fevnut's musings 2024/#18: Barrow, Swinton, Fans need a Voice and New Signings

  

Barrow

 

At our age, we have to restrict our travel to away games and the drive to Barrow and back in a single day seemed a bit too far to go so once again we had to rely on the audio commentary on RoversTV. The quality and reliability of this service seems to have improved a lot this year and for that we are very grateful.

And talking of gratitude, that also applies to not having to do the long drive back in a state of depression after what was a really dismal performance. It felt difficult enough simply finding the energy to cook some supper on Sunday evening. Fortunately, we had prepared a lamb casserole in our slow cooker that chuntered along while the match was in progress so there wasn’t a lot more to do!

Every team has bad days but last Sunday was a real shocker. Lots of errors, giving away silly penalties and we lost count of the number of times when we did make it into a strong attacking position only to end up handing them a tap on their 20-metre line with a seven-tackle set.

Even having Caleb Aekins, who has seemed to us to be our most consistently reliable player this year, back in the side, seemed to make little impact.

As we mentioned last week, back in the day Fev traditionally struggled when playing up at Barrow but we had appeared to have overcome that difficulty and had not lost at Barrow since 2010. In fact the only match we had lost in that time was a home game.

 

 

Swinton 

Let’s hope that we get back to playing our best rugby when we meet Swinton on Sunday. They usually seem to raise their game when they play us. Let’s hope we don’t have another shocker like the Barrow match. We do remember a disastrous game against Swinton. It was a Challenge Cup 5th round game in 2003 when we were drawn away and lost 32-10. At the time we were in National League One and they were in National League Two. To have lost the game narrowly would have been enough of a shock but to lose by that scoreline was incomprehensible! Especially when you bear in mind that Swinton ended up their league campaign finishing 7th out of the ten teams in NL2. Enough of the gloomy thoughts! Last year we won 52-6 at home and 32-4 away.

Usually, we enjoy games against Swinton and that’s not just because we win. They have many very friendly supporters, and it is a joy to spend time chatting with them.

 

Fans need a voice

In ‘musings’ last week we wrote about why we believe that rugby league fans need a collective voice and how that should be an integral part of decision making at the RFL. We sent a copy to Martyn Sadler at League Express and were delighted that he picked up on what we had said in his ‘Talking Rugby League’ column. Here is what he wrote:

“FANS AND PLAYERS NEED A VOICE

How do the Rugby Football League and RL Commercial make decisions about the game?

Both of those bodies make their most important decisions at meetings of their Boards of Directors.

In each case there is a board consisting primarily of non-executive directors who have been appointed to those positions following an application and appointment process.

Most of the people who occupy those positions are not known to Rugby League supporters and they appear to have joined the respective boards with very little knowledge of the game.

The two groups of people who appear to be unrepresented at that level of governance are the supporters and the players.

That is in stark contrast to many other sports.

For example, the Football Supporters Association gives a voice to football fans and they have a seat on the FA Council, which doesn’t happen in our sport. To check out what the FSA does, have a look at its website, which is thefsa.org.uk.

What that means is that decisions can be made with absolutely no consideration of supporters.

Would the gradings system have been introduced, for example, if the supporters had been able to have their say?

I rather doubt it.

And what about players?

Again they have no representation in the boardrooms where decisions are taken, unlike in Australia, where the Rugby League Players Association has a very powerful role in the game.

Perhaps it’s not too surprising to see the NRL surging ahead while we seem to be wading through treacle.”

Martyn has combined the need for a fans’ voice with one for a players’ voice and we totally agree with him about that.

 

 

Greg Eden and Benjamin Nakubuwai

We go into Sunday’s game with two players who may be making their Fev débuts. 

Much has been written on social media about using Greg Eden in a variety of positions so we thought we would take a look at where he has played through his career. He has played mostly as a winger, but he started out mostly at fullback. This is his full playing position record. It may well be that he can provide utility value to the Fev squad. 

For us, the loan signing of Ben Nakubuwai was a very big surprise. 

Interesting that the rumour mill had no suggestions that it was about to happen. Without doubt he will add strength to our pack. The big question seems to be why Leigh have let him go. We can only surmise that they have a potential new signing and needed to free up a quota spot. Time will tell. We spent a couple of hours yesterday piecing together his full career playing record and that can now be found on our ‘Fev Squad 2024: Complete Stats’ page which can be found by clicking on this link:-  https://fevnut.blogspot.com/2024/01/fev-squad-2024-complete-stats.html

In the past, within the Fev squad, we have had several players who have played for Tonga or Samoa but we have never had a Fiji international. Now we have two who are qualified to play for Fiji. The other is Manoa Wacokecoke who hasn’t done so but has the qualification under RL international rules. Before we get bombarded by people telling us about Joe Naidole let’s put on the record that, although it was said that he had played for Fiji, there is no record whatsoever of him ever having done so.