fevnut's musings 2024/#01: New season, rule changes and new signings

    

A new season begins

As far as we are concerned New Year’s Day is a bit like Easter Sunday because it moves dates from year to year. That’s because, since the change to ‘Summer’ rugby we think of the first competitive match as being our New Year’s Day.

Whoever coined the term ‘Summer’ rugby is a bit calendar challenged when it starts in January and there was even a time (2000-2002) when it started in December!

 

2024

So, after the heart-breaking end to last season, like many Fev fans, we really don’t know what to expect this coming year. After a year, in which we were all expecting to win promotion, we go into 2024 with a drastically reduced playing budget and a much smaller squad. But maybe, we’ll find watching Fev’s matches somewhat more enjoyable than would have been the case had we been facing the likes of Wigan, Saints and Catalans.

So, let’s look forward to some good wins and probably much closer games than most of the ones in 2023.

It’s also going to be intriguing to see how the youngsters develop through the year. We hope they get a fair amount of game time and don’t find themselves constantly pushed out by dual reg players from Hull KR.

 

Rule changes

Rugby League simply cannot afford to continue to see so many players suffering from the after effects of repeated incidents of concussion. The evidence now is pretty clear about the dangers of head knocks so if we make no changes we leave the sport open to clubs and the rugby league being sued for a lack of due care and attention. As happens all the time, there will inevitably be lawyers looking out for opportunities to make loads of money for themselves by taking on such cases and encouraging former players to take action for legal redress.

And it’s not just a legal and financial issue, there is also a strong moral case for changing the rules in order to reduce the number of head knocks.

We already have rules in place that make it illegal to directly attack a player’s head but unfortunately, all too often blows to the head occur when a tackle is made at shoulder level which then slips up to the head. As a result, however unpopular it may be with many fans, we support the idea of making all tackles above armpit level illegal.

As is often the case, it will take some time for players to get used to such a rule change, and initially, for a short time, there will be quite a few more penalties awarded, but these things always settle down fairly quickly.

This particular rule change doesn’t come in for the professional game until 2025 and our hope is that, in the meantime, all coaches will be working with their players to get them used to lowering the height of their tackles.

Unfortunately, there are still going to be two particular types of incident that cause some of the most severe concussions which will be extremely hard, if not impossible, to reduce. One being where a player misjudges making a tackle and gets their head into the wrong position, and the other being head collisions which often occur between players from the same team.

It may be many years ago now, but we have never forgotten the sickening sight of watching our, then 11 year-old, son coming out of a misjudged tackle with jelly legs wobbling all over the place before going down unconscious. With what we know now it’s a bit horrific to think that he was just given smelling salts and then carried on playing! Thank goodness nowadays he wouldn’t have been allowed to continue.

Ironically we had driven him and three of his friends to the match one of whom is now the head coach of Castleford Tigers!

The new rules concerning the play-the-ball are in effect for this year. In our first pre-season game against Bradford we saw many penalties for contraventions of the new rules but, as is often the case, by the second game the players had got more used to them and the number of penalties were much lower. It should lead to an improved game and is a welcome change.

 

RL on TV

We are really disappointed about Channel 4 losing the rights to show games. We felt that their coverage was far better than we have ever seen on SKY or the BBC and it will be a big loss.

We are now to be bombarded with Super League games on SKY and the BBC but it would appear that we are to be deprived of the opportunity to watch Championship games. TYPICAL!!

 

New Signings

During the off season we try to keep up-to-date with new signings. It’s not an easy task and we always miss a few. From those we have seen, the numbers have risen sharply for 2024.

We haven’t included Rovers in the chart below because, as we write, the number of signings is a mystery  with a whole host of trialists and no indication yet of how many of these will actually be signed on.

There are two problems with clubs making big changes to their squads. First is the amount of time it takes new players to settle in to playing together but it is also damaging to the relationship between the team and the fans. Watching games is always more enjoyable when you know the players and can instantly recognise them. That becomes much more difficult when there are so many new faces. We have many to get to know this year, but the signings spree seems to have gone berserk in League One, in particular. Both Oldham and Hunslet could, theoretically, put out an entire squad of 17 players with none who was with them last year!! Below we list the clubs that we know have made at least 8 new signings.

The flags above represent all the nations that, under current rugby league rules, members of the 2024 Fev squad have played for, or are eligible to play for.