that is have the local lads playing part time

Deffo a recipe for success. Great to see Leigh bringing quality to the Championship.

Greetings GFB.

What are Fax plans for next season? I would hope they will be back challenging for the top four again.

Addy is linked with Fev https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/pa ... gue-stars/

Addy is linked with Fev https://www.loverugbyleague.com/post/pa ... gue-stars/

Survive as a club and be competitive is probably our hope for next season Alan.

Same as my wish for this season GFB. My target was to avoid relegation - 4th was a pleasant surprise. Trouble then, was that some folks' expectations rose with the league placing. Things started to go wrong, when our D/R's were taken back (always a snag with the system) and we replaced them with 'high profile' signings, who didn't have the time, (or desire) to fit in.

Roll on next season - one thing's for sure, the Fax v Leigh games WILL be competitive!

My target was to still have a club.. If expectations are built they are done by the club via recruitment. Some folks expectations rose because investment was being seen again. The alledge taking Jackson Hastings on with a lump sum from Salford, with Leigh paying his £13k wage bill per month is where we are as a club and then wonder why the passion, the spirit and wearing the shirt WENT.

The expectation level rose ten fold after we convincingly beat Toulouse, week 1.

Now that the dust has settled, from all the off season turmoil, finishing fourth was an outstanding accomplishment. Achieved in front of a more than healthy season average of 3,300 supporters. Doubled the break even figure game on game.

Roll on 2020. The future is bright.

Not sure that expectation rose that much after the Toulouse game, particularly after the defeat at Fax in round 2.

My memory of early season was that we had a team that were difficult to beat, particularly at home. We had quality in the pivotal positions (McNally, Higham, Ridyard) and quality of strike power was boosted by Saints (Costello, Bentley in particular)

We clearly needed more of our own players, if we wanted to avoid turning up to games with less than 17 players on a matchday. And players like Hock, Laithwaite and Hood were welcome additions. And when we were crying out for outside backs, Forsyth came in and scored tries at a rate that most of the rest of the squad would envy. We also had Mitch Cox step up to play on the wing, and played a lot better than I expected, given he'd previously been playing in the pack. In fact, he was named man of the match one game, then not picked for about two months. I also thought Higginson and Holroyd showed enough when played on the wing to warrant some time be invested in them. Especially once it became clear that we were not in relegation trouble, it was the ideal opportunity to try to develop players.

The worrying thing for me in the back end of the season, wasn't the fact that results got worse. It was the fact that the enthusiasm in defence, and difficulty to beat had disappeared. Not sure that can be put down to lack of dual reg from Saints. Sau, Higson, Clark and Thompson might be better individual players than the ones they replaced, but watching the back end of the 2019 season, felt like a repeat of the beginning of 2018 season.

Future might be bright, but I'm hoping that 2020 doesn't give us another complete overhaul of the squad, like 2018 and 19.

Ben Sims has now returned to the amateur game without having played a game for us, why did we ever sign the lad in the first place ?

p.s. well said Leythig

Well said!

It was indeed worrying that, when we brought in the 'quality' players towards the end of the season, our performances deteriorated. I will never publicly criticise individual players - I respect them all - but it looked for all the world, that our 'team ethic', which had been a major strong point, was diluted with the new arrivals. That said, though, we absolutely had to sign/borrow some players from somewhere to make up for our injuries, and the departure of the D/R's

.... Not to mention Brierley and Reynolds! (both of whom got injured!)

Reynolds got injured in last training session before fev and brierleys played last 4 games as fullback so he mustn't have thought brierley was a solution at halfback