Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:14 am  

From a neutral point of view one of the problems Fax have faced with squad selection in recent years is one that faces most Championship clubs - what do you do about the players that have some very positive attributes, but also some glaring weaknesses.

You have a few of these guys.
Murrell is the obvious one. He is still a player who concerns the opposition because of his footballing brain, and Fax seem to struggle when he leaves the field or plays poorly, but the legs have never managed to match strides with the brain.

Benny Kaye - great team guy, strong defensively, but he's never going to scare defences.

Tyrer - Prolific goal kicker and a major threat in the air on crossfield kicks, but his winger is never going to get hatfuls of tries.

Saltonstall - Good going forward, wins penalties, but a bit, well, flakey.

Even QLT. Massive threat with ball in hand, but his 2 goal-line tackling attempts for King & Lockwood's tries on Sunday highlighted his defensive frailties.

There's a few others, I'm not picking on Fax because every Championship team (bar Toronto) has the same issues. At Fev recently Ian Hardman was a similar case - safe as houses under the high ball and a strong tackler especially near the goal line, but offered little in attack in his last few years. Thacks as well...overall a really good half back at this level but a couple of obvious weaknesses.

Fev seem to make sweeping changes most years, Fax seem to keep the core of the squad and make the odd change here and there. Some years it has worked out better for you guys than us, including last year...there's something to be said for keeping a team together. You could argue it either way.

Same goes for the Halifax approach to pre-season...you seem to start off slow every year and almost accept you are going to lose games early. But then again you have finished strong most years. The only thing I would say about that is it seems to suck the life and enthusiasm out of the fan base. A few months ago Fax were euphoric after making the middle 8s, Fev were struggling to raise a team in the Shield and then 75% of our players were released. Things can change very quickly in rugby league - after we lost at Leigh last week a couple of people were already starting to question Ryan Carr 3 games into his career as Fev coach! - and am sure there will be plenty more twists and turns as the season goes on.

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:27 am  

Very good and accurate post Phantom.

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:35 am  

bentleyman wrote:

Won 2 lost 2 and you want blood...joke.

I agree with you to a certain degree our record is the same as last year W2L2 but we seem miles off the pace with the same faults every year every coach has a "Shelf Life" as others have alluded to our next coaches are in place.
btw if you watch Upton arlfc i have probably seen you @ my local club Doncaster Toll Bar ARLFC.

Indeed you will have. Was there the other week when you hammered us.

Don't think we are down to play you again this season

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:52 am  

The Phantom Horseman wrote:

From a neutral point of view one of the problems Fax have faced with squad selection in recent years is one that faces most Championship clubs - what do you do about the players that have some very positive attributes, but also some glaring weaknesses.

You have a few of these guys.
Murrell is the obvious one. He is still a player who concerns the opposition because of his footballing brain, and Fax seem to struggle when he leaves the field or plays poorly, but the legs have never managed to match strides with the brain.

Benny Kaye - great team guy, strong defensively, but he's never going to scare defences.

Tyrer - Prolific goal kicker and a major threat in the air on crossfield kicks, but his winger is never going to get hatfuls of tries.

Saltonstall - Good going forward, wins penalties, but a bit, well, flakey.

Even QLT. Massive threat with ball in hand, but his 2 goal-line tackling attempts for King & Lockwood's tries on Sunday highlighted his defensive frailties.

There's a few others, I'm not picking on Fax because every Championship team (bar Toronto) has the same issues. At Fev recently Ian Hardman was a similar case - safe as houses under the high ball and a strong tackler especially near the goal line, but offered little in attack in his last few years. Thacks as well...overall a really good half back at this level but a couple of obvious weaknesses.

Fev seem to make sweeping changes most years, Fax seem to keep the core of the squad and make the odd change here and there. Some years it has worked out better for you guys than us, including last year...there's something to be said for keeping a team together. You could argue it either way.

Same goes for the Halifax approach to pre-season...you seem to start off slow every year and almost accept you are going to lose games early. But then again you have finished strong most years. The only thing I would say about that is it seems to suck the life and enthusiasm out of the fan base. A few months ago Fax were euphoric after making the middle 8s, Fev were struggling to raise a team in the Shield and then 75% of our players were released. Things can change very quickly in rugby league - after we lost at Leigh last week a couple of people were already starting to question Ryan Carr 3 games into his career as Fev coach! - and am sure there will be plenty more twists and turns as the season goes on.

A good, well thought out post TPH. You sure you're from Featherstone?

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:46 pm  

Uptonfax wrote:

Indeed you will have. Was there the other week when you hammered us.

Don't think we are down to play you again this season

Yes i was afaik we are going into the YML @ The end of the Pennine League Season so we we wont meet you again

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:48 pm  

Think our issue is we have too many steady eddies especially in the pack. Grix is quality but father time is not kind. Murrell again, at what point do the advantages of him on the field (brain, motivation, experience) not outweigh the dis-advantages (no pace, no 2nd phase back up when breaks made, individual running threat) etc. Pair that with White who I don't think takes on the line and we have half backs who are more pivots then threats on an individual level.

Not convinced of Salty at centre, don't think he's big enough. I would have liked to have seen us sign a quality centre (yes they are out there we just chose to not sign them) and a couple of big bust a tackle props.

At some point relying on an aging halfback and putting all our eggs in one basket will come back to bite us on the ass. Not panicking yet but this season apart from top spot (lets be honest Toronto have this) it's wide open and we have chosen to start the season very poor in terms of skill and fitness it seems. Is it now a jolly boys outing? Is the coach to pally with the players. Who knows. After what other clubs went through end of the season and now (Widnes) we should have been flying and setting the platform for the season. Instead we have been hammered a few times and scraped by Batley and beat a just put together Leigh who already have improved massively and will be a far better team each week going forward.

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:57 pm  

Another good reply-obvious to everyone what's wrong it seems.Absolutely crying out for a decent centre for years and with the 8s money we retain a reserve winger and put him there-it beggars belief.....as for props did Marshall break a tackle or offload once in his career ? probably unaware that's part of the game..

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 4:45 pm  

I'd go with 2 Centres and a half back as priority. I would say a hooker but personally I would just have Moore doing the full 80 so we had money to spend elsewhere.

On the 2 players probably next in line for the job, we did pretty well with them running the show back end of the season and if things are to be believe both have made recomendations to the coach of areas that need strengthening pretty much in line with what everyone else sees and as per normal they have been ignored. Both of these players are good man managers something that Marshall is never going to be in danger of. the fact that both these players are now pretty broken but we still fall apart when either goes off the field suggests they still hold a great influence over the team something which Marshall has also failed to address time and time again with so many players missed because of his indecision and blind loyalty.

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 4:55 pm  

Fair enough but we both agree we lost the forward battle going downhill on Sunday-that IMO would be the first priority.

Re: Marshall : Tue Feb 26, 2019 5:11 pm  

Beaujangles wrote:

Fair enough but we both agree we lost the forward battle going downhill on Sunday-that IMO would be the first priority.

Yeah strange one really as I know we do miss Butler, if he actually plays him in the 2nd row, but our pack looked stronger on paper this year but has been found wanting on more than one occasion.