According to Dave "nosey" Parker Jimmy could be returning to the Bulls next season as assistant coach at the expense of St Hilaire and Richards.

Please!!

Also rumours that Ben Westwood is heading this way too, highly rated at Warrington but does give away a lot of penalties..

Thoughts?

Without setting the place alight, they would both probably be useful signings.

I'd go with that as a positive step and an acknowledgement from the club that something needs to change, if we're looking at supporting McNamara then bring in Harrison as a coach too whilst we're at it.

Bringing Lowes back would add character back into the place and a link to more successful times so could be positive, but I've no idea if he's a good coach though.

Lowes as assistant would be an ominous move for McNamara - Lowes has already ousted Harrison at Salford and Cullen at Warrington from this position.

I've seen no evidence to suggest Lowes would be a good first team coach anyway. Bradford would be better served taking a leaf out of Huddersfield's book and going for an experienced NRL coach - if they can afford one!

St.Hilaire, Richards and Clawson will not have there contracts renewed which run out on the 30 November = Result

.

As for Ben Westwood he could be a good signing, England international and gives 100%, but its just those penalties he gives away.

My thoughts on that are OK maybe but could do better. I tend to agree with Trimalchio in we should be aiming for experience. Our biggest signing should be the next Coach...
But in fairness I've been saying that the backroom team needed improving for a long time some getting rid of all of them if true shuts me up on that.

Doesn't do anything spectacular but he works hard and that's what we need. Most of all he's at least aggressive which is what we have missed.

The evidence so far seems to suggest Jimmy isn't a good first team coach and works best as an assistant coach at the moment. I can see a position where we have two good assistant coaches (Lowes and Macca) and nothing of note changes. I would much rather we opened the first team coach position up or pretended we need a 'Director of Rugby' and brought someone more qualified in, such as when Brian Smith was 'helping out' Macca.

Agreed. Considering one of the biggest complaints recently has been a lack of effort from some players, that's certainly something you won't get from Westwood.

I've always quite liked him as a player, as far as the penalties go, I think it's just a matter of taking the rough with the smooth.

Hall, L'Estrange, Kearney and Westwood would be massive improvements on our team.

If we are signing Kearney to play FB, then I will be disappointed as that's not showing faith in our own home-grown player who has been excellent there this season.

On the other hand, signing him to play 6 would be ok, but he's not really a proven quality player there, so we'd have to wait and see.

Is this confirmed?

You're not employed by the club by any chance are you?

It still doesn't address the problem area of our team.

It may have started to if we are signing Kearney to play 6, but then we still need a short term centre and LF (until Crookes and Donaldson can step up) and a long term 7.

You need someone like John Lang. Jimmy Lowes was a good player, but there are question marks (and fairly big ones in my eyes) over his coaching ability.

Hall's fine, if a bit of a plodder.
L'Estrange is decent enough.
Kearney is injury prone, unproven in the halves and hasn't put a full season in for years.
Westwood is a solid second rower, a tryer, with a big heart and a tendency to high tackle.

If that's a 'massive improvement' we have a very different idea of where the Bulls should be heading. They are for most part fairly typical of other Macca signings, they're not going to set the world on fire and may/may not improve us as a team.

L'Estrange will be a big improvement on Newton of late, fast, creative etc.

Hall is -as Macca said- a no nonsense type player, solid defensively, gives good offloads etc. Westwood would come near that category, and, imo wouldn't be a bad replacement for Morro as he always puts 100% in. Kearney is the one i'm not sure about, if he could remain injury free he could be good, but he's still unproven as a 6.

Agree. Lowes will never be a good 1st team coach, like Macca isn't.

Does anybody believe a word what comes out of Parkers mouth?

Kearney and Westwood though, why?

Westwood to replace Morro. Kearney to replace Jeffries. Could do a lot better, but could do worse.

It's quality we need, especially in the halfbacks and backs. We've too many inconsistent players who have a losers mentality. Hall & L'Strange come from a successful club but don't address our problem areas. Kearney has done nothing to suggest he'll be any better than the incumbents.

Kearney is rubbish, not even as good as Jeffries which to be honest, hardly takes much beating. And we've already got ready made replacements for Morrison.

Fair comments, tbh I don't think the pack needs any strengthening with the youngsters we've got coming through. We really need 2 new halves, a centre and a new winger.

tbh, I don't see the point in us signing another 2nd rower as we've excellent young lads who can player there who's development would be stunted by being pushed back down the pecking order