Fev Players: Full Backs

ALL THE ROVERS FULLBACKS

Here is a list of everyone who has ever played at fullback for the Rovers from the beginning of our professional era in 1921 up until the end of last season (2018). They are listed in the order of appearances in the starting line-up at fullback.

Top of the list is Sid Denton, the brother of Jim Denton who holds the record for the most career appearances for Fev (440). Sid is also in the top twenty of Fev career appearances with 349 in all. He played in our first ever match, a 17-3 win away at Bradford on the 21st August 1921 but he was on the wing in that game as he was all through the 1921/22 season. He moved to fullback at the start of the following year. His last match was away at Hunslet in 1932.

Just as interesting as those who played at fullback many times are those who only played there very occasionally. For some it was their only outing in the Fev first team (e.g. George Lewis, Jarrod Sammut), for others it was playing out of position, probably because of injury to the regular fullback at the time (e.g. Don Fox, Kenny Greatorex).

Perhaps the most interesting in the lower reaches are Graham Steadman and Zak Hardaker both of whom went on to become international fullbacks but Steadman played the vast majority of his games for Fev at stand-off and Hardaker played for Fev mainly on the wing.

fevnut's musings 2019: #5: Let's get started & the food and drink ban

fevnut's musings

Let’s Get Started

We hate the off-season and we also find it very difficult to get any sort of adrenaline rush from pre-season games. So it’s always the case that we are longing for Sunday to come travelling to Odsal for a REAL game.

So we are excited, we are always excited when the season gets going. This year the anticipation for us is greater than any year since the Daryl Powell era. That was a time when Fev played great, entertaining rugby the like of which we haven’t quite seen since.

We simply don’t know how the team will blend. How will the halfback/hooker combination of the Boas brothers and Cameron King develop? How many defences will Thompson ‘The Terminator’ Teteh tear apart? And how many attacks from opposition sides will end with one of their players flattened and winded by one of his ferocious tackles? How will the youngsters like Kiedan Hartley develop? Will Cameron King avoid another long-term injury? How good is Conor Carey?

The fact is we simply don’t know, for sure, the answer to any of those questions and that is precisely why the excitement is so great this year. Not just for fevnut, we have noticed it in so many fans that we have talked to.

Josh Hardcastle

When Josh was sent off last Sunday we thought at the time the decision was harsh. There is no doubt in our mind that there are some spear tackles that are exceedingly dangerous and merit a sending off and a lengthy ban. But we though this one was rather different and we have watched it several times over on Rovers TV and we do not think that it was of the dangerous nasty sort. It is clear that Josh didn’t mean anything untoward and was simply trying to turn the Leeds player onto his back. The bad ones are when a player goes down from a height onto his head but in this case the player’s head was already close to the ground before Josh made contact making the chance of serious injury minimal. Let’s hope the disciplinary see it the same way as we did. Yes, it merits a caution but it certainly doesn’t warrant a ban.

Daniel Smith

A couple of years ago fevnut worked out the heritage numbers for every player who had played in a competitive game for Fev. And each year we allocate further heritage numbers as new players make their début. But we won’t be allocating a new heritage number to Daniel Smith who has joined us on loan from Huddersfield Giants. That’s because he already has a Fev Heritage Number - 1,001. We suspect many will have forgotten that he played for us. In 2014 we had a dual reg partnership with Wakefield and he played for us in our home Championship match against Whitehaven and scored a try.

Many Fev fans have also forgotten that Scott Wheeldon played 3 games for Fev way back in 2005. That was on loan from Hull FC. That gave him a Heritage Number of 874 which is much lower than any other current player, the next lowest being James Lockwood at 963.

Food and Drink Ban

We have been very dismayed at the decision to ban fans from bringing in any food and drinks to the LD Nutrition stadium. Yes, of course, the club should be maximising income from sales outlets within the stadium but there is a real problem with this ban. The Rovers Foundation has done great work promoting healthy living and healthy eating but there is no healthy option food available at the stadium. It is all chips, burgers, hot dogs, pies etc.. And that is at a stadium that has been named the LD Nutrition Stadium for a local company that specialises in producing healthy food!

If you regard eating healthily as important then there is nothing for you to buy at the LD Nutrition Stadium. If you are a vegetarian or vegan then the choice is chips, chips or chips.

If you tend to suffer from headaches or other problems you are no longer allowed to have a bottle of water in your bag in order to take medication if the need arises.

Rovers want to increase their crowds. The best way of doing this is the combination of a successful, exciting team AND to make our stadium a very welcoming place. So we would request that those who run the club either reverse the ban they have imposed or to ensure that the catering outlets include healthy food which is also suitable for vegetarians and vegans. And, finally, even if you persist with the ban on bringing drinks into the ground at least to allow people to take in water.

Sunday's referee: Bradford v Fev

This Week's Referee

fevnut thinks that Jack Smith is one of the best referees who does Championship games. Indeed, he was rapidly promoted to a full-time SL referee but stepped down because of wishing to have time for both his own business and his family.

Usually we will post the referee' record in charge of  Fev matches and his record for the current year but, there having been no previous matches in 2019 we have included his record for 2018.

Fev v Leeds: Teams and Scorers Pre-Season

Fev v Leeds: 
Teams and Scorers
Pre-Season

Sunday's referee: Fev v Leeds

This Week's Referee

There have been many occasions when fevnut has been asked questions like: Who's the referee today? Have we had him before? Where's he from?

So we thought we would answer those questions in our blog.

37 year old Ben Thaler usually referees Super League Matches. In 2018 he was in charge of 21 Super League Matches, 1 Championship match, 2 in the Challenge Cup, 3 in the Super 8s and a SL Play-Off semi-final.

Below you will find a record of all his Fev matches and all his 2018 matches. 

fevnut's musings 2019: #4: A Big Buzz and a Little Apprehension

fevnut's musings

A Big Buzz with a Little Apprehension

It is always the case that, as the season proper approaches, we start to get a bit of a buzz. This year, it is considerably bigger than usual. We are looking forward to watching our new side gel together. It will take time and the fact that we have such a difficult start to the season will doubtless cause fans with little patience to get onto social media with yet more doom and gloom but we will simply ignore them because all they do is show their ignorance in failing to understand how a team with so many new players needs time to build. Bradford, Leigh and Halifax in the first four championship rounds will certainly be a big test but maybe the experience will help them bond quicker than if we had had an easier opening to the campaign. The Leigh match will be interesting as they have just announced their squad numbers and there are only two players (Micky Higham and Nick Gregson) who were contracted players last season.

So, what is the little bit of apprehension. It concerns the 3 PNG recruits and the 2 Australians. There is always a danger of players who come to England from so very far away having difficulty settling into a very different environment. Let’s hope they manage the transition happily and there is a responsibility on our supporters to help them by making them feel welcome and valued. That is one aspect that leads to us being slightly apprehensive but there is a second issue too. Let’s imagine that they settle in, stay fit and start playing really well. In that case we should have a superb team but should we start hitting the headlines there will doubtless be Super League clubs sniffing at the door offering them full-time contracts way above what we could afford. In the short term that would be unsettling and may well lead to us losing them in the longer term. It would be very interesting to know the details of their contracts but we won’t be expecting to find that out!

Squad Balance

Those responsible for the running of Fev know way more about rugby league than fevnut will ever appreciate so what we have to say here is expressing a degree of concern rather than criticism!

When we look at the assembled squad it does seem a little bit unbalanced. We do seem to be rather short of props. Looking at the list it would appear that there are only 2 out and out prop-forwards, those being Luke Cooper and Scott Wheeldon. You can add into the mix Spencer Darley but at the age of only 20 it will be a big ask to expect him to play big minutes. There is also a size issue here. We have huge respect for the playing ability of both Scott and Luke but neither of them is very big and you do need some real size and weight up front.

Looking at the second row and loose forward positions we seem to have so many it will be difficult to know who to leave out. Three positions to fill and seven players: Jimmy Beckett, Jack Bussey, John Davies, Brad Day, Brett Delaney, James Harrison and James Lockwood. Let’s hope some of them are capable of stepping up to prop. We do know that James Lockwood has done so in the past but he has always seemed to us to be a better player when he is in the back-row.

As long as he stays fit, it would seem that Cameron King is a huge prospect at hooker with Danny Maskill and Morgan Punchard as back-up. Danny seems to be rapidly improving and maybe regular game time will aid his development. Morgan has huge potential but is still young. From the little we have seen in the pre-season games hooker seems to suit him better than halfback.

Moving to half-back, that seems to be pretty settled with the Boas brothers. If they stay fit then we can’t see anyone else getting a look in. Should the need arise then there is Jorge Richardson and the fact that Morgan Punchard could play there.

In the last few seasons we have had a whole host of injuries to the three-quarter line which makes us a bit fearful of there only appearing to be 5 potential candidates for the four places (in alphabetical order Conor Carey, Macauley Hallett, Josh Hardcastle, Thompson Teteh and Dakota Whylie).

At fullback we only seem to have one player in the squad. That is Kiedan Hartley. A young lad with huge potential. He was easily the man of the match against Hunslet Club Parkside and he made a wonderful break last week against Halifax. We are looking forward with a lot of excitement to watching him develop. Our concern here is not over his talent but whether an 18 year old can command sufficient respect in the rest of the team to enable him to organise the defence the way a fullback should.

FEATHERSTONE ROVERS SQUAD
Player	Age	Pos		Player	Age	Pos
Jimmy Beckett	-	2R		James Harrison	22	2R
Ase Boas	30	HB		Kiedan Hartley	18	FB
Watson Boas	24	HB		Cameron King	27	H
Jack Bussey	26	F		James Lockwood	32	F
Conor Carey	23	C		Danny Maskill	23	H
Luke Cooper	24	P		Morgan Punchard	19	HB/H
Spencer Darley	20	P		Jorge Richardson	21	HB
John Davies	28	F		Thompson Teteh	29	C
Brad Day	24	F		Josh Walters	24	2R
Brett Delaney	33	F		Scott Wheeldon	32	P
Macauley Hallett	23	C		Dakota Whylie	19	W
Josh Hardcastle	26	B/2R

Dual-Registration

No doubt we will again be filling out the squad with Leeds players on dual-registration. The problem is having the right players at the right time made available. In the latter stages of last season the dual-reg system failed us, which was not the fault of Leeds who also had major injury problems.  We are definitely hoping to see Harry Newman playing for Rovers again.

It seems very unlikely that players with the top 17 Leeds squad numbers will be available to play for Fev so we have drawn up a potential list of those with squad numbers from 18 upwards.

Potential Leeds Dual-Reg Players
Player	Age	Pos		Player	Age	Pos
Luke Briscoe	24	B		Harry Newman	18	B
James Donaldson	27	LF		Mikolaj Oledzki	20	P
Tyler Dupree	18	F		Jack Ormondroyd	27	LF
Ashton Golding	22	FB/W		Nathaniel Peteru	27	P/2R
Tom Holroyd	17	F		Cameron Smith	20	2R/LF
Corey Johnson	-	F		Alex Sutcliffe	20	C
Callum McLelland	19	HB		Owen Trout	19	LF
Anthony Mullally	27	P		Dan Waite-Pullan	20	2R
Muizz Mustapha	20	2R		Josh Walters	24	2R/LF