So with the defeat against London at the weekend (which I think most of us had as a loss anyway) we now come up against Matt Diskin's Batley.

Batley have been having mixed results and currently stand in 6th place with 3 wins, 2 losses, 112 points for and 110 against.

The 19 man squads will probably be released either tomorrow or Friday. Twitter seems to suggest that Lilley is back in contention for us (yes it was Gledhill) which is a boost. And hopefully Pryce is over his niggle. Yet to see what has happened to Magrin after his injury at the weekend too.

I personally think this a very winnable game and will do us wonders going into Dewsbury (Home), Oldham (Away) and Sheffield (Home). All which I think we should win based on form which would rid our points deduction. I understand the cup match against Featherstone next weekend will disrupt this run of games though which could be an issue.

For me, Lee Smith needs to feature in the back line somewhere from the start. He is not the high flying Lee Smith that tormented us in the late 2000's and 2010! He is a slower slightly tubby Lee Smith but his experience in both attack and defence will be important in games like this. For me he needs to play centre inside Macani as we look weak defensively down that side.

But all in all I honestly do think this is a winnable game but it will be tough as it always is against the Bulldogs!

Quote ="Bulls Boy 2011" Twitter seems to suggest that Lilley is back in contention for us (yes it was Gledhill) which is a boost.'" Lilley is in Leeds 19 man squad for their game this week www.therhinos.co.uk/news/ablett- ... MBzsxicaRs

Quote ="Bulls Boy 2011" Twitter seems to suggest that Lilley is back in contention for us (yes it was Gledhill) which is a boost.'" Lilley is in Leeds 19 man squad for their game this week www.therhinos.co.uk/news/ablett- ... MBzsxicaRs

It'll be Friday. It's always 48 hours before the game. It's the same for every team in Super League & Championship. They don't always announce them, but they do submit them to the RFL in that timeframe.

Quote ="paulwalker71"Lilley is in Leeds 19 man squad for their game this week www.therhinos.co.uk/news/ablett- ... MBzsxicaRs'" Hardly surprising to be honest. Looked like one of their better players in an appalling Leeds side. Hopefully it will be like that Will Maher at Cas. Was on the bench for Cas on Thursday, not used. So played for Batley? or Fev on the Sunday. Hopefully this will be the case of Lilley, either on bench and not played or not in the final 17!

Quote ="paulwalker71"Lilley is in Leeds 19 man squad for their game this week www.therhinos.co.uk/news/ablett- ... MBzsxicaRs'" Hardly surprising to be honest. Looked like one of their better players in an appalling Leeds side. Hopefully it will be like that Will Maher at Cas. Was on the bench for Cas on Thursday, not used. So played for Batley? or Fev on the Sunday. Hopefully this will be the case of Lilley, either on bench and not played or not in the final 17!

I'm hoping not in the 17. We could do with him for Sunday.

Not confident we can do it, but I really hope we can get two wins from our next two league games. If we finish the Dewsbury game on -4 with them still on zero (and hopefully Swinton/Oldham/Sheffield not picking up any more points) then there might be a glimmer of optimism regarding our survival.

Not fussed about the cup game, just get through it with no injuries.

Agreed. The cup is a massive distraction this year. Not needed at all. As for Batley. I think we'll struggle to contain them. They are a tough, well drilled team and we are easily the underdogs. I only hope they arrive taking us lightly and we're give them a bit of a backlash from our loss in London.

Can't see us winning but a performance with fewer errors would be an improvement. TBH I don't see us getting any points from games versus HKR, Fev, Batley and London. I'd love to be wrong but that's what my head says.

Batley's record so far is nothing to worry anyone, other than an underdone side which actually got worse over the pre-season, like us, of course.

To be honest, that said, I feel it's an even game and the winner will probably need an occasional bounce of the ball and maybe the odd decision to go its way. Let's hope that team is us.

This will come down to whoever performs best on the day. As OP said, Batley have had a mixed season so far. Smith has to play for me at centre. Hopefully Pryce will be back. We need to ditch the ridiculous experiment of having a back on the bench. The last 3 games the 17th man has played a total of 10mins. Get Peltier on the bench. Should be a good entertaining game this. If we win, the team will be really lifted for the crunch games coming up. Edit - Looks like it will be Keyes & Pryce in at HB on Sunday www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... available/

This will come down to whoever performs best on the day. As OP said, Batley have had a mixed season so far. Smith has to play for me at centre. Hopefully Pryce will be back. We need to ditch the ridiculous experiment of having a back on the bench. The last 3 games the 17th man has played a total of 10mins. Get Peltier on the bench. Should be a good entertaining game this. If we win, the team will be really lifted for the crunch games coming up. Edit - Looks like it will be Keyes & Pryce in at HB on Sunday www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... available/

I would go as far to say if after 7 games (with 23 left) we are only 6-ish points behind then I would expect us to survive not just a glimmer of hope. I do think that once the problem there clearly is sorted we will sign a few more players and they will start to gel by half way through. My initial hope was to be only 4 points behind when we start the 7 game play-offs against only bottom clubs.

Disko probably had this down as a winnable game when he took the reins at Batley, he knew the Coach the Team the systems played, now its only winnable from the point of view its still a scratch team, but from this end we should get a result as Batley have not been that consistent!

whereas we've been super consistent at making erors and dropping the ball....

Well, be fair, some things NEVER change..

At the moment I dont feel confident going into any game; yes we are getting better and the team is starting to gel, but I go into each game thinking we are going to lose it, so if we win, its a bonus.
Call it pessimism or realism; but I think, on the day any team can turn us over - likewise if the bounce of the ball goes our way we could win any game.
On Sunday the thing that we have that Batley dont is 3000+ noisy home fans - so lets shout the boys on to their next home win and reduce that deficit to -6 COYB

Well, at least we've got rid of the notion that we're the 'mighty' Bulls and no-one now thinks we, 'should', win every game.

We may say that, but plenty of visiting fans would still think we think we should. So maybe a sticky, that has to be read by every visiting fan before proceeding to the forum, with disclaimers along the lines of we dont expect to win every game, we have cut our cloth, we would rather have started again in Ch2, a 1 paragraph no more than 200 words summary of where we were and where we are now, and any other rebuttals for recurring tedium that visitors come up with. Then they have no excuse for being morons .

Feel free to post a draft!

They may have no excuse, but I bet they still do it.

19 man squad announced.

James Bentley, Johnny Campbell, Joe Keyes, Liam Kirk, Kevin Larroyer, Joe Lumb, Iliess Macani, Jon Magrin, James Mendeika, Scott Moore, Daniel Murray, Ross Oakes, Mikolaj Oledzki, Ross Peltier, Leon Pryce, Colton Roche, Ethan Ryan, Lee Smith, Oscar Thomas.

Only Oledzki of the Leeds lads in there.

Personally Mendeika & Campbell would miss out in the 17 I'd pick. But I suspect it may end up being Lumb & Campbell.

Wasn't Moore due to answer bail this week?. anyone heard what happened?. Wonder if we'll see a late withdrawal through injury if Lilley doesnt feature for leds tonight.

Not sure why everyone keeps mentioning Lilley as potentially playing.

If Lilley was to come back, it would be on a fresh loan. Meaning Leeds couldn't recall him for another month. Considering their issues lately, I wouldn't think that's very likely. We can't just call on him one week, then he's back at Leeds again, then we may have him, then Leeds can have him, as we're not Dual Reg with them. If that's going to happen, it'll be with Fev, not us.
Since you have to register players Friday to have them play Sunday, we won't be doing that with him. So there's surely no chance at all of him playing.

Unless an actual new loan deal is announced, I wouldn't bother speculating on Lilley turning out for us personally.


As far as Scott Moore goes, didn't I see someone say he was due to answer bail but not actually have a trial yet? So even if he's up against charges, it won't happen just yet? Regardless, this is the last game of his "4 game trial period" anyway, so we'll have to see something about him this week if he's to play in the cup game.

Only 3 backrowers in the 19 man squad. Looks like we're going for plenty of props in the 17 to cope with Batley.

I'd go for this:

Thomas
Macani
Smith
Oakes
Ryan
Pryce
Keyes
Magrin
Moore
Murray
Roche
Larroyer
Bentley

Campbell
Oldezki
Peltier
Kirk

Careful. You'll have people suggesting Pryce plays 13 again despite not being even slightly suitable for the role except that he's a bit tall.

Or maybe FA as a rotating prop. To quote Ray French "He's a big lad, he's a strong lad!"

As far as his trial at the Bulls is concerned, Moore has been found guilty as charged - he's a fine player and we should bang him up for this year at least, maybe with an option of another, y'know, for good behaviour like..and before anyone else does.