fevnut's musings 2025/#16: York, Player Loans and Players becoming Referees

  

Interestingly, despite losing, we thought that the match at Oldham was a ‘Wow’ match. Such an improvement in our performance.

Nevertheless, we were rather apprehensive about the game against York because it was obvious that Ben Reynolds was highly unlikely to be fit enough to play so we could be back to the halfback problems that have beset us for many matches this year.

When we got to the ground and saw the teamsheet Ben’s absence was confirmed although we were pleasantly surprised that Paul Cooke hadn’t reverted to playing either Caleb Aekins or Danny Addy there in the halves. However, playing Connor Jones, a player we love, at halfback did seem just as bad. We quickly noted that Calum Turner was on the bench and felt that it would have been better to have him start playing in the halves alongside Ryan Hampshire. Calum is equally at home at fullback or in the halves, where he has the experience of having played more than 40 games.

Needless to say, we felt very down at halftime, losing 16-0, and had little hope of much improvement in the second half other than the faintest glimmer that we might do better playing down the slope.

But with Connor Jones back at hooker and Calum Turner at stand-off there was an immediate improvement, and the first try came from Connor, jumping extraordinarily high for a smallish man, to take a pin-point kick from Calum and doing well to get over the line.

From there on we were well in command and tries from Aekins and Hampshire took us into the lead at 18-16. Then came a wonderful try from King Vuniyayawa that put us into and eight point lead with the probability of winning the match.

There followed 16 tense minutes during which Liam Harris, who had been a real thorn in our flesh at the end of last season, scored and converted leaving us just 2 points ahead with 8 minutes to go. The tension was now even greater and York spent much of that time on the attack but heroic defence kept them out until the hooter went at which time York were yet again in possession. There was what we were pretty sure was a forward pass followed by a kick and chase to the posts between Oli Field and Jesse Dee for York and Bailey O’Connor for Fev. It seemed as though that race winner was Bailey O’Connor but then a moment of doubt as the referee took up the position he would usually do to signal a try but, thank goodness, he was actually blowing the final whistle.

What a match! We finished so very happy but emotionally exhausted.

The whole Fev team put in a great second half performance and the two players who were stand-outs as far as we were concerned were Bailey O’Connor and King Vuniyayawa who both had their best games yet in Fev shirts.

So, as we said earlier, the match at Oldham was a 'Wow' match, which made the York game a 'Wow+++' match!

 

Loans

Each year recently there seem to be more and more players going on loan. Some young players end up playing short spells for four or even five different clubs and we fail to see how that can possibly benefit them.

Because of the statistical work that we do we have to keep up to date squad lists for every club and we are having to spend more and more time doing this because of the number of loans.

Noah Booth has now come to Fev on what has been announced as a season long loan. Such announcements are meaningless because the parent club always retains the right to recall them.

 

Noah’s season has been a particularly unusual one. He started off as a Wakefield Trinity player but went on a ‘season long loan’ to Hunslet before the Super League season started. Having played for Hunslet in their first match of the season he was transferred from Wakefield to Hull KR! Hunslet then announced that Hull KR had agreed that the season long loan would remain intact. Noah continued playing for Hunslet until April 2nd but then the so-called ‘season long loan’ was ended and he returned to Hull KR only to be sent out on another ‘season long loan’ to Fev a fortnight later. 

On the subject of loans, we have been mystified by the top class performances we have seen, on television, by Hull FC prop, Jack Ashworth. In 2022 he played two games for Fev, on loan from Huddersfield, and we saw nothing in those appearances to suggest that he would ever become such an outstanding player.

Players becoming Referees

As you might have seen on our ‘This Week’s Referee’ page, the reserve referee for our match against Toulouse is former Fev player, Carl Hughes. 

Carl, who usually played at loose forward, often played in a Fev team alongside his hooker brother, Paul, in the mid noughties. On one occasion, in 2008, Carl performed the rather rare feat of coming off the bench to score a hat trick.

We will be delighted to see him once more at Post Office Road. This appointment raises two thoughts in our mind.

Would it not be for the good of the game for the RFL to make more effort to recruit former players into the pool of referees? They would be likely to have a better understanding of what is happening on the pitch than most of those who have never played at a professional level.

I also worry when referees are appointed to a match when they have a close connection to one of the teams. It’s not that they will be overtly biased. It is more likely to go the other way whereby they will be rather harsh on the team with which they have a connection in order to ‘prove’ that they are not biased.

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.