As a Fev fan, fair play to Bradford fans for their honest assessments of both sides on this thread. Am sure you'll travel in numbers for the return fixture like last year, and hopefully it will be a closer game this year!

Pretty much spot on Bullseye. Losing Kavanagh was a big blow as he's impressed me in the friendlies. Walker certainly put himself about more and made more of an impact than Lauaki or Crossley ever did last year. Probably ended up doing more minutes than he should. I'm not too alarmed about us losing the forward battle as we effectively played with 15 men yesterday and had two props. Throw Clough, Clark and Kavanagh back into the mix and we're a different animal. I'd like to see us use Clough, Sidlow, Walker, Clark, and Kavanagh all in the same game with one going in at loose. If Clough and Sidlow end up doing 65+ minutes again when everyone is fit then Lowes will have learnt nothing and we'll suffer same fate as last year.

I thought our backs were excellent, particularly defensively.

I thought Mathers had a great game, he was constantly talking to the line, letting people know where to go. Exactly what he said he would do in his interview which was refreshing. Some good try savers too. I would sooner see a defensive fullback, look what happened last year when we had an attacking one (Shaw) couldn't tackle a meat pie and it cost us a fair few tries.

Welham was outstanding in defence, he held off well when he needed too and read the game well. In my opinion one of the signings of the year, just needs to hold the ball more. Kavanagh is a very good prop, shame to see him injured. Hope he's back soonish. Lauaki is fitter, anyone at the Cas game saw he played pretty much a full half. Caro took his tries very well and his defensive work was also solid!

Nice to see everyone in at the end when Briggs punched Addy though, especially Walker. It is about time we had a bit of k**b in the pack, haven't had it since Elima.

Credit to Featherstone though. They came with a very very good side and their pack was good. I was impressed by the Number 17 (Ormanroyd i htink). Put himself about a bit. If they can keep that side fit I would say they could get into the top 4 regardless of the 4 fulltime teams. Good win to start the season.

Can't see Thomas playing much this season in all honesty. Mathers will more than likely need to get injured.

If Gaskell gets injured then Purtell goes to six, if Addy gets injured the Purtell will go to seven.

No disrespect to Cas, but it was their kids. If Lauaki couldn't impose himself on that game then he should just hang up his boots now.

10 minutes that breaks down as 5 minutes both sides of half time is not acceptable especially as we were down a prop. Hell, Mathers managed the full 80 and he's had no pre-season and hasn't played in 6 months. Lauaki is stealing money from the club.

It will be interesting to see if Jimmy keeps his word and uses the full squad available to him.
Hopefully Crossley is back for the weekend, but I'd like to see Fleming, Walshaw and Mellor all get some game time as well. Maybe even have one of Halafihi/Lumb as a bench hooker so that we can spell O'Brien if we manage to get some breathing space between us and Whitehaven.

Think the Whitehaven game will be tough. It will be bitterly cold on Saturday night and i will just be happy getting the win and our of there.

The week after agains Swinton I'd like to see some rotation before our big game against Leigh.

Don't know what to think about Whitehaven - I think they got mullered yesterday, for whatever reason, so they're not actually going well. I agree though, the long trip to places like Whitehaven, always feel very daunting.

I saw

Lauaki only playing 10 mins either side of half time, just like last year.

O’Brien playing the whole game without a rest, just like last year.

The forwards of a part time team boss the middle of the field with more aggression and enthusiasm than us, just like last year.

Far too much ball given away early in the tackle count trying to score from every set of six in their half, just like last year.

Sidlow was head and shoulders above everyone else yesterday - Welham was defensively sound but his ball carrying was suspicious at times. We got completely bullied in the forwards but came out with a good win in terrible conditions. Our back line was terrific. I felt that Gaskell had a quiet game by his standards, though he scored one and created another, some of his touches were wayward.

Well done lads. Good start!

Haven't seen much mention of this, but I thought Kurt Haggerty played very well.

He ran the ball in hard, tackled well and took no nonsense when there was a bit of niggle. He also (I think) did the full 80 minutes when all the other second rowers did spells.

Good signing

I have to admit that I was disappointed with his signing because I had him down as a filthy c**t - but hey, he has done well thus far so opinions can easily change.

Just seen mathers tackle again on the highlights.....saved a certain try which would have put us 12 behind.
Sidlow was awesome.
Our use of the bench wasn't.

Just seen a video on Twitter of him putting Chase into the middle of next week. Two tries and set one up. Not a bad debut. TBF I think our backline is pretty strong, would have been nice to keep him to develop but I don't think he would have displaced any of the ones who played on Sunday. Seeing him though, bit annoying he didn't get more of an opportunity last year. But that's was the story for us last year. Anyway, him playing for Batley Sunday benefited us more than him just being on our bench

We won, unlike like year.

I've just watched his hit on the New Zealand thug Rangi Chase, brought a smile to my face

Watch this, old cock

Without reading 6 pages, largely because I can't be bothered, I may repeat what others have said, but hey ho, I'll give my thoughts anyway.

Sidlow, immense. The bloke has come on so much since we signed him. If he plays like that every game, nobody will be unhappy.

Mathers did as well as can be expected for a bloke who hasn't trained in so long. Looked solid in first half, made one beauty of a try saving tackle and generally did ok. Yes, he was blowing out of his 'arris by the end, but that was to be expected, and he certainly wasn't the only one. I was kind of surprised we didn't have a Williams or Thomas on the bench to cover for that. If he gets back to full fitness, he is definitely the best fullback currently on our books.

Kavanagh going off was a huge blow, especially if he's out for some time. If we could have Clough, Sidlow & Kavanagh all fit, it gives us 3 genuinely quality props with the others competing for that 4th spot and getting dropped if they don't perform. It would be a shame for one or more to be injured all season.

Lauaki, well what can you say? So much for we'll see the best of him. Although I have to question the tactics when Lauaki and Jonny Walker were both removed with 3 minutes gone into the second half (I checked the clock because it seemed quick). What is the point of 15 minutes rest, and then playing for 3 minutes before being subbed? What a complete waste of interchanges, especially when you're down a prop already.

I don't know whether this has any impact on Jimmy's decision making when it comes to substitutions, but I noticed many times last season that when Clough and Sidlow were hauled off, it has a huge impact on the rest of the team. The forwards start losing collisions, we look a less physical and imposing side and lose an awful lot of momentum. It's almost as if Clough and Sidlow are the grandfathers of our team - their experience and cool heads make a noticeable difference to everyone they're playing with. At times when we are only one or two scores behind, it is not uncommon in rugby league to see quick-fire tries that lose us the game. The replacement props are literally that far behind those two that it's almost critical we keep them on the field. Until one of the other lads steps up, and to be honest Cavanagh and Walker are looking promising (yet to see Clark), then I think these short spells are going to continue for now.

Good points.

The quality in props does drop of remarkably after Sidlow and Clough go off which is perhaps why we invested in Kavanagh and Walker.

The policy of giving Lauaki about 5-10mins seems to be a copy of Brian McDermott’s policy at the Rhinos with Ian Kirke who used to warm the bench, come on for 10 mins to give Peacock a rest and then get hauled off again. Kirke was another who looked like Tarzan but played like Jane.

Kirke was probably on a low salary compared with the other forwards at Leeds so “did a job”. I’d have thought Lauaki was one of our higher earners given his pedigree of playing for clubs like Wigan and Hull so I’m not sure about this theory.

We do need Clough, Sidlow, Kavanagh and Walker/Clark to be fit when the big games come up.

I think you're not far off, but it's purely down to quality I would say. Sidlow & Clough were head and shoulders above the other props last year in terms of everything. Minutes on the field, quality, impact, everything. From what I've seen of Kavanagh, I do think he can be around their level, but I would be surprised if Walker was. The good thing about our situation though is that providing people are fit, you don't have that clear gulf in quality between the "next best" and those challenging. Last year, Crossley & Lauaki weren't going to get dropped because the next option was Fleming, who was even worse. This year, you've got likes of Jonny Walker and Mitch Clark after those top 3, who might offer a bit more competition for Crossley & Lauaki and mean you have to play well to get in the 17 now.

I think the situation with Flemming is that he's a young lad who needs the game time to actually progress. I mean, look at O'Brien after playing nearly a full season as the only only hooker on the field. He's come on leaps and bounds when you compare him to Halafifi who barely got a look in last year and looked a bit lost during the games he did play as he didn't have the on field experience that O'Brien had earned through the year. But if his route into the first team is blocked by a player who can't do 10 minutes with a 15 minute sit down in the middle without looking knackered but still gets picked week in and week out then that's going to have a detrimental effect on the lad's development.

While I see your point, I'm not convinced it applies to Fleming. He got some half decent game time in a few matches last year and did absolutely nothing. Not even glimpses of anything for me.

He looks destined to be another Chris Feather. Huge bloke with no impact whatsoever. You can be as big as you want, but if you don't use it, it's wasted.

Only slightly off topic but affected me for the Fev game, anybody know if we'll be using the Richard Dunn parking as last year? Closed on Sunday.....

Can’t remember who were we replaying but Fleming made a super break last year at Odsal in his own half. Got away a difficult offload to Mellor who drew the fullback to put Addy (I think) in under the posts.

One of the best tries we scored last year.


Sorry no idea about the carparks! You could ring the club and ask?