fevnut's musings 2024/#12: Bradford, How to destroy rugby league and RL websites

 

Awful!

 

Quite frankly, we were appalled at the performance of our Fev team against Bradford and let’s be clear that reaction is NOT because we LOST. Those who regularly read our ‘musings’ column will know that we were full of praise for the team after we lost to both Leigh and Wakefield.

It is astonishing that a team who played with such passion, determination and skill in those previous games should be so utterly devoid of all three of those qualities last Sunday. Someone sitting nearby to us said that maybe they hadn’t been paid this week. Let’s be clear, we are not suggesting that was the case, but the way they played did look as if they had become thoroughly disenchanted.

We noticed that RoversTV has a ten minute long ‘Match Highlights’ video of the Doncaster game. We had to think about whether to watch it. In favour of doing so was that it might have helped us come to a conclusion as to what was wrong but, on the other hand, when you have had such an awful experience why would you want to put yourself through it again.

Had any one at the club had a sense of humour maybe they should have labelled it as ‘Lowlights: R3 Bradford Bulls [2024]’!!

Most of you will have noticed that the teamsheet, and the reading out of it over the Tannoy, was perplexing. However, when they got out on the field the positions they took up were very different to what we had been told. Why? Was it meant to be a ploy to confuse the opposition? It looked as if our own players were the ones who were confused.

What a pity that Connor Jones’ 100th appearance for Fev, in which he scored two fine tries, will be one he will probably want to forget all about.

Let’s hope that we get a far, far, far better performance against Doncaster (aka Featherstone Old Boys) this week and a match that Danny Addy will happily remember as his 200th career appearance.

Incidentally, the last time we played Doncaster was in 2018 and Josh Hardcastle is the only player in that team still playing for Fev. There was another of our 2024 squad involved but that was Brad England who was playing for Doncaster.

 

How to destroy rugby league

Whenever proposals are brought forward for re-structuring professional rugby league in this country, we do not rush to judgement but want to give time to consider them, and also to see how they pan out. However, we are unable to think of any changes to the structure since 1994 that have brought any benefit to the clubs outside Super League. In fact, it feels as if they are being treated with complete disdain and it is a miracle that so many are still struggling on despite massive reductions in the central funding they receive.

When franchising was brought in it provided no benefits and it was scrapped after a few years. And, of course, it created the scenario whereby a team won the Championship four years running but never had the chance to try and prove themselves in Super League (yes, of course we are referring to Fev there).

It is now becoming clear that the IMG regime means that performance on the field will have no bearing as to which teams get to play in Super League. That’s very damaging to the teams currently outside Super League but it is also having a serious consequence for those within Super League. Not only do we have the farce whereby London Broncos knew before their season started that it would end in them being relegated, but we are also seeing at least two clubs who look as if they don’t care what happens in terms of results because they know that they won’t be relegated. Going back to the Broncos, we have the ridiculous situation that it became impossible for them to develop a team suitable to compete in Super League.

We have heard many times that there are plenty of examples in which high level competitions take place where there is no promotion and relegation. Often quoted in this respect are the NRL in Australia and the NFL (American Football). But it doesn’t work here and that’s because the sporting culture is different. The culture of sport is very important and if you try to negate it then you alienate many of the fans.

All the major sports in England run with a system of promotion and relegation. That even includes cricket in which in 2000 they split the competition into two divisions in order to make matches more competitive and to provide more excitement for the spectators.

It’s not all about IMG. Long before they came on the scene, the RFL made it impossible for most clubs to develop their own talent through academies and reserve teams. There are currently 14 teams running reserve squads. That’s all the Super League teams (although Catalans reserve team plays in the French Elite competition) and just two from the Championship. That’s the two that the RFL perceive as ‘potential’ Super League teams although why on earth anyone would see a team that play in a terrible stadium, on a miniature pitch and whose achievements on the pitch in the last few years have been poor.

Those same two Championship sides also compete in the academy competition, along with all the Super League teams except Leigh, Salford, Catalans and London. Catalans do have an academy set up but for logistical reasons they do not play against the English academies. London Broncos who have a very fine record of developing young players, many of whom are playing in Super League, decided to abandon their Academy this year because they can’t afford to do so when there priority has become spending money to improve their IMG grading!

Our conclusion now is that the RFL/IMG structure is going to cause the death knell for many fine clubs if it is allowed to continue, and we believe that a stand-alone Super League will lead to fewer and fewer youngsters seeing rugby league as an attractive proposition. Many people are sick of the number of changes made to rugby league since we entered the ‘Summer Era’ but unless there is another one soon our sport is doomed.

 

Rugby League websites

We sometimes despair about the quality of websites bringing fixtures, results and tables to our supporters.

The RFL’s own ‘Match Centre’ is completely unreliable. The BBC is usually a little bit better although there are still plenty of errors in the team listings.

But we had to laugh a couple of weeks ago when we went on to the BBC site to check our own version of the Championship table. 

Yes, they got it ludicrously wrong but we did try and fathom out what had happened. No explanation possible for the nonsense in the first column. As to the rest it seems that you go into the top places if you have a 100% record and then the rest is in alphabetical order. Is this a new IMG proposal we should be told about?

Postscript

Congratulations to Tara Jones who has been appointed as the referee for Sunday’s League One match between Oldham and Cornwall. It will be the first time in the UK that there has been a female referee in a match between two professional teams. This year she has already taken charge of the Challenge Cup the game between Swinton Lions and West Hull in round 3. She has also been involved in men’s Super League as an in-goal judge.

In 2019 she was named as the National Conference League Referee of the Year.

As well as refereeing Tara is very much an active player as a first choice hooker with both St. Helens and England.

Continuing with the match officials theme, we were delighted to read that, following the very much welcomed appointment of Phil Bentham as head of the RFL match officials department, James Child, Matt Thomason and Ian Smith have agreed to get back involved with the department. Some Fev fans will remember a couple of very enjoyable evenings with Matt when he was the referee for a Fev match in Toulouse a few years ago. He was definitely one of the best referees.