fevnut's musings 07: League Tables, Offload and Inconsistency

  

League Tables

 

Over the last few weeks fevnut has received countless questions about the system being used for determining table positions this year.

 

Do we like it? No! It is much fairer when the season involves each team playing every other team home and away and there are no other matches to pollute the integrity of the competition. Summer bash (when it takes place) is a great occasion but it does fall into this category.

 

Most people seem to think that the percentage system is a new invention but it is actually well and truly embedded in the history of rugby league. It was first introduced in the 1905/06 season when all the 31 clubs were combined into a single league and it became impossible for all clubs to have home and away matches against all the other 30 teams. In fact, for many years from then played different numbers of matches.

 

The first season in which there was one division and the clubs played the same number of matches was 1930/3, although even then there were 28 clubs but they played 38 matches. That year and for most seasons thereafter the table was based on match points.

 

The exceptions, when percentages were re-introduced were during the War Emergency Leagues of World War 2 and 1955/56 when Belle Vue Rangers withdrew from just before the season started leaving some clubs with 36 matches and others with 34.

 

In 1977/78 Bradford Northern were awarded second place on a percentage basis when their last fixture of the season did not take place because of a strike by the opposition team’s players, the club in question being Featherstone Rovers! And then percentages were, of course, used last year in Super League because of the pandemic.

 

Most of the confusion this year seems to be around the way places are determined when clubs are level on ‘Win Percentage’. If clubs play different numbers of matches it would be clearly unfair to base it on the usual points difference because for stronger clubs the points difference is likely to be higher if you play more games.

 

So, the secondary factor for this year is based on the ratio of points scored to points conceded. A lot of the confusion arises from the stupid decision of the Rugby League to call this ‘Difference%’. It is not a difference which implies subtraction and the percentage makes it difficult to see how it is arrived at.

 

If a club has scored 75 points and conceded 25 this gives a ratio of 3 (75 divided by 25) which is quite clear but the RL then call it 300%, which just confuses the issue.

 

The awarding of Toulouse a 24-0 win when London refused to travel has been used several times over the last few years. It won’t happen again because London were the only other full-time club who were deemed to have been able to fulfil their fixture. Should any of the part-time clubs be unable to play in Toulouse the fixtures are either to be re-arranged or the fixture will become null and void.

 

 

 

Offload

 

Some weeks ago we wrote about this brilliant programme being run by the Featherstone Rovers Foundation in partnership with Rugby League Cares.

 

Research shows that at least one in 4 people have mental health problems at some time in their lives and that is probably a considerable under estimate because so many people, particularly men, are reluctant talk about the issues.

 

It is frightening to discover that suicide is the single biggest cause of death amongst younger men.

 

In three weeks’ time, a third ‘Offload’ programme will begin at the Fev clubhouse. All those who have attended so far (including fevnut) have found it extremely valuable. It is largely run by former and current professional players who share the mental health problems they have encountered and the programme is primarily aimed at helping men to develop strategies for coping through difficult times whether that be now or at some future date.

 

If you are in the slightest bit interested get in touch will Paul March at the Featherstone Rovers Foundation (paul.march@featherstonerovers.co.uk) and, if you want people, who have been through the first two programmes are happy to help you get involved with the sessions.

 

 

Inconsistency

 

What on earth is wrong with the consistency of our Fev team. We don’t mean consistency from match to match but consistency within a single match.

 

We can’t recall ever seeing a match in which Fev were so clearly the stronger team but made so many needless errors as in our 48-14 win last week against Whitehaven.

 

There were, again, patches of the game when we were brilliant. From the 56^th minute we scored 5 tries in just 14 minutes with some beautiful attacking rugby and then scored a further two right near the end including that great try from Gareth Gale.

 

The Whitehaven fullback would probably feign being unfit if we had a return match up at Whitehaven this year after Gareth had flattened him with a terrific tackle and then later sent him flying to score his try!

 

But, yet again, it was a match that was littered with knock-ons and forward passes. We have simply got to sort that out because May will be a tough month including matches against York, Sheffield and Halifax who have all had some excellent results in the last couple of weeks.

A fevnut special: Fev's Youngest Players

 

Featherstone Rovers’ Youngest Players

We need to begin with a ‘health warning’! We don’t know for certain who Fev’s youngest ever player was. In our player database there are a little over 1,100 players who have played in the first team and we only have the dates of birth for just over 600 of them. Many we will never know although as each month passes more dates of birth get added as we make contact with the relatives of players.

We know the dates on which every player made their début but if we haven’t got their date of birth we don’t know how old they were!

At the bottom of the page we have listed all the players with unknown dates of birth and make this plea. Are you related to any of them or do you know anyone who is? If so, is it possible to find out their dates of birth? If so, please email us at fevblog452@gmail.com

 

The Young Ones

These are the 25 youngest players that we know about. Two of them only played the one game.

 

Billy Judge (1)

Billy Judge, the youngest of them all. He was an ‘A’ team player, who got to play one first team game against Keighley in a Wartime Emergency League game against Keighley at Post Office Road on the 6^th September 1941. But that wasn’t the only first team game in which Billy played. That season the Challenge Cup was played at the end of the year after the league programme had been completed. In the first round (which was played over two legs) we were drawn against St. Helens. With all the problems of maintaining teams during war time, St. Helens arrived at Post Office Road a man short. So, Fev ‘lent’ Saints a player and that was Billy Judge who by accounts of the time had a good game with Saints winning 21-11.

 

Karl Pratt (2)

Karl started out at Hunslet Parkside and joined Leeds Rhinos academy but was released by them and joined Rovers, making his début as a sub away to Keighley on 8^th June 1997. The last of his 48 games for Rovers was in the 1998 Grand Final against Wakefield in which he scored the infamous try that was disallowed for a knock-on. Had the try stood history would have been changed because it would have given Fev the title and promotion into Super League.

He then re-joined the Leeds Rhinos and then Bradford Bulls in 2003. He was at stand-off for the Bulls  in their 2003 Grand Final win against Wigan.

Sadly, Karl’s career was ended by a persistent shoulder injury at the age of 25 but not before but not before he had played for Yorkshire, England and Great Britain.

 

Jamie Stokes (3)

Jamie’s début was on 14^th July 1996 at home to Whitehaven and he scored two tries in that game. He went onto play 196 games for Fev and scored 117 tries including 7 hat-tricks (the third highest number of any Fev player). Those 117 tries place him in 8th place on the list of Fev's all time highest try scorers.

After nine seasons at Rovers he ended his career with a further four years at Batley.

Missing Dates of Birth

Fev v Whitehaven (Championship Round 3): Teams and Scorers

 

Fev v Whitehaven: 21 Man Squads

Fev and Whitehaven have both announced their 21 man squads.

We have placed the players into positions with guess work, but based on the line-up for previous matches. 

It is particularly difficult at this stage of the season to read the likely line-up from squad that has been announced. Last week Dane Chisholm and Josh Hardcastle were left out of the final 17 so we are guessing that they will be in this week. Who gets left out?!

Whitehaven include in their 21, Aaron Purewal and Guy Graham who they signed from rugby union this week.

Notable absences are James Harrison for Fev and Gregg McNally for Whitehaven.

 

fevnut's musings #06: Whitehaven, Two Good Two Bad and Going Up

 

Playing against Whitehaven

 

When the fixture list came out for 2021 we were a little bit sad that we weren’t going to have an away match against them this year. Yes, it’s a long haul getting there but it was always so nice to go up to Cumbria even though there were some occasions when we thought we were in danger of suffering from frostbite!

 

There was one occasion when we got delayed and arrived just moments before kick-off. Because there was no time to get to our usual position in the ground we watched the first half from the end near the entrance. It seemed strange that Fev were making an absolute hash of getting the ball away from the far corner (top left in the picture) whenever Whitehaven kicked it there. At half-time we wandered around the ground and saw that it wasn’t the fault of the Fev players. That corner was waterlogged and there was about six inches of heavy, mud on the surface! It looked impossible to run the ball out of there at all. In the circumstances they were doing well to ever get the ball out.

 

Then there was the 1998 season when our match up there was in early February. Not generally a good time for driving to Cumbria but we decided to make the most of it and set off with our lads the day before, stopping overnight with relatives in Lancaster, en route. Fortunately the Sunday morning was bright and beautiful and we took the long route going over a couple of the lake district passes through snow covered peaks. We even stopped for a picnic on the top of one pass but had to lay out a blanket on the snow first!

 

 

Two good, two bad

 

In recent years there have been several matches when we have put more than 40 points past Whitehaven. We particularly recall the games against them in 2010 on our way to winning the first of 4 successive Championship leagues. The aggregate score, home and away, was 102-18 to Fev. Stu Dickens got us onto the scoreboard with a try in the second minute and Liam Welham (brother of Kris) scored two tries but the greatest damage was that 2 Fev players scored hat-tricks – Jesse Joe Parker (nowadays at Whitehaven) and Kyle Briggs, who also kicked 7 goals.

 

But, lest we get cocky about how well we do against Whitehaven, maybe we should remind ourselves of two  less happy games. Of course it won't happen on Sunday!?

 

In 2004 we had to go to Whitehaven in the play-offs with the winners progressing to the Grand Final. We had only finished 5th in the table but we had already beaten Oldham away and then Hull KR away with a team who were playing really well. But it came to a sorry end at the Recreation Ground when a powerful Whitehaven side won 30-2. A miserable journey home that day!

 

If anything, March 2009 was even worse. It was one of those off-days that we have been prone too. All the pointers were to a comfortable Fev victory. Whitehaven travelled to Fev to face a powerful Rovers side which included Ian Hardman, Tommy Saxton, Iestyn Harris, Andy Kain, Tony Tonks, Stu Dickens, Matty Dale and Tim Spears. Not only did we lose, we suffered a 52-26 thrashing.

 

It was largely down to an 18 year-old Whitehaven lad who had been signed by Huddersfield that year but loaned back to Whitehaven for the season. He scored 32 points (4 tries and 8 goals) and has been a thorn in our flesh ever since! His name: Gregg McNally! And he’s now back at Whitehaven and likely to be playing on Sunday. 

The final episode in this particular story is when we went to Whitehaven just 4 weeks later. It was 12-12 at half-time but in a tremendous second half we took them apart to end up winning 44-18 with two tries apiece for Matty Dale and Joe McLocklan. That, despite the fact that were very few changes in the team line-ups from the home match.

 

 

Going Up

 

After the first round of Championship matches we were lying 5^th in the table. Our win against Swinton took us up to 4^th and then Bradford beating Halifax took us up to 3^rd. Later that evening we settled down to watch York playing Sheffield expecting York to win and take us up to 2^nd. But it didn’t happen.

 

For us, the surprise teams so far in 2021 have been Dewsbury and Sheffield. It remains to be seen how long they can maintain their good showing. We have three important matches in May with away trips to York, Sheffield and Halifax. Of course, it should have been even more of a revealing month which was supposed to start away at Toulouse but that one has been postponed to sometime later in the year. Nevertheless, by the end of May we should really start to know what sort of a season this is going to be for Fev!

This week's referee: Fev v Whitehaven

   

Well, this is quite unusual. 

Over familiarity between players and referee is usually discouraged but as nothing untoward happened in the last match when he was in charge it probably doesn't matter this time. It does have the advantage that our players know what to expect.

You don't often get a referee taking charge of two successive matches for a team. But this time it has happened and we have the same referee as last week at Swinton.

He is one of two referee brothers from Wigan. Our referee for today mainly takes charge of Championship matches whereas his brother is usually used for Super League games.

T'Other Side: Whitehaven

  

FIRST TEAM SQUAD

LAST TIME OUT

2021 MATCHES

Head Coach: Gary Charlton

If they were ever to erect a statue to Cumbrian rugby league one of the strongest possible candidates to be included would have to be Gary Charlton.

He became caretaker coach at Workington for part of the 2003 season and then became joint head coach (with Martin Oglanby) from 2009-2013. In 2019 he took over as head coach at Whitehaven.

Strangely, his playing career started outside Cumbria with a handful of games for Hull KR and Sheffield in 1988. In 1990 he joined Carlisle and stayed there until he moved to Whitehaven in 1988. In 2000 he joined Barrow and then, at the end of 2001 he moved to Workington, ending his playing career there in 2003.

So, he has coached two Cumbrian clubs and played for all four!

Star Man: Gregg McNally

A player who has undoubted quality but who has never enamoured himself with Fev fans primarily because of his time at Leigh when there was a great deal of animosity between the clubs both on and off the field and somehow McNally came to symbolise that in the minds of Fev supporters.

Despite that association with Leigh McNally was born in Whitehaven and his career started there in 2008. Before his move to the Centurions in 2012 he also played briefly for Oldham, Barrow and Huddersfield.

At representative level he has played for Cumbria and Ireland.

New Signings for 2021

The Fev connection

There is only one player in either the Whitehaven or Fev squad who has played for both teams and that is Jesse Joe Parker, a Papua New Guinea international, who came to Fev in 2010, the first of our 4 successive Championship topping years. He only played 14 games for Rovers but scored 17 tries.

Past Matches against Whitehaven

  

Many younger people tend to think of Whitehaven as a long-established club in professional rugby league but it was not until 1948 that Whitehaven joined. The became the second Cumberland team after Workington had joined in 1948. Barrow go back to 1900 but they were in Lancashire until the local authority re-organisation of 1974.

LAST TIME (2016)

It will be nearly five years since Fev played against Whitehaven. They were promoted to the Championship at the end of 2019 but the Covid pandemic prevented the teams meeting in 2020.