link up more consistently with his team mates, there were still moments when he showed his class such as the double-pump passes for Leilua's try at Halifax and Hardcastle's try in the semi final.

  I am hopeful that we will see the best of Ford next season.In all my time watching rugby league he is one of the best passers of a ball i have seen.

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1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Think that's a pretty reasonable assessment, there were times in the Batley game when he seemed to be ad-libbing and the players around him clearly weren't on the same wavelength as him, by contrast when he used to play with Kheirallah at Toulouse they always seemed to be in sync. Hopefully a full pre-season and extended playing time will see him link up more consistently with his team mates, there were still moments when he showed his class such as the double-pump passes for Leilua's try at Halifax and Hardcastle's try in the semi final.

Yeah I'm wanting to draw a line under a few others performances from last year as well and see what Long can get out of them.  A shame we only saw Smith and Jacks under the McD regime.  That said last year was so disappointing a few new faces can't be a bad thing. 

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11 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Think that's a pretty reasonable assessment, there were times in the Batley game when he seemed to be ad-libbing and the players around him clearly weren't on the same wavelength as him, by contrast when he used to play with Kheirallah at Toulouse they always seemed to be in sync. Hopefully a full pre-season and extended playing time will see him link up more consistently with his team mates, there were still moments when he showed his class such as the double-pump passes for Leilua's try at Halifax and Hardcastle's try in the semi final.

Exactly P people forget he didn't have a pre-season so had to get match fit then he got the lurgy and then picked up an injury in training so really had a stop start season what didn't help him was when he got into the team we had turned into a shambles and we had no real combinations in open play So here's hoping he gets a good pre-season and shows us his worth and gets Brad Day running off him

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More recruitment news from one of our rivals 

Mark Dunning gives an update on the club’s recruitment process confirming that the club is very close to signing two players who played in the World Cup Quarter Finals at the weekend and Two players from the Super League with considerable experience.
 
 
 
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15 hours ago, Daft old hooker said:

Not a surprise I would imagine that most if not all the players who have not resigned won’t be here next year. 
I think everyone is just anxious to see who will come in to replace the departing players.

Of all the players left in reality only   Ben Hellewell, is worth looking at

I can't really see why there should be any anxiety regarding new signings don't forget weave already signed two good forwards to replace field and jesse a top-notch centre to replace the loanees and a young halfback to replace smith so things gently moving on and would have thought the club will have a finger in many pies as we look to increase players up to our preferred 25-man squad 

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9 minutes ago, POR said:

Of all the players left in reality only   Ben Hellewell, is worth looking at

I can't really see why there should be any anxiety regarding new signings don't forget weave already signed two good forwards to replace field and jesse a top-notch centre to replace the loanees and a young halfback to replace smith so things gently moving on and would have thought the club will have a finger in many pies as we look to increase players up to our preferred 25-man squad 

Yes I think we are in a good place at the moment. Obviously we need to replace Jacks a couple more forwards and cover for MK until he’s fit maybe an outside back to free up Hall and can then provide cover across the back’s when MK is back. Other than that we’re not far off.

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