Now my optimistic prediction of 5 wins from the last 7 has been blown out of the water & our play off hopes seem over would people consider changing the team? I personally would give Ford a chance at Gleeson's expence even though I rate Gleeson highly, Owen is a must at hooker in Howarth's place, Owen is much better & quicker at dummy half IMO and speeds our attack up. This next comment probably goes against everything I've just said but I would pick Long alongside Holdsworth from now on in as I don't feel Sneyd is confident enough to lead us round the park behind this pack. If we had Wigan's pack fair enough I would pick him but I just don't feel he has the game at the moment to lead us around the park where Long has that extra quality to do it. Friday we were poor ball in hand, which has been very rare this season. Would any of the 20's forwards be worth a go? Walne, etc. Finally, Williams played through the pain on Friday & may not be fit for Hull away, are any of the 20's wingers worth a shot? Surely given their results this season there are 1 or 2 who must be?!

Good post, I am too a big fan of Owens. I was in the hospitality on Friday and asked the question to simms about owen and he said that he just wasn't in the squad. Quiet worrying really as our bench on friday did not have a playmaker on it!!

Honestly think Owen is a great talent but if consistantly left out then wouldn't surpirse me if he didn't sign again, (wouldn't blame him)

Agree with the comment about switch Gleeson as well, Nothing against sean think he has been brilliant this season, but with nothing much else to play for why not start blooding some of the new, younger lads.

For me the jury is still out out Snyed, Seen some great stuff and just think he needs more match experience.

In summary I would start blooding some young lads through from the reserves / academy for the rest of the year for the lads that are going. Like I said nothing personal to the lads going, I think they have been great but we need to build for next season

On the plus side Gaz Owen has recently signed a 3 yr deal. I just think he is going to be top quality and for such a small kid he really tackles above & beyond his size! Is Fages too young to be given a shot? Can't say I have really seen him play but reports are fantastic. I don't wish to sound negative about Sneyd but I ahven't, as yet, seen enough to be convinced he's good enough to warrant a start week in, week out but as you say he needs experience to gain confidence so I don't have any real problem with him being given the opportunity. What I will say is that if he is going to play the rest of the season I would definately give him goal kicking duties.

First of all well done to the 20's on Friday, I caught the second half v Widnes, and we blew them away to win 56-18 playing some cracking RL.
Sneyd is a talent but did look a little lost on Friday against Widnes but he did defend well.
U20's winger Brotherton has the size, speed and finishing ability to be given a chance if required.
We could give Luke Towers a shot on the wing he looks very quick and elusive?
Adam Walne/Will Hope/Nial Evalds/Tom Whitehead/Adam Files and Jon Ford certainly seem to have done enough in the 20's this season to merit a shot in SL.
Owen signed a three year deal a couple of months ago, but I agree he should be playing SL, and speeds us up around the ruck...badly needed at the moment.
Time for a few changes....probably, but we shouldn't blood too many too soon!

While it seems we require other results to go our way,with Huddersfield far from certain from getting any return from games against Cats and Saints,it makes our game against them at the 'Theatre Of The Absurd',on 10th August,vital.(46 points conceded in 57 minutes )


Introducing players for away games may be beneficial to those individuals but those players from Friday night may wish to make amends.
I am quite happy to leave the matter to the coaching staff.It was just a blip which can be overcome and forgotten about if all goes well on Sunday at a club which itself is going through huge changes and with the owner giving his opinion on half-backs.


Just need a performance at Hull and we're back on track.
Important games with perhaps a little too much pressure to blood the youngsters.

SCR-SeaDiver - just out of interest, would you stick with Sneyd or bring in Long? Given we are away at his last club he could be well up for it! I'm pleased to see you haven't given up top 8 hopes!

25 July 2012 at 09:43



BRADFORD BULLS
have been handed a six-point deduction by the Rugby Football League for entering administration.



=REDTHE STOBART SUPER LEAGUE TABLE

1 Wigan 21 17 0 4 798 325 34
-------------------------------------------------
2 Warrington 21 15 1 5 683 413 31
3 St Helens 21 13 2 6 605 383 28
4 Catalan Dragons 21 14 0 7 631 447 28
5 Leeds 21 13 0 8 608 478 26
6 Hull 21 11 2 8 500 479 24
7 Huddersfield 21 11 0 10 555 468 22
8 Hull KR 21 9 1 11 563 525 19
----------------------------------------------------
9 Bradford 21 11 1 9 475 522 17*
10 Salford 21 8 1 12 492 614 17
11 Wakefield 21 7 0 14 427 620 14
12 Castleford 21 6 0 15 458 700 12
13 Widnes 21 5 0 16 382 854 10
---------------------------------------------------
14 London Broncos 21 3 0 18 384 733 6

*Bradford Bulls Deducted 6 Points For Entering Administration*

Personally I would go with Long as we could do with some positive publicity.

I also agree that Sneyd didn’t have his best game against Widnes and understand he needs first team game time to improve, however, in light of Bradford being deducted 6 points there is still hope we can make the 8 so give the experienced Long a shot for the Hull game and if anything we could still put Sneyd on the bench at interchange 9 to keep him in the 17, (I am with the majority and think Gaz Owen should be in this position) but surely either Sneyd or Owen will do a better job than Vinny at interchange hooker. But I’m not the coach and will leave these decisions to masers Veivers and Long.

The most worrying thing for me on Friday was that Sneyd looked lost, there has to be an issue in the minds of the coaches as without doubt he is a better kicker than DJ but he isn't given the duties. I would bring Owen for Howarth, have long on the bench and then if needed we could bring Long on and maybe try Sneyd at hooker (he certainly has a fair bit of size about him) as a stop gap. To have Sneyd and Lon on the pitch at the same time might give him first hand experience of watching a master of his art at work. Also agree about Ford (though I'd give Gleason one last game this weekend to show he wants to carry on his good work for the rest of the season) and I'd look at giving Towers and the lad they brought in from Saints as a winger/ a bit of game time.

Salford being annoying as they are will probably go out and batter either Hull, Leeds or Wigan away from home to frustrate us all and as I say elsewhere finish just outside the top 8.

Jon Ford is currently touring Australia with the England Academy team. He played in their 28-18 victory over NSW Juniors this morning

This lad is in the England Academy then surely he's worthy of a run out in the first team at some point before the end of the season. Especially if Gleeson continues to play absolute dog s**t for the remainder, as he did against Widnes. (I’m not on my own when I say that I think his mind was elsewhere that night)

Apply the Paul Anderson rule of thumb and build for the future, if you’re not part of it then there’s the door. I know there is still the rest of this season to play for and I suppose you have to pick the best players available to help us push for the 8.

I think we were disorganised & too laid back on Friday night. Widnes looked fired up and together in warm up - we looked like it was a training warm up - drifting on the feild in 1's and 2's. We gave away 10+ pens for obstruction going forward and offside in defense. Now if we were calling the plays wrong - they sorted it out second half as we gave away few pens, but were too far back by then and chasing the game. Rememeber a lot of our problems also came from dropping the ball at vital moments - not the fault of the half backs all that.

If there are leadership issues then hopefully that can be sorted on the training ground. To be fair we won with Mark Sneyd at 6 at HKR ... Matty Smith was a vocal and experinced half back - Sneyd is new and will only grow in stature by playing matches. We should resist changing the half back combo unless there are serious confidence or tecnical problems.

I hope Joel is fit for HUll - he is a star. I also hope we come out of the sheds like Widnes did to us - fired up and mainly error free. If we do that - here's hoping.

They may have sorted the penaltys out I don't know but nothing changed, it was 0-24 at half time then moved on to 0-40. In my book they sorted nothing.