Well they fielded 17 against us even with 12+ missing, so surely they must be able to scrape a team together. Uncle Gary might send a few loanees (although most of them are at York already).
I think at Fev we have 29 in the squad plus loanee Will Dagger at the moment.
I know there were some eyebrows raised when James Webster said we were missing 12 players at Widnes but if Dagger is included you can actually make a team of 13 from the players who were missing yesterday - Dagger, Blackmore, Welham, Halton, Minns, Holmes, Jones, Moors, Parata, Ferguson, Day, Beckett, Bussey.
Lockwood and Hall both returned yesterday after missing the Widnes game.
At the start of the season I was surprised that we went with such a big squad with 5 or 6 young lads, mostly rejects from other team's academies, who I thought would never get a game, but all those youngsters played in the final yesterday.
You have to wonder how Fev can afford such a squad, with a lot of very well paid players, when they only average about 2,000 fans. Have they got someone with money as a chairman/director?
They have very good connections with Leeds as a source of loaned players, a coach paid as a Leeds Assistant coach with an unknown subscription from Fev. The character of their players is high and must be one of the most expensive in the Championship.
They did have a media 'personality' as a sponsor at one time, don't know if he is still around but there must be some finacial input from somewhere you would think.
They do own the ground and presumably see an income from refreshment sales etc.
They have very good connections with Leeds as a source of loaned players, a coach paid as a Leeds Assistant coach with an unknown subscription from Fev. The character of their players is high and must be one of the most expensive in the Championship. They did have a media ‘personality’ as a sponsor at one time, don’t know if he is still around but there must be some finacial input from somewhere you would think. They do own the ground and presumably see an income from refreshment sales etc.
In 2019, Fev had many players from Leeds on dual reg, but I’m not sure they have many players on loan from Leeds this year.
Webster was assistant at Leeds in 2019 too but is solely with Fev now.
I too am baffled by how they have such a squad. But what I do know is that there is a history of the strength of their squad varying with their chairman/ceo issuing rallying calls for more money.
Featherstone have no big stars in the squad. Some ex SL like Hall and Ferres. Maybe they have just signed well. Are they full-time?
Featherstone have no big stars in the squad. Some ex SL like Hall and Ferres. Maybe they have just signed well. Are they full-time?
I make it 8 or 9 players who have had a career out of being in SL.
3 Australian players have played below the NRL and one Samoan player has played in the NRL.
Fev have a very good squad and an in-depth one. Their part time ex SL players won’t be on peanuts and some players are surely full time.
I’m not sure how they have afforded such a squad after the last 18 months and recent restrictions but they have to be commended for doing so.
What people should remember about our own situation is that we still play at a stadium with costs that helped to cripple us last time and also one that we dont generate revenue from.
They have very good connections with Leeds as a source of loaned players, a coach paid as a Leeds Assistant coach with an unknown subscription from Fev. The character of their players is high and must be one of the most expensive in the Championship. They did have a media ‘personality’ as a sponsor at one time, don’t know if he is still around but there must be some finacial input from somewhere you would think. They do own the ground and presumably see an income from refreshment sales etc.
That was Chris Moyles.
It was a publicity stunt which didn't impress the Featherstone supporters as he hails from Leeds and doesn't even like RL.
Since Mark Campbell arrived in 2007 he has put a lot of his own money into the club and Fev have always had one of the stronger Championship teams as a result.
That said, he has said himself that the club is now close to being self-sufficient because of varied income streams. We seem to have done very well in attracting sponsors, the clubhouse (until Covid) was a well-used venue for everything from weddings to conferences, and the club owns 19 acres of land around the stadium which I believe it's in the process of exploiting. As one post above commented, it's a big difference when your ground is an income-generator rather than having to pay rent and not earning any revenue from it.
The comments about Leeds are well out of date, DR is over, Webster is solely concerned with coaching Fev and although I believe we still have very good links with Leeds we have gone with our own squad and not loaned anyone from them this year.
Fev also have a Squad Builder system which I suppose is similar to VIQI, last I heard there were about 300 members paying in (at least) £10 per month.
The Chris Moyles escapade happened over 15 years ago when we were struggling in what is now League 1.