fevnut's musings 2025/#08: Head Coaches, London and Keighley

Head Coach

Here we go again! We wish, so very much, that the club could find an appointment that would bring stability. That is not to suggest that we think that they are wrong to call an end to James Ford’s tenure which seemed to be full of instability and performances that seemed to be well below the capabilities of the squad that had been assembled.

We make it a point, on fevnut’s blog or previously in the match day programme, not to criticise individual players or our coach although we have sometimes expressed our concern at the way we are performing but we have always acknowledged that they are far more knowledgeable about rugby league than we could possibly be.

When we think back to some of our best head coaches, they always seemed willing to talk to fans and explain things. That was particularly true with both Peter Fox and Daryl Powell and we had the pleasure of several great discussions with both of them.

We have had some truly shocking performances in recent times. Think of the losses to Barrow, Swinton and Doncaster in 2024 and now, this year, being beaten by the Broncos whose team was decimated after relegation from Super League and have had to scratch a side together with loan players and trialists.

We think that the state of our tactics was somewhat hidden by having those two challenge cup ties against amateur teams. Our current squad should be capable of playing exciting, skilful ball-handling attacks and yet, so much of the time we have ended up playing five drives and a kick. Boring! And certainly not living up to the potential that our squad contains.

Fev are one of the worst clubs for changing, or rather having to change, our head coach in the time since 1996. Here’s a list of all the head coaches in that time.

 

We have omitted from that list all the interim caretaker coaches and that were quite a few of them including Danny Evans on three separate occasions.

Earlier today, we were asked on the Fev Rovers fans page, whether we have the record for the largest turnover of coaches. An interesting question so we decided to look into it. No, we don’t have the record, but we are not far off it.

 

*** When we produced the above chart Paul Cooke hadn't yet been appointed so Fev are now up to 19 head coaches appointments since 1996***

Amazing that Barrow are at the top when you bear in mind that Paul Crarey has been their head coach ever since 2015. Again, with this list we have excluded caretaker coaches.

Perhaps the biggest question that needs to be addressed is how head coach appointments are made. It is crystal clear to us that the process must be faulty if so many times the consequences turn-out to come from poor decision in making the appointments.

Of course, we should remember that not all changes to head coaches come from them being sacked for poor results. Quite often it comes from the opposite with a coach doing well and then being offered an opportunity with a higher ranked club or a decision by the head coach to leave because of an inability by the club to continue being able to afford to keep them.

Who do you think were the best appointments from our list of Fev head coaches since 1996? We would suggest that they were Daryl Powell (of course), Steve Simms, Andy Kelly, Ryan Carr and James Webster.

A good coach is not necessarily one that always produces a winning team. A good coach is one that blends a team together and produces a game plan that will maximise the performance of the players at their disposal.

 

 

As we were unable to get down to the match we have watched it on Youtube and were thoroughly dismayed by what we saw. It beggars belief that a team with so many talented players can lose in such a manner to a team who hardly know their own team mates.

 

Keighley

 

So, it’s Keighley next in the 1895 cup. Fev have an amazing record against the Cougars. We have beaten them on the last 18 occasions we have met and in the whole history of matches against Keighley we have nilled them 11 times.

Even with the coaching hiatus and the awful problem with our half-backs we should be much too strong for them.

Yes, we lost in London but, at the same time, Keighley were losing 44-0 away at Rochdale.

The flags above represent all the nations that, under current rugby league rules, members of the 2025 Fev squad have played for, or are eligible to play for.