Spot on!

There is no problem with the ones before the tackle is complete, its the ones on the ground that wind up the fans. Fev held down from tackle one, it gave them time to get back into line and ready for coming back on the play of the ball. Fair play though, it was obviously a coached ploy and if the ref let's the team get away with it then its effective.

Part of the game Bob. It's a skill as you rightly say that, if coached well allows your line time to set.
Get it right and it effectively slows down the opposition.
All teams do it. Just that last night Fev did it better than Fax did! You could argue that given the amount of penalties conceded we didn't do it that well like but ya gets the drift.

Let's keep a sense of perspective on this. Featherstone were excellent and we were not on this occasion. It is disappointing but really not the end of the world.

Have we all forgotten how we played at POR when roles were reversed? Featherstone have reacted to their poor performance since then and we will do the same.

We started the season well - someone said somewhere better than expected in view of personnel changes - and I'd agree with that. However, we are playing average at the moment, which is still good enough to deal with a lot of teams. Featherstone were on top of their game tonight. Remember, it is how you end the season that counts.

Have faith in Karl.

I think you are spot on ! But to be fair I think KH went a bit far in his comments but I spose he is passionate bout fax and its easy to get carried away.

Can anyone post what he said, for those of us who don't have PS.

Basically it was the effect of shoving a mic under the nose of a frustrated an angry coach right after the hooter before he'd had time to calm, make more considered assessments and informed comment.
What you got was a gut knee jerk reaction, nowt more.
Karl complained of the use of wrestling in the tackle/holding down etc. He got outcoached last night and his frustrations boiled over. He sounded daft but it's not the fall of Rome.

Didn't watch the game - Virgin Media - but Fev have played the same way every time I have seen them with Powell in charge. They are prepared to give away penalties to slow the game down when defending, and hit the deck quickly to get a QPTB when attacking. Class at 6/7/9 then takes over.
Guess what ........... it works ....... because 1) the refs are poor and allow it 2) they are well coached in how to do it.
Praying for a Lancashire SL ref for next Thursday.

Last nights loss is by no means the end of the world!

Championship teams pick themselves up and focus on the next game. Which happens to be a semi final!!!

After next Friday we will see where our season is heading. I dont think that Rhino will have to say too much to the lads to fire them up for Friday!

What do we need to do in the halfbacks then? I don't think neither player is bad but for some reason they just really aren't clicking at the moment and we really do need something new.

What's all this whining & whinging about wrestling & slowing us down, our speccies were at it at Dewsbury last week as well. If a ref isn't penalising for it why aren't our players smart, determined, aggressive or strong enough to do it ? Get some reality into it all, Fev lost twice cos they conceded 60 points shortly after playing SL opposition in the cup.
We haven't played well for weeks now, i disagree with some positional selections by our coaching team in recent games, I'm not carried away with the half backs and I hate losing when we haven't competed, I hated it as a player and as a coach and those are the times when you can do something about it but as a speccie who pays money to support a team I expect more fire.
If i was constantly getting knocked around & wrestled I'd do something about it, anything, just to put them off their game. Sometimes, a game is short of a good old punch up & i reckon that might have been the thing to do last night, you've gotta try everything & anything, you've gotta be desperate to win. To only be able to score four points in a home game is disgraceful and I for one am not enjoying watching Halifax play this season. I refused to travel to the Keighley away game on the back of us handing the game to Batley the previous week.
We just aren't good enough.

Worth mentioning that the 60-40 defeat to Sheffield was the week [ibefore[/i Fev beat Cas in the cup.

Yeah, absolutely worth pointing out my slight error Matt. My point remains the same about the distractions of the task in front, the phrase "take one game at a time". This division is very tight & competetive and mostly unpredictable, i think Fev were +2 or scratch prior to the game last night.

MM. I agree with a lot of what you have mentioned and much of the same can be seen in and amongst my own posts.

The only thing I do not agree with and please don't think I am being critical or having a go,it's just my own view is the reference to having a good old punch up.

Not that I am averse to it as my own playing career shows that if it came down to that I was in with the first of them and had more sendings off for that than any of my team mates.

However in the context of last nights game there was no reason to start a fight, no real nasty fowl play, yes a couple of high shots by the odd player from both sides that happen in every game.

That being the case it would mean that a punch was deliberately being started for no justifiable reason simply because that was the only way we may have got a better result.

To be honest mate if that's what it takes then we don't deserve to win games or even be on the field.

There is a valid argument that we should have matched Fev's fair aggression,comittment and desire to win, meet fire with fire no problem.
There is not and can never be a valid argument to say teams should have a punch up routine in their game plan.

If every side did this, which to meet fire with fire they would have to do what would happen to the game both on and off the field in a very short time???

On a more positive note there is a saying that you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear and another that says you can only play the cards your dealt with.

At Halifax there are some good quality indvidual players, on paper at least as good as anything the opposition has.

Of course "on paper" means nothing but the point I am trying to make is KH has not got a sows ear or a bad hand of cards to work with.
In time with a few comings and goings to see who fits in and who doesn't for the TEAM and not as individuals things will really start to happen on the field.
That is his job and he will be judged as a coach on his abilty to do this and get the results, I think he's up for it big time.

Finally,taking the emotion of 1 game out of it with all the changes that have happened before the season started I think we are at least as advanced as we thought we would be and probably a bit further, the rest of the season will reveal all.

Was only mentioning it! Your point is still valid to a certain extent anyway as, by chance, I happened to attend the Fev-Sheffield game and there was no doubt at all they had one eye on the Cas game.

I would say that Fev are the kings of the ruck, which is why their line speed is so quick and the opposition struggle so much to get off their own line. I would also add that Fev were uncharacteristically wasteful at times in front of the line last night, though their second try pretty much summed them up, absorbing a few minutes of 'Fax pressure and then jumping straight upfield and scoring.