Batley v Fev: 21 Man Squads

Fev and Batley have both now announced their 19 man squads for Sunday. 

We have placed the players into positions with guess work. Usually we take into account previous matches but that is not possible at the beginning of the season so even more guess work is involved!

fevnut's musings #01: Happy New Year, Winning League Runs and Israel Folau

Happy New Year

We are writing this on New Year’s Day, yes, January 3oth 2020. Don’t give us any of that January 1st codswallop. As far as we are concerned, and many of our readers too, we suspect, the year starts properly with the opening of the rugby league season.

The period between the last international of the year and the start of the new season is a pretty miserable time and even Christmas is only a small crumb of comfort. This year we tried even harder than usual to relieve the misery by spending Christmas with relatives in Buenos Aires trying hard to explain that the sport that we love is not the one that is played by their Pumas team. We got some rather incredulous reactions from those who simply didn’t know that there was another, far better sport with the name of rugby.

That’s what we call evangelism. And we took it a step further, too, by wearing our beloved Fev kit on a trip to La Bombonera, the ‘cathedral’ where Boca Juniors play with a strange spherical ball.

But now we need no distractions. Real life begins again, the exhilaration of a victory, the despair of a defeat, and both are so much better than the numbness of nothing!

Winning Sequences

Let’s hope that this doesn’t put the mockers on Sunday’s match. We were we’ll aware that we have a very good record against Batley over the last few years. So we thought we would have a look to see how good it is and we were amazed to discover that Fev have won the last 20 Championship league fixtures against them. That is an extraordinary feat.

Strangely, during that run which stretches back to 2010 we have actually lost 4 times against them but all the losses were in different competitions. Those were in the National League (Northern Rail) Cup in 2012 and in the Qualifying Semi-Final of the Play-Offs in 2013. We lost twice to them in 2016, once in the 5th round of the Challenge Cup in 2016 and then again in the Super 8s Qualifiers.

We wondered whether that run of twenty league wins is a record for Fev and on checking, it certainly is.

There are eight other teams who we have beaten in ten or more league matches, but none match the 20 against Batley.

As well as Batley, the other run which is current and could be extended is against Swinton. 

Israel Folau

We have made no secret of the fact that our favourite Super League team is Catalans Dragons. There are particular personal reasons for that. It was, therefore, all the more appalling for us when the news came through that they had signed Israel Folau.

We quite rightly pride ourselves on the fact that rugby league is such an inclusive sport. It is a matter of pride that rugby league positively welcomed players of colour long before football, cricket or rugby union. They took their rightful places in the England and Great Britain teams many years before the selectors considered them in other sports and that included naming people of colour as the national team captain.

Again we led the way in the manner of acceptance when Keegan Hirst decided to tell the world that he was gay. What must he feel when we have a player in Super League who writes tweets saying that all gay people will go to Hell?

We have seen people, on some forums, trying to compare Sonny Bill Williams not wishing to wear a betting logo on religious grounds to the position of Israel Folau. That’s nonsense, the two have nothing in common. To be against betting is completely different to condemning people on grounds of sexual orientation. Israel Folau is homophobic and should have no place in rugby league just as there is no place for racists.

Wigan is not one of our favourite clubs (that’s putting it very mildly!) but their decision to nominate their home match against Catalans in March as ‘Pride Day’ is excellent. Well done, Wigan. Let’s hope that others follow their example and demonstrate that we will not tolerate homophobia in rugby league.

T'Other Side: Batley Bulldogs

2019 Matches

FIRST TEAM SQUAD

LAST TIME OUT

Head Coach: Craig Lingard

This will be Craig Lingard’s first competitive match as head coach of Batley, having taken over in the off-season from Matt Diskin who has moved to take over in charge of newly promoted Oldham. Craig has previously been head coach at Keighley from 2017 to May 2019 and he started his career at Bramley Buffaloes where he was head coach in 2012.

Although this is his first season as Batley coach he is far from being a stranger at Mount Pleasant! Before taking over as coach he was the head of Batley’s community team and his entire playing career (1998-2008), mostly as a fullback, was at Batley. In total he played 205 games and scored 142 tries which remains as Batley’s all-time career try scoring record.

He was so highly regarded that the terrace opposite the ground entrance was named ‘The Craig Lingard Terrace’.

Captain: Shaun Lunt

Shaun Lunt has been appointed as the Batley captain for 2020. That’s no great surprise seeing as the wealth of experience he brings to the team. For further information about him see below under ‘New Signings for 2020’.

New Signings for 2020

Jack Blagbrough, prop, has joined from York City Knights. He started with Huddersfield Giants in 2013 and then moved to Sheffield Eagles. Whilst at Sheffield he had loan spells at York (2015) and Oldham (2016). In 2018 he joined Leigh Centurions and went out on loan to both Hunslet and Workington. He joined York in 2019.

Anthony Bowman, halfback, centre or second row, has joined Batley from Oldham. He started with Halifax in 2009 and stayed there until the end of 2013 although during that last year he played two games for Oldham on loan. In 2014 he signed for Swinton and after a year there he moved to Australia and played for Rocking Sharks in Western Australia. He came back to England in 2018 and joined Keighley before his move to Oldham last season.

Danny Bravo, second row, actually joined Batley last year but an ACL injury kept him out for the whole season so he is yet to make his Batley début. As a youngster he was at Leeds Rhinos but never played in the first team although he did play on loan for Oldham in 2011. He is a Jamaican international.

Nyle Flynn, second row or loose forward, started with Hunslet in 2017. In June 2019 he moved to Dewsbury and also played a game on dual reg for Coventry Bears.

Luke Hooley, fullback or wing, began at Wakefield Trinity but, like Danny Bravo, never played for the first team at his Super League Club. He has played either on loan for Dewsbury (2017 and 2019) and Oldham (2017-2019)

By far the apparently most significant signing Batley have made for 2020 is hooker, Shaun Lunt. He brings massive experience to the team having played 327 games (218 for Super League teams) and scored 167 tries. He started at Castleford, making his début in 2005. In 2006 he returned to his native Cumbria, playing for Workington Town on loan and then he signed for Workington in 2007. He joined Huddersfield in 2009 and remained there until 2015. While he was a Huddersfield player he made loan appearances for Leeds (2012) and Hull KR (2015). He then signed for Hull KR in 2016 and was there until he transferred to Leeds (a swap deal involving Matt Parcell) in July 2019 where he was an important part of their securing their Super League status. At the representative level he has played for Cumbria, England and England Knights.

Dale Morton, back or fullback, comes from Pontefract and has been signed from Dewsbury Rams. He spent 4 seasons at Wakefield Trinity (2009-2012) and has been a Dewsbury player since 2013. He has 86 career tries to his credit (77 for Dewsbury) and is potentially a back-up goal kicker.

Shaun Pick, prop, started at Featherstone in 2014. He then incurred a lengthy suspension after which he joined Toronto Wolfpack in 2017. He spent 2018 and 2019 with Sheffield Eagles.

Lucas Walshaw, second row or centre, has also joined Batley from Dewsbury. His career began with four seasons at Wakefield Trinity beginning in 2011. During his time there he played on dual reg at Doncaster (2012) and on loan at Dewsbury (2013 and 2014). He then joined Bradford Bulls in 2015 and again appeared for Dewsbury (2015 and 2016) this time on loan. He finally became a Dewsbury player in 2017 and has spent the last 3 seasons there.

Ben White, halfback, is a Londoner. He started his career at Leeds in 2014 and that year also played for Gloucestershire All Golds that year. In 2015 he joined Swinton Lions and in 2018 he joined New South Wales team, Berkeley Eagles. He returned in 2019 and joined Halifax but in June he transferred to Barrow.

Loan and Dual Registration players

Batley do not currently have a dual registration agreement and neither do they have any players on loan.

The Fev connection

There is a long history of players who have played for both Batley and Fev.

In the Batley 2020 squad there are three players who have played for Fev. Dane Manning came to Rovers, on loan from Leeds, in 2010, Shaun Pick was a Fev player in 2014 and Dave Scott, who is one of the very few Scottish internationals with a Scottish accent, began his professional career with Fev in 2013.

There are five players in this year’s Fev squad who have previously played for Batley. Ben Blackmore  played there (on dual reg from Huddersfield) in 2013 and 2014. John Davies was at Batley in 2013 and 2014. Brad Day was at Batley from 2014 to 2018 and James Harrison was there from 2016 to 2018.  Louis Jouffret spent 2018 and 2019 at Batley.

There is also a Fev connection with the Batley coach, Craig Lingard, who is related to some former Fev players and Craig himself played for Travellers Saints as a youngster.

Nyle Flynn, who has just been signed by Batley is the son of Adrian Flynn who played for Fev in 2003.

Sunday's Referee: Batley v Fev

Later on in the season we will be posting the 2020 records for each referee but for now we will show their 2019 records.

Tom Grant was very unpopular with Fev fans at the beginning of his career but fevnut believes that the quality of his refereeing has improved quite considerably since then and he is now called on quite often to take charge of Super League matches.

Past Matches against Batley

Let's hope that Fev can extend our amazing run of wins against Batley in Championship matches. It currently stands at 20, the last Championship win by Batley being back in 2009. We have actually lost 4 times during that run but all four losses came in other competitions - In the Qualifiers and the Challenge Cup in 2016, in the Play-Offs in 2013 and in the National League (Northern Rail) Cup in 2012.

LAST TIME

Fev v Leeds Pre-Season: Teams and Scorers

Dave Merrick: Yorkshire Evening Post article

In 2018 fevnut wrote several times in ‘fevnut’s musings’ about our awful disciplinary record - too many penalties given away and too many red and yellow cards.

In 2019 there was a remarkable improvement and it was clearly down to Dave Merrick working alongside Ryan Carr.

This week,  in the Yorkshire Evening Post, Dave Craven has written an article about Dave Merrick’s work at Fev and we wanted to reproduce it on the blog for anyone who hasn’t read it.

Dave Craven’s Yorkshire Evening Post article

 Ex-referee Dave Merrick is now one of the coaching staff at Featherstone Rovers.

A Grade One official until a serious injury in 2016, Merrick was utilised by boss Ryan Carr last season as Featherstone made their shock surge to the Championship Grand Final.

Although Carr has since returned to Australia, new head coach James Webster also clearly values the 43-year-old’s input after tapping into his knowledge for the 2020 campaign.

“I originally started doing this for Glenn Morrison and then Neil Kelly at Dewsbury Rams after a chance conversation with (former Dewsbury prop) Tony Tonks,” he explained.

“When Ned (Kelly) left Dewsbury I showed it to Jon Duffy at Fev but he ended up leaving.

“Ryan, though, was all over it and asked me to compile a report and it went from there.

“In the season just gone, we conceded 224 penalties.

“In 2018, under John Duffy, that number was 318 so we knocked 96 penalties off.

“Ned let me do more actual coaching sessions so I had players like Paul Sykes looking at me thinking ‘He’s a ref him!’

“Whereas Ryan wanted me to give him the information and he’d use it where he saw fit but I was still down at training.

“For Webbo I do a full match review of every game looking at trying to reduce penalties by giving him information on whether the penalty is right or wrong and look to see if there’s any trends with certain players/ referees.

“I attend training when I’m not at work and help the running of sessions by giving the players correct calls and tipping up on any issues we may find that occur through the year.”

Merrick has plenty of playing knowledge having featured with hometown Featherstone’s academy and reserve side as a stand-off and also briefly for Doncaster before switching to become a referee. He added: “We halved the penalties at Dewsbury but didn’t capitalise on the possession we had.

“If you cut the penalties down with the squad we have at Featherstone – giving people like Dane Chisholm and Callum McLelland space to do their stuff – it makes a difference.

“We’re not saying not to give penalties away as sometimes you do need to but it’s the type we were giving. Josh Hardcastle, for instance, was in double figures for ball steals the year before but he’s controlling them better now.”

For his analysis, Merrick can spend up to five hours on each game as he watches every ruck and then slows down the frame to see if it is player or referee error while gleaning tips.

“I worked out what the top seven offences were; interference at the play-the-ball, 10m offside, high tackle, ball steal, not square, foul play, dissent and others and then hand it all over,” he added.

“There’s little things you can do to improve things and, without giving too many secrets away, Carry did that and now Webbo is, too.”

Merrick grew up in Featherstone with Leeds Rhinos boss Richard Agar and has worked with him at Hull FC – where he helped referee contact work on the wrestle mats – and Wakefield Trinity where he also first linked up with Webster.

Agar invited him down to training at Headingley before Christmas and he has reviewed a couple of the Super League club’s pre-season friendlies.

He concluded: “I don’t really know anyone else who does this sort of thing but I do enjoy it and getting to work with players so hopefully it carries on.”

Hull KR v Fev Pre-Season: Teams and Scorers