Jack Preece & Alex Grove

[bigdingle]

Coventry to announce this week their first two signings for next season. If my sources are correct it ll be Alex Grove and Jack Preece sadly. Coventry wanting to distract from their poor form this season.

[philhall]

If that be the case I have different views on both players - but I will hold my council until they are confirmed, or not, end of the season.

Come non Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose

[Shy Spa]

Feb 12, 2017 11:27:53 GMT bigdingle said:

Coventry to announce this week their first two signings for next season. If my sources are correct it ll be Alex Grove and Jack Preece sadly. Coventry wanting to distract from their poor form this season.

Cov are targeting next season with a big budget to tempt players away from teams who they perceive as a threat, causing disruption. Of course, they could end up with a new squad which takes time to settle, and some disillusioned top players fighting for places on the bench.

[kingsheathlad]

If Coventry are getting a new squad may be some of their current squad will come our way

[grooveavenue]

This situation is no different from most CLOSE SEASON issues the Mr Maggs has had to face!

BMRFC have become experts in rebuilding teams and it may well be that the RFU offer up an award for such endeavours - we certainly deserve one!

As for Cov "disrupting" other teams I would have thought that their money bags would be more interested in ensuring Covs elevation rather than disrupting others. Not sure where the term "disrupting" comes from - could it be an old hack (who may know) creating a bit of story for us all to be flustered about ? Who knows?

From: Disrupted (not) and Flustered (not) of Moseley

[grooveavenue]

............as in "(who WE may know)"...............

[martinwatson aka Camera Shake]

Spot on bigdingle! New signings at Cov confirmed.

[kimbo]

GA is quite right - 'disruption' is ridiculous (Pailor and Le Roux anyone? ).
Anyway, the rumours are correct, with Preece and Grove confirmed as coming our way next season.
Remains to be seen who got the better deal...
Cheers guys.

[Phil]

Cov welcome Alex and Jack

[Phil]

Could they not have waited until the end of the season to announce this? Poor show imo.

[grooveavenue]

DISRUPTION, DISRUPTION DISRUPTION! All is fair in love and war! Nonsense actually - players move where they want when they want. No doubt Kevin will have known of this some weeks previous. Best wishes to Alex and Jack and lets make them pay for it next season!!

[Westcountry Mose]

Sorry to see two good players leave. However, why choose to join another Nat 1 club less than a season after joining their local rivals? (It would be surprising if this was a career move for players of their age and travel distance cannot be a significant issue.) As neither no longer has any real desire to play for us I suggest they are placed on 'gardening leave' until their contracts end and blood some youngsters or those who could be thinking of joining us in readiness for next season.

[Phil]

Feb 14, 2017 9:56:56 GMT Westcountry Mose said:

As neither no longer has any real desire to play for us I suggest they are placed on 'gardening leave' until their contracts end and blood some youngsters or those who could be thinking of joining us in readiness for next season.

Agreed.

[southernmose]

Feb 14, 2017 9:56:56 GMT Westcountry Mose said:

Sorry to see two good players leave. However, why choose to join another Nat 1 club less than a season after joining their local rivals? (It would be surprising if this was a career move for players of their age and travel distance cannot be a significant issue.) As neither no longer has any real desire to play for us I suggest they are placed on 'gardening leave' until their contracts end and blood some youngsters or those who could be thinking of joining us in readiness for next season.

Quite. Best wishes to both of them but in the great scheme of things I'm slightly sad about one and much more sanguine about the other (I'll leave people to draw their own conclusions as to which is which). However I'm sure they've got their reasons and I hope it works out for them.

In the meantime hopefully the club are focused (as I'm sure they will be) on retaining further key players and picking up a few new faces. I'd like to think that other than retentions we'll save our announcements until the end of the season though.

[bigdingle]

I can see both sides of the story. I disagree with the idea of them being on gardening leave. This deal has been done for a good few weeks, and both Alex and Jack are terrific professionals and their performances have been nothing short of outstanding over the last few weeks. I would expect them to continue to do so throughout the rest of the season.........

With the club at the time and budgets being slashed, when another club comes with a significantly better offer financially, and a clear plan and direction (both on the field and off the field) to move forward and gain promotion, then this is more attractive. Next year with no relegation from the Championship is the best chance for any club to regain or gain promotion to the Championship. Coventry, (as long as their finances are in good standing, and not a la London Welsh) are seemingly in a better position financially than us, and from next year will train more often, and have a definite confirmed coaching structure ( Moseley's backroom staff from next year apart from the leader has not been announced currently). In any other walk of life, be honest would you blame them?

Coventry have taken on players released from London Welsh, and are looking to build for a real promotion campaign. On the other side of the coin, with the money they have spent this year, you would expect them to be making a better fist of it than they are, and that suggests that the coaching team/game plan is not as handy as it might be. If Maggsy had Winter's budget, they wouldn't be where they are in the league.

Bravo to Moseley for maintaining the finances, and that is important. The club is solvent, and you have to cut your cloth accordingly. The end of the world will not happen with Alex and jack leaving, but I would suspect there will be a large turnover of players. As we discovered in the Championship, money talks, and in spite of us over achieving with Maggsy for years we were eventually relegated. It does bring into question the realistic ambition we can have with the current financial structure, unless external investment is brought in. If we are in the top half of the table at the end of next season I will have to say Richard Protherough will have done remarkably well.

[kingsheathlad]

I am thinking we will not be in a position to offer full time contracts next season so players will need jobs outside rugby to pay the mortgage etc. If Coventry are in a position to offer full time contracts then people will move.

[southernmose]

According to the Cov board 6 more signings to be announced over the next few weeks.

[grooveavenue]

Maybe a reference to Rolling Maul about Signings and Retentions of about March last year reveals that Covs., moves at this time reflects what was being said at that time - Channel 4 repeat series comes to mind

[philhall]

I too am sad that Moseley are to lose two players next season and to Coventry of all places. Whilst one of the named players will be a very sad loss the other, in my view, will not. Are we entering yet another silly, irresponsible phase where the offer of cash is king? ( Here Worcester buying most of the Moseley team, many seasons ago, comes to mind ).

Mind you, when you consider that Coventry attracted 2700 spectators to their fixture with Moseley - something Moseley can only dream of - and with it the potential for a one match gate income alone of around £30.000, then that is some pull.

That aside, all is not lost so, come on Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose

[grooveavenue]

Grovey and Preecey are signed with us until the end of the season - so why not play them. As Kevin has hinted we are after second spot. I would hope both these players DO IN FACT have an interest in playing for BMRFC until their contract expires.

[boris]

I have no doubt they both will give no less than 100%.
I can tell they are very committed players and although they have only been with Moseley for one season they are both loyal players, Alex spending most of his 10 years with Worcester and Jack has only been with birmingham (per temps) and Rotherham in his 10 years.
I've seen players move from club to club every year.
It's a real shame but there must of been a good enough reason or reasons for them to leave.

[Phil]

I'd rather see some of the fringe players/youngsters come in to give them experience ahead of the new season, there's no prize for finishing second.

[kimbo]

Feb 14, 2017 10:33:19 GMT bigdingle said:

Coventry have taken on players released from London Welsh

No they haven't (unless there are other signings from that source that have yet to be announced).
The only LW player thus far linked with the club was Alex Woolford, who opted to move to London Scottish instead.

[Rich]

Feb 14, 2017 19:44:19 GMT kimbo said:

Feb 14, 2017 10:33:19 GMT bigdingle said:

Coventry have taken on players released from London Welsh

No they haven't (unless there are other signings from that source that have yet to be announced).
The only LW player thus far linked with the club was Alex Woolford, who opted to move to London Scottish instead.

Heath Stevens? (Unless you seriously want to say he came from Jersey...)

[leehumph]

Second is nowhere in my opinion. I would prefer to see us starting games with players who have already signed for next year with a compliment of 'fringe' players. I suspect with Maggsy remaining in charge, as opposed to Rich Protherough building for next year, then we won't see this.

Saturday should be interesting though.

Cheer loud and proud Mose fans.

[boris]

That means we only have 4 players available,
I can understand looking fwd to next season and agree to some degree but what if other players decide to move on, do you not select them either, seems to be a waste of money to me.
I would wait to see who is defiantly staying. There may be others leaving.

[Rich]

Defiantly staying may be the appropriate term!

We have to play our best available team (otherwise why bother with dual reg either?). Imagine if another Champ team when bust, or Hartpury failed whatever criteria may be conjured up by the RFU...whether we would want it at short notice, or if it would do us any good is a moot point

[grooveavenue]

The 'second is nowhere' and other similar comments are nowhere for me. The greatest asset we have is the rugby club and playing rugby. Lets not reach association football levels of desire to only be at the top. So being "not first" to some is failure by the sounds of it. Success for me is measured by the way we conduct ourselves on and off the pitch and our contribution to providing sport for the community - simply, because thats where we are. I would be happy being second most seasons if it meant we all enjoyed the rugby and experience at Billesley Common. Time and time again I am told by my personal new visitors and opposition supporters how much they enjoy attending matches at Billesley Common. So lets play our strongest team and finish ..er...second. I like the comment Rich -'we have to play our best avaialble team'. I don't look forward to playing in the Premiership at this time!!

[bigdingle]

Feb 14, 2017 19:44:19 GMT kimbo said:

Feb 14, 2017 10:33:19 GMT bigdingle said:

Coventry have taken on players released from London Welsh

No they haven't (unless there are other signings from that source that have yet to be announced).
The only LW player thus far linked with the club was Alex Woolford, who opted to move to London Scottish instead.

So where did Heath Stevens come from?

www.coventryrugby.co.uk/2017/02/08/heaths-happy-to-be-home/

Hmmmmm. 'The 24-year-old, who made 79 National League One appearances over three seasons in his first stint at Cov before stepping up to the Championship, was a victim of the liquidation of London Welsh at the start of December.'

[southernmose]

Feb 14, 2017 21:18:06 GMT boris said:

That means we only have 4 players available,
I can understand looking fwd to next season and agree to some degree but what if other players decide to move on, do you not select them either, seems to be a waste of money to me.
I would wait to see who is defiantly staying. There may be others leaving.

Well when you put it like that... Actually, there must be dozens of players around the country turning out at this time of year with another club waiting in the wings.  If every club put every player that was off on gardening leave then there'd be chaos. 

So I suppose we should make the best of it.