fevnut's musings #13: Our Forwards, Fev v Halifax 1925 and Leading Try Scorers

  

Our Forwards

Yes, we know it’s a bit early but autumn is here and before we know it we will be getting ready for Christmas so we started thinking what would make a great Christmas present for us.

It’s a bit fanciful but we would love to see Wakefield decide to release Sam Eseh and for Fev to sign him.

Sam is far from the finished article but, at the age of 19, we think he shows tremendous promise and there surely can be little doubt that he will a get a lot better than he already is now as he gets a bit older. It is often said that forwards mature later than backs and we believe that to be correct.

But when a good young one comes along he should be given the opportunity to develop his trade on the pitch. A really good pack, in our opinion, should combine some experienced heads together with some young ones. There’s a problem with having too many old heads and that is that they are more prone to injury as we have seen this season.

If you take our current forwards (excluding hookers) they are very heavily weighted to the older end of a rugby league player’s career. Just look at this chart showing the age of most of our forwards who have been playing in 2022.

Contrast that with the age at which many of our excellent past forwards made their débuts with Fev. Here are a few amongst many we could have chosen.

The odd one out in that group is Karl Harrison who had already played three seasons with Bramley before we signed him.

Fev v Halifax 1925

So, we need Fev to score 5 points on Sunday to set a new club record for points scored in a league season and beat the total of 1,040 set in 2018. We also need a further 58 points from Sunday and the play-offs to set a new record for points in all matches in a season. That record (1,253) was set in 2011 when there were considerably more cup games such as the Northern Rail Cup.

This massive accumulation of points reminded us of the contrast with the matches between Fev and Halifax in the 1925 calendar year.

We were drawn against each other in the first round of the Challenge Cup. They played out a 0-0(!) draw at Halifax and then a 2-2 draw at Post Office Road. In the 2^nd replay (at Headingley) Fev won 6-2 but all the scores in the three matches were from goal kicks! Two hundred and forty minutes without a single try!

And just to add to that, the next season (but still in 1925) there was another 0-0 draw in the league match at Halifax. There were two more matches between the teams in 1925. A points scoring fest when we beat them 19-10 in the league at home in March and then won again by 10-8  at home in October.

 

Leading Try Scorers

Lachlan Walmsley has, so far, scored 25 tries in 2022 which is more than double the 13 scored by Joe Keyes who is their second highest try scorer.

Although Lachlan Walmsley has scored more than any Fev player we have six players who have scored more than thirteen (Morgan Smith 22, Luke Briscoe 21, Connor Jones 20, Craig Hall and Ryley Jacks 19 and Joey Leilua 16.

Halifax have now won their last six matches and eleven out of their last twelve, but if we defend well we should win because we have potent attacking threats across the park whereas Halifax are heavily reliant on one player.

And a win, although in an inconsequential match, will give us the psychological advantage for what will probably be another, very important match against them in the play-off semi-finals.

Win both of those and Halifax will have good reason to dread matches against the mighty Rovers. We are currently sitting on seven successive wins against them which is already a record for Fev in our matches against Halifax.

 

Milestones

There was just the one milestone achieved last Friday in our match at Sheffield. Yes, it was Craig Hall yet again! Although he only kicked three goals it took his total points for Fev past 750. What a fantastic acquisition he has proved to be!

He has now scored 374 points (so far) this season, taking him well up the table of Fev’s top points scorers.