Have to agree with you, but it's what happened in the games that makes it different. Blowing a 26 point lead is something no club should do, especially when we are in dire need of some wins to boost our confidence. Just ridiculous. Would have thought Menzies, Newton sand some of the older/experienced players would have told the team to calm down and play safe rugby.

Yes, they would and rightly so.

Other clubs results have nothing to do with us. We capitulated again, which compounds misery onto an already poor season and highlights a problem at the club.

Focusing on other teams results is a cop out - we should focus on our own no matter what.

The reaction today has been coming for a while and signifies just how many people are losing or have lost the faith.

Edited to put in the words you intended to use and thought better of it...

Just a thought. If Rhinos had been 26 points up on Saints would they have lost.
As has been mentioned on numerous occasions it is not losing but the manner of the loss that is annoying everybody. Surely after last week even our coaching staff should have drilled it into the team what to do to avoid letting 16 point lead slip. Then this week we go 1 sorry 10 better and let a 26 point lead slip.
To rephrase your question would you have been unhappy to lose to Cats away 40 -38 - No. Would you feel different if they had given you a 26 point start - Hell yes.

My question referred to the scores, not to the knowing about the manner of the losing. I think we can all agree about the manner of losing



Put it another way (as last poster effectively just did): had you been up a mountain someplace, and a mate texted you those scores with no further details, would you have been as vitriolic as you are? (General question).

No. But I appear to be missing the point.
Are we saying that the Cats should have just walked off at the end saying 'Sacre bleu. Never in doubt cherie'.

No, you got the point, in your original answer, and said the same as I would have. I was just inviting others to consider it in the same way as you did.

And as for what Cats should have said at the end, something more like "Sacre Bleu, Dieu existe, après tout! Maintenant nous comprenons pourquoi les Bulls sont appelés les Collapsibulls..."

ooooh get you. Your French obviously better than mine. I was taught by a certain D. Trotter of Peckham.

One other question... was today worse than letting a 30-6 lead slip to a 30-31 loss?

Yep. Only 24 points in front on that occasion.

Let's just say that a coach has not learned much after three years.

What I meant was, which felt worse?

"So which is worse... there's only one way to find out! FIIIIIIIIGHT!"

Wigan was worse, but i thought we might do ok in the Challenge Cup this year.

For me that was McNarama's only saving grace to have the season as a success and that's f**ked up, as we won't do anything in the league.

Wigan felt worse because I was there. But this sucks pretty majorly too.

I`d agree that Wigan was worse, mainly because at the end of the season , in a play-off, it was a more important game but it doesn`t hurt any less.

As for what we`ll do in the league this year, I obviously don`t know to be honest, it`s only the very start of April and much too soon to have any real idea. I do think a lot of Bulls` fans do need a reality check though; it`s no longer 2005, there is no longer a big four and we no longer have `easybeats` from whom we could guarantee taking the points and we`re no longer one of only four clubs which could compete for all the best players either.

The cap has done its work. With the obvious exceptions of Leeds and Saints (and financial/accountancy problems seem to looming for them) all teams are very even. There are no games in which we can go into expecting some god given right to win; those days are gone.

Macca won`t blame his players and let`s be fair, he says what he has to say but it`s clear to me that the team isn`t as strong as it was particularly in the halves and backs. Trouble is that there are more teams and most teams are now spending up to the cap so there is more competition for star players. The club isn`t immune from this, we don`t operate in some kind of bubble, protected from reality. Nor, hopefully, are we involved in these dodgy accountancy deals which are coming under scrutiny.

We have the choice of either accepting the new reality, or we can start jumping up and down and shouting sack the coach. What really puzzles me is whether the sack the coach brigade honestly thought that that our run of table topping success would last forever?

I`ve watched Northern/Bulls since the early fifties and, believe me, there have been many ups and many downs; just like in normal life, nothing lasts forever.

We've been on a steady decline since 2005 but there's been no sign of that decline stopping, with each season performances have got worse.

IIRC this is the worst start to a season for over 20 years.

It's obvious that we are no longer a top side. I said at the beginning of the season that we'd finish 5th at best. I think now that we'll be lucky to make the top 8 and that is a massive failure.

If we carry on as we are I can't see anything other than continued decline. I dread to think what corwds will be like when we have the visit of Cats or Celtic. Get ready for some attendances remeniscent of the mid 80s.

How do you think we'd go on if we could just replicate the first 45 minutes for the rest of the season?

I think we'd be lucky to find ourselves playing a side as awful as Cats were for that first 45mins every week! That first half never saw them exert any pressure on our line at all. As soon as they started to do that we shipped points at an embarrassing rate.

I really fear for us at the moment. Sunday was bad and we've yet to play either Saints or Leeds yet.

I think that the Cats was the worse defeat. Even this early in the season we were realistically looking at the Cup as our main chance of success. Now I am looking forward to next season because with no relegation there is little of interest for us now. This will also be reflected in the crowds. What we need is something to get the place buzzing again. We could do worse than follow Newcastle's lead with Shearer. For those old enough to remember Brian Smith did a similar thing when he first came. He brought in a lot of people, on short term contracts, and the crowds went up because people thought that at last something new was happening. CRowds are fickle and whilsta long term solution is desirable you need something short term to maintain the interest.

Trouble is, very unlikely now we could afford it. Its all hand-to-mouth it seems. Can't see we'd be able to borrow (even if we wanted to bet the house on the last throw of the dice) and there's no-one there to bankroll the costs until the rewards came in. And, of course, the income from fans is falling off and that was before Sunday's disaster. Think we are stuck in a catch 22 and I struggle to see a way out. The only obvious solution - loads more fans through the turnstiles in advance of significant improvement - will not happen.

I suspect that Sunday will prove the tipping point, probably for Macca and quite possibly for the club. Maybe an unexpected good result on Friday would change the situation - but I'd not want to bet the house on it.

It was the tipping point for me. I think Cibaman hit the nail on the head when he said the club should be looking for a change in coach to start in the summer. This would give them time to get the right person. The present regime has lost the plot and has only succeeded in taking the club backwards. If that decline continues then the club's future is even more in doubt.

I agree with you Adeybull. I wasn't advocating that we do exactly the same as before I just think we need to do something short term to keep and raise peoples interest. I think half of our problem is that for too long we have tried to duplicate exactly things that have worked for us in the past instead of concentrating on the concept of them. For example; could you imagine the interest generated should we bring back Jimmy or Robbie in some position. And before everybody jumps on me I am not advocating them for coach.

jimmy as assistant coach would be a start, and would certainly demand some respect from the players having him prowling the touchline.

The big problem is finding something `new`. When you think that the club went from 1895 to the 1990`s just simply playing RL before we pinched the big idea from Cougarland it`s pretty obvious that big ideas don`t exactly come along in threes, so I`d guess it`s going to be hard to come up with something totally original.

One thing I would say is that we no longer seem to make the same effort on the kids at Odsal, and it`s noticeable that there aren`t the same numbers as a few years back. I know there are the family ticket deals and very cheap junior deals on offer but we don`t aim the entertainment at the kids in the way we did before.

The chief thing about attracting the youngsters is that it doesn`t need to be `different`, when you first go it`s all new, even if it`s been done for twenty years. Face painting, fairground rides, dancing competitions and something visual to keep their attention like fire eaters and people walking round on stilts.

It was clear a few years back that the match at Odsal was regarded as one of the `in` places for school age people. I`d guess that`s no longer the case. We need to get back to that because without an influx of new fans any club is going to be in trouble.

I think things like these have been cut to save money by having them only through the summer months when more kids are likely to be coming.

Noticed that Cas do this sort of thing more than us now.