Martin is an odd signing though whenever I have seem him play he has been steady. We have to have some faith in the coaching team.



Liam Whitton must have been a way off still to play at Championship level and the lad wanted away.



Perhaps the big forward needed is Roberts, hopefully every week.

I hate to say it and hope i'm wrong but it does seem like jobs for the boys?

Already posted about Joe Martin so no point in repeating it except to add not sure he has ever been one of the boys since the Wiki stats show he played just 2 first team games for Fax between 2014 to 2018 before being allowed to leave and hasn't been here for the last 4 years!

Alex Walker is another question.

According to the club and SG he was allowed to join us on a trial basis yet was never given a chance to play a single game so not sure what he was trialed on?

From the available info I can only conclude JWH was and is the first choice fullback in SG's mind.

Joe Martin was signed as short term cover for him.

Alex Walker didn't fit in with either of the above and while we're talking about it having played zero first team games for any professional club neither did Liam Whitton.

Perhaps the major issue about why Halifax have signed Martin and not Walker would have been their respective salary demands? Walker was coming off a full-time contract with Wakefield so might not have had a job outside rugby league and might not have been in a position to take up a relatively lowly-paid contract, whereas Martin might have been? Just guessing of course but that was my first thought.

Think you've probably hit the nail on the head there.



Having watched the first half back ont' youtube, I think Walmsley showed up well both in defence and carrying the ball out. We got well on top for the first 10 minutes but then the comedy of errors started and we got pinned back. Cut out the errors and penalties and I think we are well capable of matching Fev (saying that, they are fast in attack and throw the ball around very quickly, there was some times I thought the playback had gone into fast forward!).

No Huddersfield duel reg but woodys back in the squad https://twitter.com/halifaxpanthers/sta ... 60260?s=21

No Huddersfield duel reg but woodys back in the squad https://twitter.com/halifaxpanthers/sta ... 60260?s=21

It will be interesting if woody is actually fit to play i do think we could of done with 1 or 2 in from huddersfield in the forwards to give us some more firepower but other than that i would stick with the same team as last week.

Well McComb is back in https://twitter.com/halifaxpanthers/sta ... 58656?s=21 Who was flat ? Certainly not walmsey so who does he drop? Arundal , salty , barber ? Anyone think he might drop Keyes for jouffret? Certainly an interesting team selection incoming .

Well McComb is back in https://twitter.com/halifaxpanthers/sta ... 58656?s=21 Who was flat ? Certainly not walmsey so who does he drop? Arundal , salty , barber ? Anyone think he might drop Keyes for jouffret? Certainly an interesting team selection incoming .

Quote Listenup94="Listenup94"Well McComb is back in https://twitter.com/halifaxpanthers/sta ... 58656?s=21 Who was flat ? Certainly not walmsey so who does he drop? Arundal , salty , barber ? Anyone think he might drop Keyes for jouffret? Certainly an interesting team selection incoming .'" Trying to get into SG's mind. Possibly Zac coming in for Salty and Martin for Jouffret unless JWH is has a surprise earlier than expected return.

Quote Listenup94="Listenup94"Well McComb is back in https://twitter.com/halifaxpanthers/sta ... 58656?s=21 Who was flat ? Certainly not walmsey so who does he drop? Arundal , salty , barber ? Anyone think he might drop Keyes for jouffret? Certainly an interesting team selection incoming .'" Trying to get into SG's mind. Possibly Zac coming in for Salty and Martin for Jouffret unless JWH is has a surprise earlier than expected return.

I can see Zak coming in for Saltonstall who I think would be one of the 'flat' players mentioned. Jouffret must stay in the side if we want to take the points. He does something different. Lachlan can't be dropped after last week. If we play the percentages like we did in the 1st half last Sunday we will get the same result. We've got to take the game to Fev and test them. We did it in the 2nd half and as Ross Strudwick would observe, won that. Go for it from the start and see where it takes us. Up The Fax!

Looking through the squad it seems the knowles and gee injuries have highlighted our lack of strength in depth in the second row which is why I hoped either Hewitt or roberts could come in ( noticed both Hewitt and Cole Oakley are playing for the hudd reserves) feel the garside kav partnership needs freshening up , both high work rate players but don’t offer a lot in the offload department , for me it’s moving barber or arundal to 2nd row or maybe tangata and bring calcott into the prop pos .

Calcott another player for me who seems to get short shrift. Always seems to do well but like Woody in the past seems to be one of the first out of the team in favour of a few who's performance does not seem to matter. It makes no sense for Woody to play this game so this is likely just Grix trying to throw up a surprise for Fev, but on a heavy pitch and in a game we are pretty much nailed on to lose, it makes more sense for him to be played in the Leigh game where we should fancy our chances. Bringing back steady Joe Martin to start this game would send out the wrong message in my opinion but I would not be surprised if it happens.



I think if we can make a game of it most people will be happy, can't see us winning but can see us taking a heavy loss.

I did see Aston take a knock so still waiting to see if he's fit, if not then LJ will go into the halves and Martin to 1.

On a heavier pitch I can see SG bringing back JM anyway as Jouffret did knock on twice leading to 2 scores, I wouldn't do so but can see the reason if Grix does.



JWH being used as mind games by SG, surely not.

Agree Calcott is one who given the correct encouragement and game time will continue to develop into an excellent first choice player . Can anyone name a player who has been improved by Grix ?

I think tomorrow could be a long afternoon at the office .

I ve noticed a few diggy comments regarding Grix given that I’ve been following fax for a couple of seasons this time round , I’d like to know why .

Can’t comment on why someone else is having a dig at Grix but can assure you that if it wasn’t him it would be and has been someone else and it goes back a lot further than the last couple of seasons.

I suspect it will get worse if we start the season 1 win from 6 like we might expect given Fev and Leigh are our next games. There should be no panic at that point but ive no doubt there will be. The only bad loss in there is the Widnes one but we may as well have flipped a coin for that game the conditions were that bad but it could hurt us late in the season as I suspect most of the teams around us will beat Widnes at home.

It's a forum and people will rightly air their opinions on it. Last season Simon Grix got us to third spot which given the budgets of the two clubs above us could be considered as a successful season. This season so far we have won one game and are out of the cups again. Given our injuries and as difficult a set of fixtures to start the season with as we could have been handed there are reasons to hope SG can turn our fortunes around. That said the board of directors have given the coach the tools to work with and I would like to think 3rd spot is the least we can hope for. This squad is good enough to get in the play offs and then have a right go at the end of the season. Up The Fax!

30 point start on the coupon.



It's hard to judge the feeling in the camp at the moment.



Today's game is a make or break in Simon Grix's coaching career.



A win by 10 or a loss by 70.

In what sense? Feels like a free shot to me.

So Calcott in for Morris, McComb in for Barber who goes into the second row to replace Garside.

And for those like me who miss this fixture looks like there is coverage on Radio Leeds or maybe not, would you believe it, it’s Huddersfield

Typical Radio Cas!

Have to wait for those who went as only Twitter to go on but looks like we gave it a real dig.

Tweets mentioned a lot of penalties conceded again and Jouffret doing his hamstring could be another injury blow.

Best performance we've played against this season.

Fax had a right dig and threw the ball about an awful lot and had a much better completion rate for the first hour and a bit.

Joufret's hammy pinging just when it did was a blow for faxand when walmsley almost intercepted at the end I had the spectre of Rob worrincy going full length under our sticks.

Great effort by fax. Another day would have won and for the bulk of the game were the better team.

Fev just ground out a result.

Cheers Robin and good to see you still are around and hope you are yours are all okay.