Match thread: Challenge Cup 3rd Round: Featherstone Rovers v Halifax Panthers. Sunday 12th March 2023.

[Monkeymagic22]

14 minutes ago, Michael Bates said:

I'd go with Briscoe, Leilua and Day as definites to drop out from yesterday. Hardcastle probably won't get his ban until the week after (I think?)

I’d guess, we could try Pickersgill, Evans Hall Hardcastle and Gale, if Aekins isn’t available. I’m still not keen on Wildie in the half backs, as it also means Jones has to play 80 mins, but not sure that we have any other options.

[Michael Bates]

4 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

I’d guess, we could try Pickersgill, Evans Hall Hardcastle and Gale, if Aekins isn’t available. I’m still not keen on Wildie in the half backs, as it also means Jones has to play 80 mins, but not sure that we have any other options.

Dean and Lacans will be the halfbacks until Ford is back?

[The Blues Ox]

12 hours ago, bigbaldnmad said:

Back to the game.

I left the ground today pretty miffed and thought we had suffered at the hands of the officials, as well as making numerous mistakes.

I have since watched the game back, and I never thought I would say this, but I didn't think Moore had a bad game.

 

Yeah I agree I thought he had a pretty good game. A couple of things I thought he got wrong, the first Fev try was offside, the centre was marginal but the winger is clearly off and should have been picked up by the TJ. On the flip side we got the knock on that wasn't a knock on and I think Walmsley should have been done for a knock on when he knocks the ball out of Briscoes hand and I think we go on to score the match winner from there. What a great call on the Moore no try though, it really would have been no surprise to see him give that as a try but it was spot on. At the end of the first half on the Leulia late hit it would have been easy for him to go to his pocket as a lot of refs are doing at the moment but again he got it bang on, was a penalty and nothing more as there was no intent.

On watching it back I really didn't realise how many times JWH made try saving tackles, there were at least 3 and the result could have been very different if not for that.

[Fevrover]

1 hour ago, Dog forever said:

No I'm not. I'm saying that a team with less monies can overturn a team that have spent considerably more money building a team to get them into super league. I like fev but I am always going to applaud the underdog in victory. I know we aren't the best supported club in the Championship,  or winning games at the moment. Hopefully things will turn around for us. 

That team yesterday had 6 missing of our better players so its forced to make a difference but i thought we would still win where a good few didn't . Fev know more then most about being the underdogs we've proved it enough in our history. Batley will be OK still got to adjust to losing 2 excellent players,same principle as us yesterday with players missing. Anyway soon be Good Friday and ANYTHING can happen with Batley  v Fev lol.

Edited March 13, 2023 by Fevrover

[sentoffagain2]

  Two ways  looking at yesterdays loss.At least we won't pick up injuries to disrupt our league campaign.But then we miss out on the possibility of a good gate against a SL team if we had won in the next couple of rounds.It would have been good to test ourselves against Wakey or Cas especially at home.

[Monkeymagic22]

11 minutes ago, sentoffagain2 said:

  Two ways  looking at yesterdays loss.At least we won't pick up injuries to disrupt our league campaign.But then we miss out on the possibility of a good gate against a SL team if we had won in the next couple of rounds.It would have been good to test ourselves against Wakey or Cas especially at home.

Given the last few performances we’d have most likely taking a hiding against any SL team. 

[elppaxr2i]

Wed have got catalans home of away 

[haskey]

I notice on the Total RL website that MC is absolutely furious and that he is ready to pull the plug., as this display yesterday was not acceptable, and I agree.

[The Blues Ox]

3 minutes ago, haskey said:

I notice on the Total RL website that MC is absolutely furious and that he is ready to pull the plug., as this display yesterday was not acceptable, and I agree.

Honestly I think he is out of line. Yeah its annoying to go out the cup and could cost the club money but he also shows a lot of disrespect to Fax. Despite our average form we do still have a very good team that has done pretty well last couple of years and who many people tipped could possibley break in to the top 2. The ultimate aim for Fev has to be to get in to SL at the end of this season and not playing extra games could be a blessing f or you and he has to remember you are still unbeaten in the league and your main rivals have already lost at least 1 game.

[elppaxr2i]

7 minutes ago, haskey said:

I notice on the Total RL website that MC is absolutely furious and that he is ready to pull the plug., as this display yesterday was not acceptable, and I agree.

Never says he is pulling the plug at all 

[Bobby123]

7 hours ago, Michael Bates said:

I'd go with Briscoe, Leilua and Day as definites to drop out from yesterday. Hardcastle probably won't get his ban until the week after (I think?)

Poor showing from the halves. Nothing worked out  or planned.

[Monkeymagic22]

2 minutes ago, Bobby123 said:

Poor showing from the halves. Nothing worked out  or planned.

I agree, and for me we should look to bring in another half back to pair with Dean. Wildie and Lacans just aren’t the answer, and will be found out against decent opposition. Lacans might improve with matches, but it’s a big risk.

[eltel]

Well I think the chairman’s term is right on the money and yes I agree fev have been dishing out poor performances since keighleys thrashing. We are supposed to have a top squad even with the unfortunate injuries and it’s getting a hard watch. Is it the players or the way they are being coached to blame because without a shadow of doubt briscoe should have been subbed just like the Bradford game when certain players were not up to the task. A sad day for fev let’s just hope some rockets up backsides does the trick.

 

[haskey]

Quote from MC "rest assured i wont tolerate this s--t" To me that smacks that he could easily pull the plug as well as the crowds need to be increased.

[roversspud]

16 hours ago, haskey said:

Quote from MC "rest assured i wont tolerate this s--t" To me that smacks that he could easily pull the plug as well as the crowds need to be increased.

I'm not sure the MC we know is a quitter. It seems like a rallying call that if those he's placed confidence in don't deliver the goods then he's quite happy to step in and resolve the situation........as he has done many times before. As for pulling the plug, are we certain MC is still putting money into the club? We keep being told that the club is self sufficient and standing on its own two feet, although if crowds are low that may obviously change. Hopefully a good result next Sunday will steady everybody down and we can get back to the job in hand.

[sentoffagain2]

  We have played a lot worse than on Sunday and won games easily.I dont think Fax are getting enough credit for upping their game.I noticed during the warm up Fax were right in front of me and seemed really switched on and intense.Looking over at our lads they just seemed a couple of notches below Fax.We do have willing runners in the forwards but i think we miss an old fashioned ball handler who can put players through half gaps rather than them running straight at the opposition.Only player to do that is Bussey as he can vary his passing game.But even he has not quite hit top form this season.

[Fevrover]

20 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

Honestly I think he is out of line. Yeah its annoying to go out the cup and could cost the club money but he also shows a lot of disrespect to Fax. Despite our average form we do still have a very good team that has done pretty well last couple of years and who many people tipped could possibley break in to the top 2. The ultimate aim for Fev has to be to get in to SL at the end of this season and not playing extra games could be a blessing f or you and he has to remember you are still unbeaten in the league and your main rivals have already lost at least 1 game.

It's called passion and i suppose frustration,  he's entitled to his opinion and i  don't know one person who hasn't given Fax credit. We were our own worst enemies but Fax fully deserved the win.

[Michael Bates]

1 hour ago, sentoffagain2 said:

  We have played a lot worse than on Sunday and won games easily.I dont think Fax are getting enough credit for upping their game.I noticed during the warm up Fax were right in front of me and seemed really switched on and intense.Looking over at our lads they just seemed a couple of notches below Fax.We do have willing runners in the forwards but i think we miss an old fashioned ball handler who can put players through half gaps rather than them running straight at the opposition.Only player to do that is Bussey as he can vary his passing game.But even he has not quite hit top form this season.

Disagree. We were awful. 10 minutes into the game Halifax were done, none of them wanted to drive the ball off their line and they were barely making any metres. We then decided that completing sets and not giving penalties away wasn't the way to go and did everything to shoot ourselves in the foot.

[Monkeymagic22]

Personally I thought it was a low quality match with Fax the better of two poor teams. Not sure if it was lack of effort, more a question of individual errors and also a lack of any coherent attacking pattern. We really didn’t look any better than when coached by BM. Giving Long the benefit of the doubt, maybe it will take time to get the players to play how he wants, but Sunday just wasn’t good enough.

[The Phantom Horseman]

On 13/03/2023 at 11:03, Michael Bates said:

Dean and Lacans will be the halfbacks until Ford is back?

Yep. I don't think Lacans is as good as either Dean or Ford but he's perfectly serviceable as our third half back and didn't do much wrong against Halifax, scoring a good solo try and playing a significant role in two others.

I think also with Wildie playing half back we missed his decision making at 9, he's very good at bringing his forwards onto the ball and timing his passes, Jones is much better suited to the role of coming on as interchange hooker and trying to exploit gaps, his decision making and timing of passes isn't as good as Wildie's in my opinion.

Feel a bit sorry for Briscoe who did have a nightmare on Sunday but for a couple of his drops the Halifax player flicked out and knocked the ball out, he needs to work on his ball security though. He'd been good for the first few games and I'm sure he'll bounce back, he's a good player at this level.

I was probably more disappointed with Brad Day as he missed two tackles that led directly to tries, Brad had been really good for us prior to that and again I hope it was just an off day (excuse the pun) for him.

We were very poor on Sunday but we've lost a battle and not the war, there seems to be a lot of gloom around considering we are top of the table and unbeaten in the league. UTR.

[Michael Bates]

8 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

I was probably more disappointed with Brad Day as he missed two tackles that led directly to tries, Brad had been really good for us prior to that and again I hope it was just an off day (excuse the pun) for him.

Agree, thought he was unusually poor for the first and last try. He also seemed to struggle in defense at marker as well.

[Monkeymagic22]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Yep. I don't think Lacans is as good as either Dean or Ford but he's perfectly serviceable as our third half back and didn't do much wrong against Halifax, scoring a good solo try and playing a significant role in two others.

I think also with Wildie playing half back we missed his decision making at 9, he's very good at bringing his forwards onto the ball and timing his passes, Jones is much better suited to the role of coming on as interchange hooker and trying to exploit gaps, his decision making and timing of passes isn't as good as Wildie's in my opinion.

Feel a bit sorry for Briscoe who did have a nightmare on Sunday but for a couple of his drops the Halifax player flicked out and knocked the ball out, he needs to work on his ball security though. He'd been good for the first few games and I'm sure he'll bounce back, he's a good player at this level.

I was probably more disappointed with Brad Day as he missed two tackles that led directly to tries, Brad had been really good for us prior to that and again I hope it was just an off day (excuse the pun) for him.

We were very poor on Sunday but we've lost a battle and not the war, there seems to be a lot of gloom around considering we are top of the table and unbeaten in the league. UTR.

Briscoe was also poor against Bradford, so not an isolated performance.

[Fevrover]

1 hour ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

Briscoe was also poor against Bradford, so not an isolated performance.

He's probably lost his confidence he's not suddenly a bad player,and if some fans are slagging him off and he  can hear them that's certainly not going to help. 

[The Phantom Horseman]

I've only just realised the change to the format this season in the Cup. This year Championship teams entered a round earlier and have to win 3 games before they have a chance to play SL opposition,  previously it was only two.

Frankly I'm even less upset we are out of the Cup now, the two teams that reach the 1895 final are probably going to have to play 5 extra games in total. 

[Squidward]

Briscoe has made quite a few mistakes in recent games but I'm finding the criticism a bit unfair. He's been brilliant for us and started the season in his usual dynamic fashion.

He's had a few isolated moments spilling passes/catching high balls but overall his intensity and effort, to me, remains unquestionable. He also suffers a bit from speculative back of the hand passes from his partner buy never complains. 

Can't understand why Evans hasn't played yet but there could be many reasons to which we aren't privy. Probably right to switch and rotate all 3 wingers to keep them fresh. In doing however I wouldn't be in the 'dropped him' camp.

No individuals are directly to blame for our recent performances imo. No scapegoats. Its the style of play. Put simply it's been one man rugby for the most part. Maybe on paper we should be winning games in the forwards and we seem to be trying to do that at the expense of more exciting rugby with both Bradford and Halifax proving better entertainers. 

I think MC has a right to feel frustrated.