fevnut's musings
Winning Starts
There’s been a lot of buzz
around the fact that we have got off to such a good start to the season,
winning our first four matches. It got me to thinking about how Fev have
started past seasons and particularly unbeaten runs at the beginning of the
year.
The problem comes when
trying to compare like with like. For much of the ‘Summer Era’ the season has
started with some form of cup matches, whether that be the Challenge Cup or the
Northern Rail Cup. In days of yore the season would kick off with a run of
league matches before the Yorkshire Cup started. The Challenge Cup used to be
in the second half of the season.
So, to compare like with
like, I eventually decided to look at winning starts to just the league
campaign. All the way through from our first season in 1921/22 to the start of
the ‘Summer Era’ Fev never managed more than 3 wins at the start of the season.
You have to remember for most of that time it was just one league and the
chances are that the early fixtures would include a Leeds, Saint Helens, Wigan
or another major club. Even in our glorious Championship winning season of
1976/77 we actually began with a draw away to Leeds followed by a home loss to
Salford before putting a string of 5 wins together including doubles over Hull
KR and Leigh.
The very best start to the
league campaign came very recently - in 2010 when we set off with 8 wins.
Surprisingly that came after a poor Rail Cup campaign that saw us fail to make
the knock-out stages after drawing the first match of the season at home to
Sheffield followed by a heavy loss away to Leigh. Those 8 Championship wins
were Batley (36-10 h), Dewsbury (40-10 a), Barrow (20-6 a), Whitehaven (54-18
h), Halifax (44-4 h), Sheffield (40-16 a), Keighley (76-12 h) and Widnes (9-8
a). The run came to an end on May 2nd with a loss at home to Toulouse by 26-24.
After that run, Rovers were, of course, sitting top of the table and stayed
there all year bar one week in May when they slipped to 2nd.
The only other time,
before this year, when Fev won more than 3 opening league fixtures was even
more recently when we won the first 6 in 2013, the run ending with a loss away
to York.
Looking at the fixture
list for 2017 it seems possible (I hope I’m not put the mockers on it) to match
or even beat our 2010 record. The hurdles in the way are:
5.
Mar 05 Rochdale Home
6.
Mar 12 Sheffield Away
7.
Mar 26 Toulouse Home
8.
Apr 02 Dewsbury Away
9.
Apr 09 London Home
Come on lads, you can do
it!!
Head Coach: Alan Kilshaw
 |
| Alan Kilshaw |
Alan Kilshaw became
head coach of Rochdale, following Ian Talbot’s departure at the end of the 2015
season. In his first season in the role he guided Rochdale Hornets to promotion
from League One and was named as the coach of the year. It came as a
considerable surprise to most pundits when Rochdale achieved promotion in the
League One play-offs Promotion Final by defeating Toulouse 26-24 in France. It
was the only time in the entire season that Toulouse had lost to another League
One team.
Kilshaw began his
coaching career with the youth section at Warrington and then had three seasons
coaching the Sarina Crocodiles in Australia.
He is making a far
greater name for himself as a coach than he did as a player. He started at
Saint Helens but never made it into the first team. He made one solitary
substitute appearance on loan for Swinton Lions in 2004 and then played 9 games
for Blackpool Panthers as either a loose forward or stand off during the 2006
season.
 |
| Lewis Palfrey |
Captain: Lewis Palfrey
Rochdale
captain, Lewis Palfrey, began his career at Whitehaven in 2011. He moved to
Batley in 2012 but went back to Whitehaven on loan for the latter part of the
season. Then in 2013 he signed for Oldham where he spent four seasons appearing
for the Roughyeds 93 times, scoring 22 tries and kicking 351 goals. His overall
goal kicking success rate stands at 74% but last year he achieved a remarkable
84%.
New Signings for 2017
t Gavin Bennion (Halifax)
t Jake Eccleston (Halifax)
t Luke Fowden (Salford Red Devils)
t Miles Greenwood (Halifax)
t Jack Holmes (Oldham)
t Paddy Jones (Wigan Warriors)
t Jay Lobwein (Coventry Bears)
t Ryan Maneely (Halifax)
t Rob Massam (North Wales Crusaders)
t Gary Middlehurst (Oldham)
t Lewis Palfrey (Oldham)
As is commonplace nowadays, having gained promotion
Rochdale have sought to strengthen their squad and have brought in 11 new
players this year.
Four of the new signings have come from Halifax. Gavin Bennion began in the Warrington
Wolves academy and played for Swinton on dual reg in 2013 and 2014. He also
made a solitary sub appearance for Fev on loan in 2014. Having started out in
the second row he usually plays at prop now. Jake Eccleston is a young centre who can also play on the wing. Miles Greenwood is a speedy fullback.
He started at Widnes and has played for Leigh, Oldham and Batley as well as
having had two spells with Halifax. In 2005 he played for England U18. Also
with representative experience is hooker, Ryan
Maneely. In 2011 he played for the England Youth team. He is another
product of the Warrington Academy. In 2014 he played for Swinton on dual reg,
signing for Halifax in 2015. Last year he had a loan spell with Rochdale and
impressed sufficiently for them to sign him for this year. At the end of last
year he was selected for the Scotland squad and made a substitute appearance
against Cumbria in their warm-up match for the Four Nations.
Luke Fowden and Paddy Jones are young forwards. Players primarily for the future they have yet to make their first grade debuts.
Jay
Lobwein is a halfback from Toowoomba in Queensland. Before
coming to England and playing last season for Coventry Bears, he played for
Sunshine Coast Flcons in the Queensland Cup.
Jack
Holmes can play anywhere in the backs. He, too,spent time on
loan at Rochdale last year leading to his signing. Gary Middlehurst is a fiery try scoring second rower. He has joined
Rochdale for a second spell with them. Before going to Oldham last season he
had spent 3 years with North Wales Crusaders. Signed directly from Crusaders is
winger Rob Massam. He is a Welsh
international and in the last two seasons at North Wales he notched up 51
tries.
The
Fev Connection
There are two members of the current Rochdale squad who have played for Fev. Gavin Bennion with the grand total of one substitute
appearance, and Danny Bridge (four appearances) both
came on loan to Fev in 2014, brought in with a number of Warrington youngsters
by then coach John Bastian who had been academy coach with the Wolves.
Today: Previously - March 5th
Rugby League
The first time that Rovers played a game
on March 5th was in a very impressive win at home to Keighley by 47-11 in 1927.
It needs to be remembered that there were on 3 points for a try then. Rovers
scored 11 tries that day with hatricks for centre, Jim Denton, (the Rovers
appearances record holder) and his winger Albert Cartwright. One has to surmise
that there were some embarrassed faces from Keighley’s right side defence.
March 5th seems to be a good day for Fev with 8 wins out of the
12 matches played. Other games include the Challenge Cup defeat of the Army by
86-0 in 2011. That day Liam Welham scored four tries, there were three for Ian
Hardman and Tom Carr scored two. Liam Finn kicked 11 goals. Looking at the
teamsheet brings a bit of a surprise. Sam Smeaton was at loose forward and
neither Hardo (centre) or Tom Carr (wing) were at fullback. That spot was taken by Tommy Saxton.
The best March 5th has to be 1986, a Wednesday night when Fev
beat Castleford 21-6. Alan Banks (two) and Karl Harrison scored the tries,
Graham Steadman kicked four goals and Keith Bell provided a one-pointer.
Do you remember that farcical ‘so called’ merger between
Huddersfield and Sheffield to form the Huddersfield and Sheffield Giants, a
failed attempt to kill off the Sheffield Eagles. In the only season in which
they used the merged name they lost at home on March 5th 2000, thrashed 60-2 by
Bradford Bulls.
In 1966 France came to Wigan and beat Great Britain 8-4 and in
2006 Tokelau overcame Samoa 34-28 in the Pacific Cup. Not bad for a country
with a population of 1,400 and a land mass area of 4 square miles! I wonder
what has happened to rugby league in Tokelau.
World Events
In 1558,
Smoking tobacco introduced into Europe by
Spaniard Francisco Fernandes.
In 1750,
New York sees the first American production of a Shakespeare play: Richard III
In 1842,
500 Mexican troops invade Texas and briefly occupy San Antonio.
In 1912,
First use of airships for military purposes, Italians using them for
recnnaisance behind Turkish lines.
In 1933,
Nazi party wins majority in German government
In 1946,
Churchill’s “An iron curtain has decended across Europe” speech.
Birthdays
1133 King
Henry II
1846 William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, American Wild West hunter and showman
1846 William “Buffalo Bill” Cody, American Wild West hunter and showman
1879 Sir William Beveridge, author of the ‘Beveridge Report’
setting up the Welfare State
1908 Rex
Harrison, actor
1982 Dan
Carter, New Zealander, top points scorer in international RU
1994 Jack
Coventry, now at Hunslet
No comments:
Post a Comment