Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Thu Feb 09, 2023 9:25 pm  

Ilkley Fax wrote:

Just seen the mid-week interview with Simon Grix; while obviously most important thing is that he's consistently producing a successful team playing a really attractive brand of rugby, he also comes across as a really intelligent coach who always offers a balanced view both on his own team and the opposition. This combination will make him a very attractive proposition for superleague in the future - obviously would be great if this was with Fax.

Grix with a bigger budget now that I would like to see .

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Fri Feb 10, 2023 11:36 am  

Listenup94 wrote:

Grix with a bigger budget now that I would like to see .

I believed that the new Board whee going to invest in the club to move it forward. As of yet I don't see anything happening in that area.

Simon has shown he is a quality coach, and has certainly exceeded my expectations, but without that bigger budget I sadly don't see him improving on last years performance.

I think it will be a home win by over 12 points.

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Fri Feb 10, 2023 1:10 pm  

Dbvada wrote:

I believed that the new Board whee going to invest in the club to move it forward. As of yet I don't see anything happening in that area.

Simon has shown he is a quality coach, and has certainly exceeded my expectations, but without that bigger budget I sadly don't see him improving on last years performance.

I think it will be a home win by over 12 points.

I suspect fax made a loss last year as perhaps the crowds didn’t increase in line with some quality signings and a good season overall. The new boards arrival has coincided with new expectations from img , wheelchair, women’s teams etc plus a focus on return on investment and marketing. I think there is money available for a couple more additions but we’re not prepared to pay silly money or just has filler players . It’d be interesting to see if Grixs recruitment policy would change with a bigger budget or if his mobile smaller pack philosophy is forced on him by the available budget. Maher and doro might be a starting point as regards bigger props but we’ll see.

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Sun Feb 12, 2023 7:57 am  

At the risk of jinxing this, I'm surprised how easily a lot of Fev fans think they will win this game. I saw a comment on FB last night about them been more worried about Keighley than they are about us. Now personally I do think they will have a bit too much for us and their team on paper is very strong but I don't see as big a difference between them and us this year as I did last year and to me they are more a solid and dependable team rather than spectacular. Obviously I will take this back if they beat us by 30 today but I just can't see anything between the two teams to see that happening.

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:08 am  

Hope king and doro are selected this time , their physicality is something we’ll need against featherstone if we’re to at least compete with them in the pack . We didn’t seem to be physically dominated by Wakefield so that’s a good sign . If we end up giving multiple penalties /six agains away that’s where we will struggle, just hope we make a game of it like we have done the last couple of times.

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:54 am  

Listenup94 wrote:

Hope king and doro are selected this time , their physicality is something we’ll need against featherstone if we’re to at least compete with them in the pack . We didn’t seem to be physically dominated by Wakefield so that’s a good sign . If we end up giving multiple penalties /six agains away that’s where we will struggle, just hope we make a game of it like we have done the last couple of times.

It'll be a good game between two strong teams. As in most matches like this the team as makes least mistakes, gives the least penalties away will probably come out on top. Up The Fax!

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Sun Feb 12, 2023 10:09 am  

Greg Florimos Boots wrote:

At the risk of jinxing this, I'm surprised how easily a lot of Fev fans think they will win this game. I saw a comment on FB last night about them been more worried about Keighley than they are about us. Now personally I do think they will have a bit too much for us and their team on paper is very strong but I don't see as big a difference between them and us this year as I did last year and to me they are more a solid and dependable team rather than spectacular. Obviously I will take this back if they beat us by 30 today but I just can't see anything between the two teams to see that happening.

I wouldn't pay any atttention to what people put on them FB fans pages, of any team, it's seldom of much value. Keighley fans on their FB page seemed to be confidently expecting a win prior to the game against us, but their fans on TotalRL were much more realistic.

There's a narrative amongst some Fev fans that because we've got rid of McDermott and brought Long in that we're a completely different team, that may well turn out to be true in time but Keighley were so poor last week that we can't really judge much, so today's game will tell us a lot more.

The bookies seem to be going with a handicap of around 18, as a Fev fan if we cover that I'd be ecstatic, I'll be happy with a win, Fev v Fax games are rarely one-sided. I'm surprised (but quite pleased) few on the Fev social media pages have commented on the ref, Chris Kendall has officiated Fev/Fax twice and we've lost both times, the second occasion being the infamous one where a 6th-tackle penalty for offside handed the game to Fax, of course that was on the intervention of a touch judge but a lot of Fev fans were very unhappy that day and were still grumbling about Kendall a couple of years later.

We (Fev) were a bit scratchy with ball in hand at Keighley despite the score, we just had so much ball in their 20m that it didn't matter. I'm hoping that Elijah Taylor will be able to revert to his middle role if Bussey's back on the edge, that might help with out fluency on attack.

Today might be Halifax's best chance of beating us this yearas we have a significantly bigger squad for when injuries start to bite and also we are still finding our best 17 with some big names still not making the squad for one reason or another (Leilua, Moors, Davies, Evans etc). Should be an informative game anyway.

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Sun Feb 12, 2023 7:33 pm  

Greg Florimos Boots wrote:

At the risk of jinxing this

When thinking of typing something like that its best to stop I can't comment on the game as I were at an amateur game but we were tracking the scores but its pretty obvious you can't afford to start a game like that.

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Sun Feb 12, 2023 9:38 pm  

Boringly predictable that it would be lost early on in the forwards.Springer leading the way.....not good enough for us according to Grix....not a game for Maher too according to the coach...why the **** sign him then ? Final score line flattered us.Need to recruit more power to have any hope of promotion.

Re: Round 2. Featherstone v Halifax : Sun Feb 12, 2023 11:23 pm  

Wasn't there but yes, size was always going to be an issue. Doro could be that impact player, not sure about young Forster also. Still early days. Fev had 3 pre- season, all three against superleague opposition. They are ahead of us no doubting right now.