Featherstone Rovers 2024 Squad

[Fevrover]

1 minute ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Quite right, forgot about him!

Yeah and so will them who usually ridicule us.

[The Phantom Horseman]

8 hours ago, RobLambert said:

.

In terms of moving on I would have thought that a new coach would have been the best way to start.  Whether or not Ford is the best man for the job or whether he had enough time to put his mark on things last year - I don't know. 

 

 

Jury's out on Ford for me too, but I don't think we can judge his effectiveness at Fev on his short spell in charge, especially as a lot of us thought we were heading a bit more in the right direction before the London debacle. This year he'll get a pre-season and be able to put his mark on the squad. It's interesting that whereas some outsiders said we shouldn't have sacked Long, MC was adamant after the London game that he should have done it sooner.

8 hours ago, RobLambert said:

 

However the overriding thing from last year for me will always be poor team selections and a reliance on playing a 'power' game week in week out which increasingly looked both predictable and beatable to other teams as it did to some of us.

 

Definitely agree about over-reliance on the power game but more than anything for me it was our inability to defend out wide that cost us. We seemd to play a really compressed defence in the middle, and the gaps that appeared up the middle in the McDermott era did seem to have been plugged - but we were regularly caught short out wide. Sometimes that was poor judgement by our outside backs that caused it but for me at least as often we conceded tries because we were bunched in the middle and the opposition found it easy to create 3-on-2 or even 4-on-2.

[Monkeymagic22]

11 minutes ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Jury's out on Ford for me too, but I don't think we can judge his effectiveness at Fev on his short spell in charge, especially as a lot of us thought we were heading a bit more in the right direction before the London debacle. This year he'll get a pre-season and be able to put his mark on the squad. It's interesting that whereas some outsiders said we shouldn't have sacked Long, MC was adamant after the London game that he should have done it sooner.

Definitely agree about over-reliance on the power game but more than anything for me it was our inability to defend out wide that cost us. We seemd to play a really compressed defence in the middle, and the gaps that appeared up the middle in the McDermott era did seem to have been plugged - but we were regularly caught short out wide. Sometimes that was poor judgement by our outside backs that caused it but for me at least as often we conceded tries because we were bunched in the middle and the opposition found it easy to create 3-on-2 or even 4-on-2.

Wasn’t this also due in some part to the lack of individual defence skills and lack of pace of our players, as well as the system?.

[The Phantom Horseman]

7 minutes ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

Wasn’t this also due in some part to the lack of individual defence skills and lack of pace of our players, as well as the system?.

Sometimes it was poor judgement jamming in, but quite often the reason it happened in the first place was because we were short of numbers. We didn't have much pace in our backs but in my opinion that wasn't the main reason we were caught out wide so often.

[sentoffagain2]

   I didn't want Massey if promoted to SL as i couldn't see the point at his age when we would have needed to build a team going forward.For the Championship he will be fine in the JD mould he dosn't hide and is a grafter so lets judge him on his performance on the field.Still gutted JD has gone though.

[eltel]

another poor decision by whoever is making the team decisions nowadays hope this is a freebie player for fev mediocre at best in my opinion always expected cas to let him go a while ago no doubt it’s another oldie joining after we have released much better players we had.

[Monkeymagic22]

27 minutes ago, eltel said:

another poor decision by whoever is making the team decisions nowadays hope this is a freebie player for fev mediocre at best in my opinion always expected cas to let him go a while ago no doubt it’s another oldie joining after we have released much better players we had.

You mean, much better players, who have never played SL level.

[marklaspalmas]

3 hours ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Definitely agree about over-reliance on the power game but more than anything for me it was our inability to defend out wide that cost us. We seemd to play a really compressed defence in the middle, and the gaps that appeared up the middle in the McDermott era did seem to have been plugged - but we were regularly caught short out wide. Sometimes that was poor judgement by our outside backs that caused it but for me at least as often we conceded tries because we were bunched in the middle and the opposition found it easy to create 3-on-2 or even 4-on-2.

I get that and agree with it with a couple of caveats.

Images of Hall, Leilua and to a lesser extent Briscoe racing out of the line into thin air still loom large in my memory. These images may have been, as you say, attempts to stop impossible defensive situations as the two outside backs face four attackers. Or just c rap decision making.

My first caveat is perhaps our fullbacks didn't read defensive numbers well enough often enough and rarely seemed to bolster an outnumbered defensive flank effectively.

My second, more importantly, is that with a bulky middle of heavy forwards used to batter defences into submission (a very successful tactic throughout 2023) you would expect the edge defenders to be as mobile and nimble as possible to slide across and close down space out wide. We just didn't do that. Our middles were just too slow/old/static to get across, and with Day, Taylor, Davies, etc as the edge defenders there was no real pace there either over 80 minutes in terms of lateral movement on defence.

[The Phantom Horseman]

35 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

I get that and agree with it with a couple of caveats.

Images of Hall, Leilua and to a lesser extent Briscoe racing out of the line into thin air still loom large in my memory. These images may have been, as you say, attempts to stop impossible defensive situations as the two outside backs face four attackers. Or just c rap decision making.

My first caveat is perhaps our fullbacks didn't read defensive numbers well enough often enough and rarely seemed to bolster an outnumbered defensive flank effectively.

My second, more importantly, is that with a bulky middle of heavy forwards used to batter defences into submission (a very successful tactic throughout 2023) you would expect the edge defenders to be as mobile and nimble as possible to slide across and close down space out wide. We just didn't do that. Our middles were just too slow/old/static to get across, and with Day, Taylor, Davies, etc as the edge defenders there was no real pace there either over 80 minutes in terms of lateral movement on defence.

Fair points. I think Leilua was exposed more than most when he attempted to jam in because he really wasn't very good at it, and tended to take poor angles. I reckon Hankinson did it just as often on the other side but his judgement and timing was better and he didn't get caught out as often (though it did happen a few times).

It looks bad when someone races out of the line to try and stop a shift play and fails, but it's usually a sign that the player knows they're outnumbered.

[POR]

With all the IMG shenanigans looks like on field promotion to SL  is finished so for me now is the right time to make a clean sweep and start afresh If that means getting rid of the dead wood and saying bye bye to some of our favourites then so be it Now is the time to brush aside all the negativity about our new signings Onwards and upwards

                                                   BRING IT ON   

 

 

[marklaspalmas]

1 hour ago, The Phantom Horseman said:

Fair points. I think Leilua was exposed more than most when he attempted to jam in because he really wasn't very good at it, and tended to take poor angles. I reckon Hankinson did it just as often on the other side but his judgement and timing was better and he didn't get caught out as often (though it did happen a few times).

It looks bad when someone races out of the line to try and stop a shift play and fails, but it's usually a sign that the player knows they're outnumbered.

Yes. And there was a time two or three years ago when our edge forwards would have had the legs to follow the ball across the field and keep the numbers even out wide. It's my entirely impressionistic idea that we were rarely broken defensively by the opposition switching the ball back inside and catching us flat-footed, but rather that simply moving the ball wide swiftly put their winger in at the corner.

[The Phantom Horseman]

8 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

.It's my entirely impressionistic idea that we were rarely broken defensively by the opposition switching the ball back inside and catching us flat-footed, but rather that simply moving the ball wide swiftly put their winger in at the corner.

Aye, ironically that did happen a couple of times in the semi final when Walker scored, but for most of the year it was out wide where we struggled defensively.

[Monkeymagic22]

One thing i’d question is this opinion that JD is better than Massey, a player who has played at a higher level for numerous years. 

[georgeb1]

J D  to be fair was used as an impact player/supersub,  Massey is a different animal 

[Squidward]

Got to say that I wasn't super impressed when I first heard about the Massey signing. 

However the more I consider it the happier I am. Rather than thinking about the signing in isolation I now look upon it as part of a package as the answer to replacing Locky. Every team needs a cornerstone / grafter and there can't be many players out there capable of filling Lockys boots but maybe Massey is one of them. I hope so.

[marklaspalmas]

I don't understand this Massey v Davies thing. It's obviously not like for like. The departure of JD and the arrival of NM have happened in the same off season. And? I think we've got to welcome Massey and move on.

[Monkeymagic22]

I’m still of the opinion that the 2022 and  2023 teams underperformed, both should have reached the Grand Final. So for me, it’s good news things have been changed for next season. Some fans would rather keep the same and lose rather than take a chance of changing. 

[Monkeymagic22]

25 minutes ago, marklaspalmas said:

I don't understand this Massey v Davies thing. It's obviously not like for like. The departure of JD and the arrival of NM have happened in the same off season. And? I think we've got to welcome Massey and move on.

Massey a Super League player v JD whose never played Super League. No disrespect to JD but Massey is clearly more suited to a higher level of RL. 

[POR]

15 hours ago, Monkeymagic22 said:

One thing i’d question is this opinion that JD is better than Massey, a player who has played at a higher level for numerous years. 

You've got to understand M when it comes to fans favourite JD some are under the illusion that he is SL class, they've heard umpteen  commentators banging on 

           " If John Davies was bigger he'd be playing in Super League"

That's a load of codswallop  despite his robustness on the field and some stand out moments that left the commentators drooling   he was never good enough for SL and for some to say he is better than players with a proven SL track record with statements like     

          " A Poor mans John Davis"

looks a bit silly   

               IN OTHER WORDS

5'9'' John Davies 0 SL games

5'9'' James Bentley  88 and counting SL games

which proves SIZE doesn't matter

if you're GOOD enough you're  GOOD enough

[lingaro]

Going on what I saw last season which was an uninterested ed over weight player at the end of his career. 

[marklaspalmas]

FWIW John Davies played seven games in Super League for Castleford.

[Rovers fev]

The Davies and Massey argument is ridiculous, why is no other player being questioned, if we went with a pack who was between 18-25 with little to no experience and was getting folded we would be saying we need experience, we’ve got Massey who might not break any pots but he’s got experience he can pass onto our younger squad players and help them through tough games 

[Steve Slater]

Recruitment progressing nicely, but I don't believe we need to go overboard as long as we look good enoug h to compete for the Top 6! Hold some money back for mid to late season recruitment, every year there seems to be at least one top player who comes available and stands out in the play-offs - Let's make sure we get him this time (just like London did with Corey Norman)! The French Elite finishes in late May and there's always one or two quality players there! Last year we were over paid flat pitch bullies who were having it so easy they didn't know how to deal with a side that competes on level terms.

[POR]

I just love all this nonsense being spouted about our new players I'm sure when they score their first try all the rubbish will be long forgotten

[The Phantom Horseman]

19 hours ago, Squidward said:

Got to say that I wasn't super impressed when I first heard about the Massey signing. 

However the more I consider it the happier I am. Rather than thinking about the signing in isolation I now look upon it as part of a package as the answer to replacing Locky. Every team needs a cornerstone / grafter and there can't be many players out there capable of filling Lockys boots but maybe Massey is one of them. I hope so.

This is absolutely my view too. I don't think Massey is an exciting signing at all, but we had a hole to fill with Lockwood's retirement in terms of a no-frills middle who can play decent minutes and come up with 30-40 tackles and a steady diet of carries like Locky did.