after watching the game last night Keighley made Fev look better than the scoreline suggested. Fair play to Fev they took their chance on the line and put some points on when given the chance. this is what Fax are not doing currently - pusinshing teams!

but this will come. who knows maybe on Sunday!

if Fev drop the ball they did against us, Leigh, Sheff they will come unstuck.

2,200 is a great crowd on a thurs on TV v Keighley who looked to take about 10! so well done Fev.

i get the feeling that there are soon to be some large changes with the league structures. There have been meeting going on for a while ow with the RFL and it all seems abit fishy.

like has been said on here earlier in the thread, this looked to be Fax's best chance to realistically push for SL.

- world cup game at shay,
- ground to be improved with scoreboard,
- very competative squad,
- won trophy last year,
- likely to be contesting again this year,
- money injection coming in from Abbott,
- restructure of the club shop and merchandise going well,

so many possitve things coming out of the club in the last 6 months and yet a lack of visible push by the board to improve the match day experience and attendances.

i think we should all just wait and see how it pans out.

1st of all its Swinton.

On the field I dont think we would get close to Fev at the moment. But we dont have to get close to Fev at the moment. Lets make sure we are there or there abouts come the main parts of the season and lets see what happens.

Fev will walk the league this year unless they pick up some injuries to key players which they seem to have avoided for the past few seasons.

Dave Woods was asked this question last night whether Fev are the best team in the division.
The simple answer was yes and they are.

He went a bit further than how they are performing on the field.

Mentioning the set up that is behind the scenes and often goes unoticed and how they have got that in place saying that they have a lot of good honest hard working individuals in all the right places.

Fev have been steadily building in all areas for a few years now and are ahead time wise and progress wise than their rivals in most of or all the areas mentioned and as a result they have the most consisitent team on match days.

They are scoring around 50 points a game withour being anywhere near their best.

I know we have had our differences but I have nothing but respect and some admiration for what they have done and enjoy watching them play.

Well done the Rovers.

I disagree, we are 1 loss away from being 5th or 6th with frankly a very poor goal difference of 34, at the end of the season GD will come into play again and bite us on the . We should be putting plenty of points on the board against these lower teams. Others have, we havnt and have won scrappy wins. Wait till the ground firms up I hear all the time, are all 14 teams not playing the same conditions ?. If we get better with firmer ground surely so will others. Bring on Warrington lions and let's see after this one.

Fast, open play on hard grounds used to be our strength in the Calland era, but this isn't really Harrison's way. Some of the other teams have backs that are capable of ripping us to shreds if we're not on our top game. There's only Rob with any real speed in the team?

Agreed, I think we do lack some pace now, maybe we were spoilt with Shad, worrincy, miles, black, penky.

Fieldhouse has some pace but thats it id say with him and worrincy, mind you Harrisons game plane is more of a solid unit 1-13 then indivuduals.

I am a bit concerned with the lack of points in us but our defence is good so this keeps us in games. It will change when the grounds harden up, teams with good backs like Sheffield will improve, we'll see anyway. Not panicking yet as we are competing though like has been mentioned, racking up some points against the lower clubs would be nice as this will and always does play a part in league positions.

Part Quote.
"Hey respect to Fev yer but we aint doing bad as on the pitch we are doing okay, not as flash as we would all like i admit but a solid team and we will be in the mix come the trophies being handed out I am sure. Fev have their noses in front on the pitch and with their crowds this season BUT come on this is a golden era for them, league leaders 3 years on the bounce and going well again this year plus they got that massive win against Cas last year and pushed Wigan in the CC, that gave them a lot of prestige and good publicity.
We finished 3rd last year and 5th the year before, okay we won one and lost one NRC Final but we have been inconsistent the last few years and not a 'winning team' like Fev. We have a good shop, run an U20s and have solid support especially away so I would say we are near to Fev in most areas but can do better publicising our matches and trying harder at marketing our games to get more 'new' fans down the Shay."

That's pretty much how I see it, there are plenty of positives from our club both behind the scenes and on the pitch.
The team and style of play has only one full season behind them so far with a few new additions this year again so still work in progress going on in that area.
Some good young lads with plenty of promise in the junior ranks.
We have a great BOD who are working their socks off and backing the club as much as they can.
I think we will see some improvement again this season and next year we should be nearer the mark.
Need to have our heads on for all the games when we are at this stage as most games could become banana skins including Swinton tomorrow.
Come on the Fax.

Although ourselves and Fax are doing well on the field I think we all know that doesn't seem to be what has to be done to move up into S/L At Fev we are doing very well off the field and over the last 2 seasons have come on in massive strides The sponsorship money coming in is excellent for this level and the ground development has started which I see as a must if we have any chance of moving up I agree we are making the right noises at the moment and I think we have to as we didn't apply for S/L last time unlike yourselves

As a rival supporter I see Fax as the team that could get in S/L before us as I think you BOD will be working just as hard as our ( although you lot will know the best) All we can ask for is that the best run club with the right finances are the one that are promoted and if it is us or you lets hope the team do well and S/L doesn't knock the club back and it doesn't end up in a mess unlike some S\L clubs are now

Right now London are no better than Fev or Fax. But, the argument is - what can either of us offer ON TOP OF WHAT LONDON do now? But to me that's a bad question to ask in what is supposed to be a sporting competition. Results based rewards do NOT stretch to the granting of the opportunity to transfer that success into the league above because its effectively a closed shop.

Part Quote.
Right now London are no better than Fev or Fax. But, the argument is - what can either of us offer ON TOP OF WHAT LONDON do now?

I think the first thing is that London are an embarrassment to the RFL. Fax and Fev are not!!


Part of the answer has to do with funding.
Some are asking for the SL comp to be reduced from 14 to 12 or 10 teams so they can have more money to spend on players.

Some are saying the Salary cap in SL should be increased so we can compete with the Aussies in a one off world club challenge game or that this will help us to win a test series against them or the Kiwis, these aims are something that would be good to achieve.

However is this really what the game at this point in time in this country should be focussing on now to the detriment of other more urgent issues.

I honestly believe the opposite should happen, untill there is an equalising of funds then there will be no chance of closing the gulf between the Aussies or the top and bottom sides in whatever division you are in SL or Champs.

All clubs will have their own variables of sponsership and generating their own income etc and it will mean that all clubs get less Sky monies but they will all get the SAME, to spend on players for example.

If a few players can get more somewhere else in say overseas or in another sport well good look to them, let them go, the game will stand the loss and still survive.

Remember the panicking that "ALL" the best players were off to Rugby Union a few years back now, well guess what some did but we survived without a blip.

Regarding entertainment several Championship clubs are turning out good sides with very competative games that are good to watch from the pitch side and from the armchair whereas several SL clubs aren't.

From a viewer friendly sporting contest I would rather be watching Batley v Fax last week and Eagles v Fev next week than London v HKR on Saturday night or several SL games that are screened.

Premier Sports would not have signed up for 5 years of Championship rugby if it was a turn off on viewing night so we must have something to offer.

This is being achieved through substantially less bugets than the SL teams mentioned, so it can be done.
If more teams (not less) are funded eqaully then there will be more games like these taking place.

More teams will actually be in the race to win something which should attract more speccies through the turnstiles and sponership within the game.

More home grown British players will be able to play at a higher level with skills gradually increasing which in time will give the entire game a much broader, stronger player base to draw from.

Drastic, maybe but when the house is falling down a lick of glossy paint and a few glitzy light bulbs aren't going to fix the problem.
Time to knock it down back to the foundations and rebuild it, will it happen.

NO. What a waste of typing.

cant believe richard owen back in cas squad this week. plus prop walker who also played for keighley last week.
batley lost dan fleming too as making debut for cas this week.
changes to their squads again just to show farce this is.

And 2 d/r players at Doncaster recalled by Wakefield this week

It serves them right for falling into the trap set by the SL clubs. I sincerely hope that the SL clubs go so short of bodies that they don't have enough to D/R out to their little convenient partners. I've already heard of one of our former players who is regretting moving to the club he chose to better his 1st team opportunities only to be missing out somewhat because of this farcical situation. Fair play to lads like Bowman at Halifax who've chosen to stay with their home town club despite a raft of new signings & battle his way back into the 1st team recently, their isn't enough of that old fashioned loyalty knocking around.

The game is on it's but the clubs like ours who have stood up to the system & refused to enlist into the D/R charade i really admire & thank for keeping some honesty & dignity within this division, and division is more than a one-meaning word in this instance.

It's going to take something off the wall like promotion & relegation or a re-structure to keep me interested in watching professional rugby league in the near future. Am not even turning out to today's game, it's just not interesting enough, not attractive enough to draw me down to the Shay today feeling under the weather all week it's a sofa day today for me i'm afraid. If we'd have been playing one of the top sides i might have made the effort & got wrapped up warm but my interest is waning lately. Looking at the fixture list it could be april 14th before I visit the Shay again at the soonest, I've yet to work out my shift for the Dewsbury game on thursday 28th march, I've ceased booking a day holiday for tv games now in my little solitary RFL protest, and being a subscriber to Premiersports i get to playback the games when i wish. I've no intention of travelling to 'Haven ! I always enjoy my visits to Donny but probably won't make the journey there this time, it's highly likely i won't be attending the challenge cup tie v Oxford, I haven't attended one of these massacres for years, it's more likely i'd watch the Siddal v Keighley tie if they were both played in Halifax actually. If we're "in-form" or unbeaten when the Fev tie comes around i'll consider going over to that game as usual & it'll be nice to see the mates I have over there but having a mate who's involved in their re-generation of their stadium & the 'photo's he posts regularly on his Facebook account I wonder what measures will be put in place to protect the Halifax supporters at that stadium because the railway end of the ground appears totally inaccessible currently. As ever, I'd like to think there'll be no troubles BTW, that's not my attempt at winding anyone up !!!!