The
hooker dilemma
Apart from
the frustration with our defence against Dewsbury, the worst aspect of the match
was that Matty Wildie had to come off with clearly distressing pain to his ribs
and that Connor Jones got sin-binned from a dangerous tip tackle.
We don’t,
for a single moment, believe that there was any intention to put the Dewsbury player in jeopardy, but throughout this season the disciplinary panel have handed
out harsh bans to anyone found guilty of tip tackles.
It is all
too easy when a third player goes into a tackle and takes the legs for the legs
to go above the horizontal leading to the tackled player landing on his head.
Maybe the
solution is for players to have some rigorous training so that, if they are
going for the legs, they enter the tackle in such a manner that they can pull
the legs away rather than up. This would have the same effect of stopping the
tackled player making further yards and preventing a quick play the ball.
So, we
potentially have the problem that we could be without our two frontline hookers
for the 1895 cup final. If that is the case what is the solution?
John Davies
and Jack Bussey have both filled in at hooker in the past but using them
presents two problems. When that has happened the speed at the play-the-ball
has been reduced and they are nowhere near as effective at hooker as they
are in the second row or at loose forward. That could be very detrimental when
it comes to the match in London.
The best
solution we can come up with is to play Johnathon Ford at stand-off with Morgan
Smith at hooker. Additionally we would recall Tom Holmes and have him on the
bench as a replacement hooker. From what we have seen Morgan and Tom would be much
better hookers than Jack and John who would be free to play in their
normal positions in which they have been excellent so far this year.
One final
point we would make is that we reckon that, in preparation for the following weekend,
we should play the likely team for London against Whitehaven. Never mind
resting players, our side needs to be in the best position to take on Leigh and
a dress rehearsal against Whitehaven would help with that. The chances are that
Johnathon Ford is not yet match fit but we would still pick him this week in
order to try out our best team line-up.
IMG and Structure
IMG have a
good proven record in sport so the decision to hook up with them is promising.
It is clear that they will be looking at the structure of our competitions and
making recommendations on the way forward.
We would
make the following points:
The idea
for Super League 1 and Super League 2, each with ten teams would be a retrograde
step. Constantly playing the same teams is not a recipe for progress.
There is a big
problem in Super League with so few clubs being in with a realistic chance of
becoming champions. In the 26 years since Super League started only 4 clubs
have become champions and in the last 16 years (with Bradford’s exit from Super
League) there have been only 3 winners. A good hard look needs to be undertaken
to see how the competition could undergo some levelling-up so that the front
runners are not an almost foregone conclusion before each season starts.
Promotion
and relegation should definitely remain but consideration needs to be
undertaken over the huge difficulties Championship clubs have in getting ready
to be competitive in Super League. In the last six years only one club has
survived in Super League beyond their first year after promotion (Hull Kingston
Rovers in 2018). And it looks quite likely that Toulouse will be yet another ‘one-year’
Super League team. In 2006, when Catalans entered Super League they were given
a 3 year exemption from relegation and look where they are now! The
implications of promotion from the Championship to Super League is very
different to the situation in football with promotion from their Championship
to the Premier League. This is largely because so many Rugby League Championship
players are part-time. We believe that a possible solution would be to grant
the promoted team a one year (or maybe even two) exemption from relegation.
This would lead to a greater turn over of clubs and we think that would not be
a bad outcome.
We would also
like some thought to be given to promotion to and relegation from what is
currently called League One. We currently have at least one team in that
competition that consistently fail in the manner one would expect from a
semi-professional outfit. That goes for both their playing standards and their
attendances. Maybe we could have a similar system with at least one year’s
guarantee against relegation.
Milestones
Congratulations to Joey
Leilua on making his 250th career appearance at Dewsbury and also to
Ben Hellewell who passed 50 points for Fev. 32 of those points were scored in
his earlier period at Fev (2013-2014) and he has now scored 20 points this
season.
While we are on about ‘Milestones’
it really is about time that Luke Cooper scored a try. The try he scored in the
Cup at Batley on March 13th took him to 46 points for Fev and he has
been on the imminent milestones list ever since. Some of you will wonder how
his points tally is not divisible by four. That’s because in 2018 he
successfully kicked a conversion, also against Batley, during the Championship Shield
competition. That was his only ever kicking attempt so he has a wonderful 100%
goal-kicking record!
Head
Coach: Jonty Gorley
Jonty Gorley became the head coach of Whitehaven
this year. He succeeded Gary Charlton. Gorley had previously been assistant
coach to Charlton at both Whitehaven and Workington Town.
He played for Workington Town as a hooker between 1993 and 1997.
Captain: Karl Dixon
Karl Dixon was signed by Whitehaven from amateur side Wath Brow Hornets for the 2020 season and he was appointed as Whitehaven captain this year.
He
usually plays at stand-off but can also fill in at centre.
New Signings in 2022
The Fev connection
There are no players in Whitehaven's squad who have ever played for Fev.
