2017 Match 2: Oldham Home (Championship)fevnut's musings
For me, a really good match is
one when moments before the final hooter goes, the result could still change.
Well, we certainly got that last week at The Shay.
I was a tad upset a couple of days
before the game when I saw that there were no less than 4 Leeds dual reg
players in our nineteen.. Then, hearing about Jason Walton being ill, Richard
Moore, Michael Knowles and Scott Turner carrying injuries, and Misi still
unavailable it became more understandable. I do worry though that the fluency
of the team can so easily be disrupted by too many changes, even though we
started like the proverbial house on fire. Of course, two of the ‘dual reg’
players have far more experience as part of the Fev squad than the majority of
our own players. Of the twenty three players named with squad numbers only Ian
Hardman, Andy Bostock and Kyle Briggs have played more games for Rovers than
Jordan Baldwinson and Jack Ormondroyd.
It feels like turning the clock back
to have a crop of genuinely capable youngsters at the club. Luke Cooper amazes
me every time I see him play. How on earth does he produce such power as a prop
forward when he is much smaller than most that play up front? Sam Day is
another who never ever lets the team down and seems to get better with every
game he plays. Kyran Johnson has fantastic pace, a decent swerve and is also
probably the most reliable kicker in the squad. And now we have, Josh Hardcastle
as well. It just seems unbelievable that he had to wait until he was 24 to get
a professional contract.
There’s no disguising the fact that
I loathe the whole idea of dual-reg but with no proper reserve competition it
has become a bit of a necessity. I just wish that the RFL would actually do
their job and lead the sport properly. I long for the day when someone gets
into the top echelons of the governing body who directs the clubs (all of them)
to run proper reserve teams. The sport would be so much healthier as a result,
and here would be hugely greater opportunities for younger players to develop
and force their way into first teams.
We now have 2 dual reg agreements
in place. The Leeds one attracts all the talk and discussion but, for me, the agreement
with York City Knights is far more important. The fact that we bring in 4 dual
reg players from York rather than using our younger players suggests that they
are going to become woefully short of playing time unless they can go out and
play at Bootham Crescent. You never know, maybe a couple of them might get to
experience Canada at the beginning of July!
T'Other Side: Oldham
Head Coach: Scott Naylor
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| Scott Naylor |
Scott Naylor began his playing career with
Wigan, making his first team debut in the 1991-92 season. He then had four
seasons at Salford followed by five at Bradford Bulls during their glory days
and he picked up 3 super league winners rings there. He also received
international honours for England while at Bradford. He ended his career with a
final year back at Salford.
After that he joined the coaching staff at
Salford. He became head coach at Oldham at the start of the 2013 season. In
2015 he guided them to top place in League One and promotion via a promotion
final with Keighley, thus avoiding having to go through to a Grand Final. That
must have been a huge relief to the club after they had lost a whole host of
grand finals in recent years. Widely tipped to be relegation contenders in 2016
Scott Naylor took them to 9th place in the Championship and they
finished the Championship Shield 3 points clear of the relegation zone.
New Signings for 2017
t Nathan Chappell (Sheffield Eagles)
t Ben Davies (Whitehaven)
t Dave Hewitt(Sheffield Eagles)
t Scott Leatherbarrow (London Broncos)
t Adam Neal (Sheffield Eagles)
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| Ben Davies |
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| Dave Hewitt |
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| Gareth Owen |
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| Nathan Chappell |
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| Scott Leatherbarrow |
In July last year, Oldham
took halfback, Dave Hewitt, on loan
from Sheffield Eagles. He made a sufficient impression and they signed him to
their squad in the close season. He also had a loan spell with Oldham (from
Saint Helens) in 2015. Hewitt is likely to form a new halfback pairing this
season with Scott Leatherbarrow,
another new signing who was at London Broncos last year after previous spells
with Batley and Keighley.
In addition to Dave Hewitt,
Oldham have signed two other players from Sheffield Eagles after their
turbulent off-season. Nathan Chappell
(see below) is primarily a centre and Adam
Neal will be a boost to the Roughyeds pack.
Ben
Davies will be closer to home in 2016, being a Wiganer by
birth and he began his career with the Warriors. He has the distinction of not
being a Cumbrian but has nevertheless played for all three Cumbrian clubs as
well as Widnes, Castleford, South Wales and Halifax.
The
Fev connection
There are just two players
in the Oldham squad who have previously played for Rovers. Nathan Chapell had
two spells with Fev, in 2011-2012 and again in 2015 (in between he was in
Australia). In 2012 he scored 11 tries in just 10 appearances including a hat
trick against York City Knights. The other former Rover is Jamel Chisholm who
was at Post Office Road in 2015 but only played once. As an academy plyer at
Leeds he won the ‘Fastest Man in Rugby League’ title.
Commentator’s
nightmare
A quick glance at the
teamsheet for the match and some Fev fans may think they have missed some
transfer news when they might well see that the Oldham fullback is Scott Turner. But then a closer
inspection it might show Scott also on the Fev line-up! Yes, there are two
of them. Poor commentators when they could have to deal with Scott Turner
bursting down the wing for Fev and being tackled by …Scott Turner. Still I
suppose it’s not as bad as the days when Fev’s second row was Gary Price and
Gary Price!
Today: Previously -
February 12th
Rugby
League
Rovers didn’t play a
match on February 12th until
1938 when they lost 15-7 at home to Leeds. There have been three Challenge
Cup first round ties. In 1949 they
lost 15-2 to Swinton and in 1984
they were knocked out away at Bradford Northern by 20-4. A better result came
in 1955 when they beat Belle Vue
Rangers (then a professional side in Manchester) 39-6 at home. Don Metcalfe
scored a hat trick that day, Don Fox scored a try and six goals and there were
two tries from Joe Mullaney. The other tries came from Mick Hirst, Ray Cording
and Don Bradley. On February 12th, 1995, it was also a Challenge Cup day but this time it was the
fourth round and saw Barrow at Post Office Road. Fev won 50-22. New Zealander
Brett Rodger scored a hat trick and Mark Aston kicked nine goals.
I have only been able to
find one representative match in the whole history of rugby league that took
place on February 12th. That was in 2010 in Australia when the
‘Indigenous All Stars’ beat the ‘NRL’ All Stars 16-12 in a match held as a
season opener.
World Events
In 1554, Lady Jane Grey
is executed having been Queen of England for just nine days.
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| Albert Einstein |
In 1947, fashion
designer, Christian Dior, presents his iconic ‘New Look’ collection.
In 1954, Albert Einstein
speaks out strongly against the development of the Hydrogen bomb.
In 1964, Richie Benaud
retires from Test Cricket.
In 1984, at the Sarajevo
Olympics, Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean perform probably the most famous
ice-skating routine of all time to the music of Ravel’s Bolero.
Birthdays
1768 Francis
II, the last Holy Roman Emperor
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| Lincoln and Darwin: born the same day! |
1809
Abraham Lincoln, USA president and Charles Darwin, author of ‘The Origin of
Species'
1923
Franco Zefirelli, Italian film director
1978 Brett
Hodgson, RL player and Gethin Jones, television presenter
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