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.