fevnut's musings 2025/#30: They came back, the Championship Play-offs and Good for a laugh!

 

They Came Back

We were sad when we got the news that Jack Ormondroyd has signed for Oldham (more of that below). Sad because we would love to have seen him return to Fev. He was one of the speediest prop forwards we have ever seen and we have never forgotten one particular try he scored while a Fev player. Having searched the deeper recesses of our memory we still can’t recall when it was or who it was against, but the image of that try is still very clear. He bust an attempted tackle on the halfway line, galloped away at high speed and produced a brilliant sidestep to loop round the opposition fullback and go in for the try.

It set us thinking about those who did come back. Since time immemorial Fev players have been progressing their careers and their family’s finances by transferring to bigger clubs but many of them eventually returned which demonstrates how much players have enjoyed their times with us.

A quick trawl through the records in the summer era has turned up quite a few who made the return journey. Here’s a list of some of them.

There were of course other players who we hoped would return to us but haven’t. Jack was among those and so were Zak Hardaker, Danny Kirmond and Morgan Smith.

 

The Race for the Play-Offs

Now is the time when we start producing a chart of how the play-offs would look based on current table positions.

It is now looking as if those occupying the top 6 positions are likely to be there come the end of the league season. Very happy that Fev are now strongly in contention even though that looked unlikely a couple of months ago.

From 2015 until 2018 there were no Championship play-offs because of the Super v8s structure that pitted the top 4 in the Championship with the bottom 4 in Super League. There was also no Championship play-offs in 2020 after Covid brought an untimely end to the Championship season.

Since 2019, only one club has earned a place in the play-offs every year and that is Fev. Only just though as our defeat at York in the last round in 2024 looked as if we would finish in 7th place but a look of joy spread through the Fev fans, as they were leaving York’s ground, when the news came through that a totally unexpected result had come about in which, already relegated, Dewsbury had beaten Sheffield 28-8, meaning that we had finished in 6th place after all.

Toulouse played in 4 of the 5 play-offs since 2019 but missed out in 2022 because they were in Super League. York also played in 4 of the 5 missing out in 2021 when they finished 9th.

It would seem most likely this year that York, Bradford and Toulouse will finish in the top 3 with Oldham, Fev and Doncaster occupying 4th to 6^th.

4th place brings the big advantage of a home tie (against the 5th placed team) in the first round of the play-offs. That makes Sunday’s game against Doncaster of huge significance. If we win it that raises our chances of finishing 4th quite considerably and then it would probably come down to our home match against Oldham on September 7th. It’s a tough ask but a run of good form and it’s definitely possible. In Paul Cooke we trust!

York, Bradford, and Oldham have only 4 matches left whereas Fev, Doncaster and Toulouse have 5.

In the chart below we show the remaining ties for the top 6 teams and have highlighted, in red, the matches which involve both teams from the current Top 6.

The biggest handicap that Fev face lies in the recent recruitment of the other teams.

·     York have brought in Harry Fraser, an Australian halfback.

·     Bradford have added Chris Hill, Fenton Rogers and Konrad Hurrell.

·   Oldham have recruited Ryan Brierley, Jack Ormondroyd, Morgan Smith and Tom Whitehead.

·     Doncaster have signed Luis Johnson, a former Castleford, Hull KR and Warrington player.

Oldham’s signing (on loan) of Tom Whitehead yet again raises a bugbear of ours. Our sport is a team game and relies on not just individual skill but, very importantly, the ability of players in a team to understand each other and play together. Oldham is Tom Whitehead’s SIXTH club this year. He has already played 2 games for Warrington, 2 for Keighley Cougars, 1 for London Broncos and 6 for Salford.

We think this is a monstrous way to treat a developing young player!

 

This made us laugh!

Castleford have re-named their stadium in a sponsorship deal with a company that describe themselves as “Leading Trenchless Solutions for the Utilities and Infrastructure Sectors”

You couldn’t make it up. There must be some very embarrassed supporters down the lane!