We move into Round 2 of the Championship and visit promoted Hunslet on Sunday. Hunslet have plenty of former Bradford players/academy products in Billy Jowitt, Mackenzie Scurr, Keelan Foster, Coby Nichol, Ethan O'Hanlon and Bailey Arnold. This will be our first visit to Hunslet since 2018. Discuss the game here.

Few more changes again for me. I'd bring Ott in for Souter (we have to manage his minutes and I think the team who are most likely to finish bottom is the best team to do it against) I'd give Bailey Liu are a run out too. Hunslet were comfortably beaten by Barrow who you would expect would be their main rival for the relegation spot. Realistically I can't see this being anything other than comfortable.

Should be a decent day weather wise I think too. I'd like to see how we go on a dry track.

Hopping this over from the other thread, but maybe have Sam Ackroyd on the bench? If he isn't getting a game against Hunslet, we might as well send him out on loan. I imagine we'll bring back Keyes, Okenbor, and Lawrence - and perhaps give Souter and Donaldson a rest.

[quote="paulwalker71":19i6w0nv]Hopping this over from the other thread, but maybe have Sam Ackroyd on the bench? If he isn't getting a game against Hunslet, we might as well send him out on loan. I imagine we'll bring back Keyes, Okenbor, and Lawrence - and perhaps give Souter and Donaldson a rest.[/quote:19i6w0nv] We have 2 new halfbacks they will want them to get all the game time possible this early on, Keyes wasn’t rested to give meadows and lilley time together he was rested because he was injured putting a half on the bench in round 2 would be a waste of a bench spot. They will want to keep as much of the spine together as possible

[quote="paulwalker71":1ii2ah9h]Hopping this over from the other thread, but maybe have Sam Ackroyd on the bench? If he isn't getting a game against Hunslet, we might as well send him out on loan. I imagine we'll bring back Keyes, Okenbor, and Lawrence - and perhaps give Souter and Donaldson a rest.[/quote:1ii2ah9h] Depends with Okenbor. Was he not injured vs Cas? He managed to finish the game, but I thought he felt his hamstring after chasing back for their long range try.

Heavy pitches early in the season, we need strong pack replacements on the bench. The young lad needs a run of games not just throwing in for one off game perceived as being a foregone conclusion by supporters. I'm sure Hunslet will be fired up for this opening home game so l wouldn't like to see complacency slip into our squad. By all means rotate the squad a little but I wouldn't be going so far down the squad list at the moment.

Ackroyd named in the reserves for the game against Cas tonight.

Okunbor has done his hamstring so will be out for at least 2/3 more weeks.

Armitage on the wing again then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nPD_QFnTPA&t=291s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nPD_QFnTPA&t=291s

Bulls 21 man squad: Armitage Bayliss-Brow Blake Fulton Gee Gill Hallas Holmes Keyes Lawrence Lilley Liu Mason Meadows Michael Ott Pele Scurr Souter Taufua Waine

Holmes Taufua Blake Gill Armitage Meadows Keyes Scurr Souter Bayliss-Brow Fulton Gee Lawrence Pele Mason Ott Michael Would be my 17 Think Ott deserves a chance and Lilley wasn't great last week.

I think from what nobby said in his interview,lui,mason and ott will all play this weekend.

I'd rest Souter. Had to play 80 mins against Cas and we don't want to be getting to the business end of the season thinking about the amount of minutes our key men have played.

It would be good to see what Ott, Mason and Liu can offer. I felt Ott and Liu both went well against Huddersfield when they got some minutes. I can see Nobby giving Keyes and Lawrence another weeks rest with a couple of tough games coming up against Batley in the 1895 Cup and then away at Toulouse. I agree that Souter could also do with a week off. I'd go with something like: Holmes Armitage Gill Blake Taufua Meadows Lilley Bayliss-Brow Ott Scurr Fulton Gee Hallas --- Mason Michael Pele Liu

Playing Hunslet reminds me how much this club has fallen. Hopefully we can rid ourselves of these embarrassing fixtures this year. However, we run an amateur ship and unless someone comes in with cash and makes professional appointments off the pitch, we will be a pub team compared to other Super League teams next year.

Well i probably disagree with all that.

Whatever.

Hunslet embarrassed us in the second half. Game of two halves. Quite a few played theor way out of the first team.

[quote="Bullseye":2j21dfb3]Hunslet embarrassed us in the second half. Game of two halves. Quite a few played theor way out of the first team.[/quote:2j21dfb3] Think we missed Holmes when he didn't come back for 2nd half Thought Hallas,Meadows and Lilley had poor games I think Lilley needs to be dropped next week and Meadows need to stop the offloads resulting in interceptions.

Very slack 2nd half and end to the 1st half. Think a few players went into training session mode and thought the job was done. Credit to Hunslet, they showed some fight but we gifted them points and position. We won't get away with playing like that and still winning many times this year. Got some tough matches ahead that should give us a good indication of whether this group can move us forward from 23/24 squad levels.

Made hard work of that. Lilley and Meadows didn't seem to work. Our kicking game was awful. We still won and if we can play mediocre and still win hopefully we'll do well this year.

Got away with one but top of the league.

Sounds like a game of two halves, one or two may have played themselves out of contention for next week and ahead. But another win, can’t argue with that. I’m a little concerned about our stand off throwing interception passes nearly every game. We will come a cropper in a tighter game against better opposition. The jury is still out, for me, about him.