fevnut's blog

   Fev and Dewsbury have both published their squads for Saturday's pre-season match. Because clubs just publish a simple list (usually alphabetically) we put them in position order giving a clearer idea of the team shape. Looks as if we will get our first chance to see Carlos Tuimavave in a Fev shirt!

   Back at Post Office Road (Millennium Stadium)   After what had felt like an interminable off-season, it felt really good to be sitting in our seat in the main stand and watching a Fev team playing. As we had explained last week, we only really go to these games in order to get to know out new players. From that point of view, it turned out to be a bit of a failure. Because the new shirts hadn’t arrived, they were playing in old shirts and the numbers on their backs bore no relationship to the numbers on the team sheet. That made it impossible to identify players, so we made very little progress in getting to recognize the newcomers. For a time, we even had both Fev wingers wearing No. 5! On paper it looked as if Goole had managed to assemble a pretty good squad so we should be buoyed by the fact that we were able to easily dominate them. But as so often happens, the constant changes made it feel like the momentum got completely lost and, quite frankly, it tur...

   

   

   Head Coach:  Paul March   Dewsbury originally appointed Dale Ferguson as their head coach for 2024, but Dale asked to step down from coaching but to continue as a player and he was succeeded by Paul March. Paul March was player-coach at York (2008 to 2009), then Hunslet (2009-2011). In 2012 he joined Keighley as a player and assistant coach and then as head coach from 2013 to 2016. In 2019 he came to Featherstone where he combined working for the Rovers Foundation with various assistant coaching roles including taking charge of the team for their victorious 1895 Cup Final at Wembley in 2021. As a player, he was a tenacious halfback and begun his first-grade career with Wakefield Trinity in 1997. In 2002 he moved to Huddersfield Giants and then back to Wakefield in 2007. The rest of his playing career was as player-coach (see above).   Captain:  Matt Garside   Paul Sykes was the Dewsbury captain from 2016 until 2021 and again in 2023 and ...

  Fev and Goole have both published their squads for Tuesday evening's pre-season match. Because clubs just publish a simple list (usually alphabetically) we put them in position order giving a clearer idea of the team shape. The Rovers team includes Max Rhodes and Dan Clarke who have both been playing for Heworth in York and are here as trialists. During the off-season we try to keep a close eye on signings but completely missed any announcement about the signing of Jonny Openshaw. Did anyone see o played for that? He is a 22 year-old hooker who played a few games for Oldham in 2022 and played in 13 games for Rochdale last year.

  

  A new season begins So, here we go, the beginning of the 30th Summer Era(?!) season!! Well, we hope it will be the beginning, but the chances of it being called off because of a frost bound pitch seems very likely. Pre-season games are, to us, a bit like taking a foul-tasting medicine. We know it’s good for us, but we really don’t enjoy it. The reason for not enjoying them is simply that the usual thrill from watching a game is just not the same when the result just doesn’t matter. Added to that is the use of vast quantities of substitutes so it’s difficult to get any rhythm of the match. That is not something to complain about because, quite understandably, as far as coaches are concerned it is a matter of giving as many players as possible game time and trying out different combinations. There is only one reason we turn up to these games. The experience of watching your team in action is very much enhanced when you recognise the players and, as far as we are concerned ...