This.

I've never understood why people get all het up about Hood saying this. He has been asked what Bradford are aiming for, not what they'll realistically achieve.

A club of our standing should shoot for nothing less than the top four. What's the point otherwise? In my professional life, I always set myself lofty goals because I want to make the most out of my talents. Sometimes I won't hit my targets but it's better than accepting or settling for mediocrity.

Personally I think the Bulls will struggle to crack the top eight but I still have no problem with Mr Hood aiming higher.

We do need to aim high, fair enough, but sucess for me this this year for me would be, in order of priority;

1- Be competitive and never give in for every home game
2- Win more games than we lose over the season
3- make the playoffs (which would probably follow 2 tbf)

[iExactly[/i

Many years ago when I was at school, I can remember a teacher saying, "if you want to hit the roof you must aim for the sky, because if you just aim for the roof you'll only fall back on your posterior"
(He didn't actually say 'posterior', of course, he said, "", or actually he didn't as I was perfectly correct in thinking think that I wouldn't get the word beginning with an 'a' and ending 'rse' past the auto censor. It's a good job teachers didn't have auto censors in the classroom back then, or some good lessons would probably have fallen by the wayside as none of us would have had a clue what a "booty" was. )

This is a disgrace the figurehead for the club being positive going into the new season.

It's unbelievable that someone trying to sell tickets and merchandise for something would dream of talking it up.

Hood the first rule of business is to talk down your product. Just ask Gerald Ratner!!!!

completely agree with FA and roofaldo, got to aim high.

Besides all of which, will be in the top 4 anyway.

With all due respect I think Mr Hood is insulting your intelligence.

I think he could have answered the question in a way that wouldn't have made him look a bit like he's living in fantasy land.

For example he could have said [i'We're aiming to be competitive throughout the season, and to win as many games as we possibly can. We realise its going to be tough, and there are going to be some considerable challenges throughout the year, but we're absolutely determined to improve from last season'[/i

There, see, its not that hard to answer journalists questions in a way that say very little, whilst still giving some grounds for optimism.

Don’t know what all the fuss is about. Peter Hood doesn’t even make my top 4 anyway.

1. Robin Hood (the Michael Praed version)
2. Little Red Riding Hood
3. HMS Hood
4. Boyz n the hood

... and the prize for most random, meaningless post of the year goes to...

Maybe he didn't have a list of (or the time to look up) all the relevant clichés? As he is, and has been from long before he sat in the boardroom, a fan of the club, maybe he allowed the fan within to overrule the director he is, and spoke from the heart?

I'm far from sure I agree with "fantasy land" anyway. A top four finish may be (Well OK, it is) well to the top end of any expectations but it isn't out of the question by any means. For sure, it does depend on players returning from injury and coming good and the newcomers showing genuine quality from the off, it also depends on how other clubs perform, but hey, I'll buy into the enthusiasm. Surely everyone should be optimistic at this stage of the season (ie. before it has started), and if reality digs us in the ribs later on, well so be it, but right now I'm voting with the chair...

Don't forget that last season, we only lost 5 more games than Leeds, who are the champions.

looking forward, as matters stand, we sit proudly on top of the League:
[urlhttp://www.superleague.co.uk/table[/url

Eat yer hearts out, the rest, as we will be there for many weeks at least, and there ain't nuthin you can do about it!

Apparently not, as we speak, Warrington are tabling a bid to transfer the top position from us. We can't compete financially so it looks like they will get it. We are getting 9th place and some cash in return.

And Wigan have just been granted a special dispensation from the RFL - its to do with the alphabet being the wrong way round or something, but the full details can't be revealed just yet.

It's more optimistic than most independants commentators would give to bradford, but it's hardly a surprise, given he is running a business that requires a certain amount of optimism to sell tickets.

I thought Potter would have made a bigger difference last year, so to be honest I'm would be surprised if Bradford have moved on some 5 places. But then alot of teams seam to be maintaining staff rather than making outstanding recruitments this year.

By disclosing that a deal is being discussed Debaser has breached the terms of a confidentiality agreement under which all analysis of why we're in 9th will lead to espensive court action and is therefore, extremely damaging to the club and consequently, not the actions of true fans.

Seriously, good on Peter for talking us up and of course whilst we might be cynical by experience it'll be a sad day when the advent of the new season doesn't have us all hoping for big things from new signings. Realistically, he makes one good point about other squads being weaker and ours being stronger. In our 1, 6, 7 and 9 positiosn we have more depth than for many a year and in the backs we have a bit of size for once. Similarly in the pack we're missing a senior prop but we ahve some really exciting young forwards who, crucially are big enough. If Hood is saying that Wigan, Leeds, saints, Wire apart there's not much to be afraid of then I'd agree with him. I don't see us troubling that group of 4 or getting to a final but I don't think it's an outlandish ambition.

It should also be noted that the quote is "a successful season" not "an acceptable season".

An acceptable season would be getting back into the top 8 and the quarter finals of the cup, IMO

Definitely. We need more clichés and empty platitudes. There are nowhere near enough of them in rugby league.

Probably the seventh or eighth best lager in the world...

The world's seventh or eighth favourite airline...

The seventh or eighth-best a man can get...

Two out of ten owners said their cat preferred it...

Finger-lickin' average...

QED?

As I indicated previously, if we just pick up an additional 5 points, then we'll have done as well as the champions did in 2011. I don't see that as intrinsically unlikely. 2 more wins and a draw? Over a whole season? Why would it not be eminently do-able? You hardly need to be a super-optimist to raise your sights at least that high.

And if 5th - why not 4th?

Agree with the more optimistic posts on here for sure. If we ever decide we aren't going to be good enough for top 4 just pack up and go home.

The only part of the article I'd be careful with are parts like 'it's inevitable we will have a good year'. It's phrases along those lines that could come back to bite you on the bum.

So in summation, we can optimistically hope to achieve a top four finish, but we should realistically hope to achieve a top 6 finish and that would result marked improvement on the last three years.

and there were 9 games last season where the points difference was from -6 to +6, and we were 7th before injuries really kicked in, so with better backs and fewer injuries there is a basis for optimism.

On the other hand, Purtell topping the Aussie intercepts for the last two seasons tells you that he must come out of the line a lot. So as always, lets give it a few games to see whether the squad turns our hopes into points.

Saying we only needed to win two more games is fine but two more wins and a draw is roughly ten percent of a season and it requires all other teams to remain constant.

All teams can argue it could have been different. Saints at wigan on good friday. warrington in the challenge cup and playoffs. wigan in the playoffs. hull etcetc.

Far more important would be where were bradford deficent last season and what has been done to remedy that. Will purtill make the difference for bradford or will the loss of lynch be more key. similar to saints will an experienced half back and laffranchi make the difference with the loss of our best prop graham.

The halfbacks and backs need the forwards to be going forward and winning the collision in order to have time and space to play so a lot depends on how Graham and Lynch's replacements do and how others step up.

As an adage that's as true as any in rugby league but to direct wide running second rowers onto weak defenders you need a passing game. It's not necessarily that our pack never went forward last season but matter how much time marc Herbert had he took the ball standing still. A good scrum half pulls opposition defenders out of the ruck area either to cover the pass or if steps and goes. As defenders get pulled out the hooker should theoretically direct his pack into that area or scoot himself. It's symbiosis but in recent times our halves have given our pack nothing to work with. Whether Gale/Sammut is the answer I don't know but we can only improve.

Quite right. I think there was one game where I thought were shown up in both areas and that was home versus Catalans. Their pack ran in with so much aggression and enthusiasm compared with ours. That had us back pedalling and Dureau's distribution had us scrambling in defence and using far too much energy. We stayed with them admirably but in the end got played off the park.

Hopefully Gale and Sammut will improve things, and I think they will. I just hope they're not getting smashed because of our slow PTB.