He would of at least add some pace and kicking ability into the side. I'm surprised we couldn't meet his wages with Chisholm and McNally gone and Roche and Brown in.

Wonder if the long term injury to Milnes might change matters?

I doubt it. Is two to three months without RM worth breaking the bank for somebody who might or might not perform well?

Personally I'd rather we just knuckle down with what we have got if Rowan is going to be out for the season and get him and JL training next season as early as possible together.

At least this injury might put off any potential vultures from Rowan.

Well no I wouldn’t be breaking the bank as such but we’ve let two starting players in key positions leave without replacing them. I expect both Chisholm and McNally were towards the higher end of our pay scale. Keyes will surely need to be brought back in gradually so we look a bit slim on options once again.

I’d feel more comfortable with Minchella and Lilley in the halves as Wildie is best utilised at 9. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Pickersgill have a run at 6.

Surely not? Minchella seems to be struggling for a bit of form let's not mess him about playing out of position for weeks. Perhaps they will muddle through in the hope that Keyes is over his problems, seems a risky strategy though unless we're settling for mid table this year.

Seems pointless bringing anyone in at this stage when we're not realistically playing for anything now for the remainder of the season. Sure we could get top 5 at a push but what's the long term value in that and would it be worth meeting the wage demands of a Brierley to get there? I'd expect not.

But surely we are playing for something - we need to maintain the positives that the cup run gave us and consolidate a push for top 5 - big squad which we don't use = wasting money? Our style of play, learning progression appears to be in a downward spiral at the moment. Yes we have injuries but who doesn't? Maybe we do need to invest in some quality and not wait until next year. Why do our players appear so jaded and one dimensional?

Well I thought it was a disappointing afternoon, predictable in many ways. It was always going to be a close game but the same failings and a couple of new ones were our downfall.

Losing Milnes was a blow as he adds some much needed creativity and it was he that started and finished the passing movement that led to our first try. He’s also a reliable goalkicker too. Out of at least 8 weeks. That’s the last thing we needed.

On the plus side there was plenty of effort and but for some missed kicks at goal we could have sneaked it. Having said that I thought Fax were the better side. Their pack won the battle up the middle and with Murrell they had someone that knew how to pull the strings.

A lot of our better players seem out of form, in particular Crossley and Minchella. We lacked a bit of power up front and Kear only picking one prop on the bench took its toll IMO. He needs to patch things up with Bustin and get him back in the 17 as we’re missing something there. Our lack of go forward resulted in our halves running sideways and that’s always a bad sign. Just what Lilley thinks he’s doing when he runs across the field is beyond me. Contrast that with how Murrell runs straight with players on each shoulder. It’s not rocket science.

Defensively there were some poor reads and some poor contact. Hallas had his worst game in a while in defence. I lost count of the number of times he bounced off. He’s in for his defence so that was disappointing.

Our inability to put a decent kick in at the end of the set and us seemingly being happy to turn the ball over on the 6th tackle is very frustrating. Is it down to a lack of ability or coaching? If I hear Kear say in TV commentary that “it’s not a bad place to turn the ball over” again I’ll chuck something at the telly. Good sides build pressure or show more ambition in those situations.

The injuries we’ve had have been very disruptive this season and have taken their toll but they happen to all sides. We look in dire need of something to freshen things up. Unfortunately I hear Keyes is several weeks away from full fitness so we go on with many of the same faces in the line up.

On the bright side a semi versus Saints would’ve been an absolute thrashing so we avoid that embarrassment.

How many games have we played? I'm beginning to think that the 7 pre-season games (was it 7?) were too many. How many weekends off have we had since Boxing day?
We won all 4 of our easter games, then have had a tough May with the Toronto trip and the energy expended for Leeds. No free weekends due to the cup run - unlike Fev, for example.
The only comparable team in this division, running a reserve team and having a cup run is obviously Halifax. And I'm fairly sure they had a couple of weekends off in preseason. They've been to France, but not to Canada yet.

i think it’s pretty obvious what we are doing - blooding a youthful and passionate nucleus of a squad with a sprinkling of experience such as webster and flanagan, to help protect and nurture the young talent.

when the time comes that a shot at promotion is likely and realistic (which completely depends on when toronto go up, and who comes
down - (eg. someone like london who will spend within their means and it won’t be a cash p*ssing contest)), then i think we will see two or three big money signings coming in to actually have a real go at promotion. one would hope that by then the young players we have are battle hardened, more experienced, and ready for a real tussle.

until then (and this for me is the depressing part and makes me not want to chuck out the £23 every weekend), we will be watching a young squad learning and growing together which will chuck out some inconsistency.

I hope the club don't share that view when they're charging some of the highest prices in the Championship! Surely a play off place is still very much the target? I think we will need some extra manpower to achieve that goal though with our ever increasing injury list.

Disappointed but not downhearted to lose to a good local rival team. Haven't watched the TV version yet but I guess it was a good advert for championship clubs, never more than a score between the clubs, lead changing hands almost after every score, some nice tries, tries from errors and all played in a constant wind and occasional rain.

From a Bulls' perspective, we seemed a little lethargic, with, in the 'big lads in the pack' only Ross Peltier seeming to be really fired up and running on all cylinders - he tackled hard, ran hard, and didn't deserve to be on the losing side. Losing Rowan in the first half didn't help our cause, it left Jordan Lilley, as the only 'real' half, as the 'one to be stopped' to blunt our attacking endeavours. With yardage at a premium from the forwards he didn't have much room to play in, unfortunately. Minnie seems to be struggling for form at the moment but tried hard, Steve Crossley likewise, he put in the effort but didn't get much change from the Fax pack. Hallas, Farrell and Storton all ran and tackled hard but didn't seem to impose themselves as they have done.

Fax are a team at a similar level to us so it's no disgrace to lose and, overall we contributed much to a good game. For Fax, I wish them nothing but the best of luck against Saints (they'll need it..)

I suspect we’re on a budget and big signings aren’t going to happen. I expect top 5 was the goal but with injuries and loss of form it’s looking a bit unlikely now. Top 8 was more realistic.

Personally I just want to go and enjoy the rugby which I’ve mostly done this season. While we have played some pretty uninspiring rugby at times we’ve had some major highs too. Bit of a mixed bag. At the moment we’re struggling but things have been worse.

:3kxrra7a

It seems to be. While on the whole, our team does have a good work ethic - and especially with all the massive amounts of extra work it has to do due to dropped first tackle balls, silly penalties, gifted repeat sets to the opposition and hopeless last tackle plays - I find it very noitceable how we almost never attack at speed in numbers, and i am sick of a poor looped pass being thrown slightly behind a player who was loping rather than running, and he having to jump on the spot to catch it. Our excellent try showed both what can be done, and that when it is, it works.

:3kxrra7a
Lack of ability. We can all name n secoonds a couple of dozen old time quicksilver-thinking halfbacks who could kick you to death near the line or far from it (Henry Paul anyon?) and Murrell is no world-beater but has it in his locker. Most of our kicks look frustratingly hopeless as soon as they are kicked. That's the giveaway. Whereas us, when there's a minute to go and we're 12 points in the lead, we can't even manage to kick it into touch.


:3kxrra7a
When I get too depressed, I come back to this. In the medium term, Keyes and Milnes to me both look to have that instant decision making and cheekiness about them, and so no, I don't think signing people, at this stage of a finished season, has any merit, but I do wish having got Chisholm, we had kept him.


This. I've been saying that for weeks. The great luck of the draw home to leeds then fax helped the bank, but we look to be playing on half-power batteries.

I've been thinking about this and looking back, the thing i think we are currently missing is the props and forwards to remoreselessly bash and tire out the opposition in the first hour. This used to enable us to find haps in the latter stages of the game through tiredness and we do have the players to take advantage. Yesterday, none of our players played that game effectiveley, even Crossley, while he made some metres, wasn't the force of earlier in the season, and when Peltier came on, the point was nicely illustrated.

I'm not sure what we do for the rest of the season. We are now without a halfback pairing for the rest of it, and we can't seriously achieve much more, but what do you do? looks like Minchella and Lilley for the foreseeable, then. Any better ideas? Chisholm on loan-loan?

I think AC confirmed this in one of his rants ([urlhttps://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article/52338/beware-the-eagles-nest---andrew-chalmers-[/url) and how the lowest Champ teams got a considerable amount more than the top Champ 1 teams through central funding.

I would hope that finishing as high as possible this year would provide a considerably larger central funding pot, and an influx of more experienced heads in the positions we are in dire need of improving.

I would assume it's the same budget that we started the season with though? I would expect that our wage bill has decreased with the departures of McNally and Chisholm. Yes I know we've brought in Roche and Brown but they will surely be on considerably less. I still can't believe we didn't make a bid for Liam Finn, he wouldn't of cost the earth and would of provided some of the game management and kicking skills we badly lack.

By all accounts Fax lost up front to Batley last week and as a result Murrell had no time on the ball. We gave him far too much time yesterday and he made us pay on a few occasions. I think a lot came down to a lack of experience and a lack of ability. When playing Fax you know that Murrell will be getting the ball on the 5th tackle so you ought to have a plan to pressure him. It’s not rocket science.

When he ran the ball in and created the try near the sticks he was running straight and had two support runners. Basic but effective. Certainly much more so than Lilley’s repeated scurrying toward the touchline. Whether that was down to our lack of go forward, lack of support play or just some odd idea of what might unlock a defence I don’t know.

One thing I would do for the Batley game is bring Bustin back in. He may be short of match fitness but we need to freshen things up and he takes a lot of tackling. He has faults in his game but doesn’t everyone?

I have watched Dewsbury as a neutral a few times this year. He's nowhere near where he was. Weight has been gained and there is no sign of game management or kicking skills either.

That said - he will likely turn it on when we play them!

Bradford are paying some good money out for players, Webster £70k, Hitchcox £70K and Chisholm £70K (before he left) Ryan is on decent money too however you have just pumped your money into Lilley.

Bradford have 4th highest spend in the Championship behind Toulouse, Toronto & Widnes.

Are those figures based on something concrete or just what you think they're on?

These guys were on the open transfer market at the end of last year and Bradford were a good fit for them being Yorkshire based. I haven't seen their wage slips if that's what you're asking.

All clubs are being put off Brierley's 6 figure a year deal at Toronto.

Unless we've started renewing contracts of players we want to keep, but haven't publicised it yet.

Sorry but you are completely wrong

And that's on one of the lowest central funding allocations in the championship. If we get a decent uplift in funding for next year, depending on who comes down, we may be able to get spend up to 3rd highest in championship and can push for promotion. No boom or bust here anymore. We can slowly increase the size of our cloth.....

Well I guess you are closer to the heart of things, Roger, and therefore more likely to know

But how wrong can he be (given that he's likely guessing..)?

Toronto obviously the big spenders, then Toulouse and Widnes - yeah, I can see that. Who amongst the rest would be spending more than us? Featherstone maybe? Leigh? Doubtful...