I've been mainly in support of McNamara for most of his time with us and it will be a shame if he goes just as he's starting to see results. That said he has had some shocking moments as the Bulls coach whilst he's learnt his trade in public, and its easy to see why people would want rid. But on balance at the moment given the constraints we are under I would have prefered if he'd stayed. (ask me at the end of the season and it might be a different answer mind!)

On his coaching ability being highlighted at half time Friday, well yes clearly there was an impact and a reaction. But on that basis what happened with the coaching before the game to produce the first half performance? (The answer to that btw might be more a reflection of wakeys up and down display during the game rather than ours??) On balance he did a good job as we won, but the wakey game does demonstrate that both the Bulls and McNamara whilst showing huge promise and improvement are still far form the finished article.

Yes, Mac can coach.

Indeed we should not.

Because if WE are told, then so is the rest of the competition?

They could just tell us. We won't tell anyone else.

Mac has proven that given a squad of players who are fit and able, he can coach them to be successful.

Unfortunately, it took him 3 years to address fitness and what players were needed in what positions.

If he wasnt going to coach England I would have neither backed him or sacked him, but let his contract expire in November.

As it is, I would prefer that he left as soon as he can, preferebly so that his successor can be in charge for our game on the weekend of June 11/12/13 so Mac can focus fully on England and not try and do both jobs at half pelt.

His one sentence coaching history at the BUlls will read something like " coached the club in a time of difficulty and failed to make the playoffs in 2009".

wheras Nobles would be "coached the club in a time of unprecedented success for the club"

Trophies and titles are what fans want. under Mac we have none! YET!!

And what if his successor isn't available yet?

To save himself the effort why doesn't he tactically destroy teams from kick-off? Presumably you had not recovered from easter in the first half against Wakey?

Silly me...

No no no. It is all for our benefit. The sheer excitement after watching the opposition build up a healthy lead then wondering which response we are going to get from our players is indescribable. The tension whilst we wait to see if the opposition continue to pile on the points leaving us in crushing disappointment - or - a rousing comeback with flowing moves and scintillating rugby to snatch a game which was thought lost is the greatest feeling.

Is this coaching? I don't know. It is unpredictable though.

Still obsessed with me?



FWIW, this is an interesting time to start the poll. I wonder why it was not started after the Crusaders humiliation?

We will win nothing with McNamara and I will keep beating the same drum. No need for me to eat humble pie.

Eh?



I mentioned you because the majority of similar polls were started by your good self.

I note that the criterion for judging Macca to be a failure now seems to have subtly shifted to "if he does not win anything?"

If that is the case (maybe that was not ME's intent, in which case maybe he'll clarify?) then 12 or 13 SL coaches will be failures?

In fairness to ME most of the polls were not started by him, IIRC.

It has not subtly changed in the slightest Adey. It is quite simple. McNamara inherited the current world champions and has taken us backwards. We now sit fourth in the table and to some this is being viewed as a success. Even this poll was conveniently timed to coincide with a decent comeback rather than just after the humiliation and abject failure of Murrayfield.

A good coach can get success with a good team and ultimately success is dependent on silverwear. He has taken a good team backwards and will leave his tenure empty handed and ultimately a failure.

Some people may be happy with fourth place but not all.

When we've also gone from being in the top 4 salary spenders to the bottom 4

Inconvenient fact that should have no bearings on our results - at least in some quarters

But this did not happen immediately when McNamara took over, if you believe statements coming out of the club from Hood about spending up to the full cap.

This means if Bradford do finish in the play-offs this year it shows that McNamara is improving as a coach due to his ability to get a cheaper team to perform to a higher standard than a more expensively assembled one. If this does prove to be the case you have to question the wisdom of handing McNamara the reins so early in his career when a more experienced coach would have probably achieved more with the same resources.

Actually think you'll find it happened before macca took over. From the team that won the 2005 GF we'd lost leon pryce,robbie paul,jamie peacock and lee radford from memory (and rob parker and reardon who didnt make GF squad) plus morley. And then immediately after macca took over we lost fielden. So there had been pretty significant belt tightening before macca took over despite any comments from hood about us spending full cap. Plus players who left were academy products and likely to be on cheaper deals than some of players we brought in to replace them ie newton,mckenna,bai etc.

You're a Rhino's fan. You should be living up to the stereotype and wear a baseball cap and grunt a lot.

Stop talking sense. You're spoiling it for everyone

If we are in the bottom four spenders in Super League then the decision to pay an alledged £250000 a year to Orford is utter folly

firstly its exactly that an alleged 250k. Secondly even if it is that much its arguable that one high wage earning marquee player in a key position (providing they perform and dont just take a wage ala h
Harris) is a lot more valuable to the club than 2-3 journeymen whom you'd be amongst the first to criticise us signing.

First priority for club has to be to get the attendances heading back upwards. A marquee signing like Orford is one way to get interest in club back and start to attract back the floating supporters. An improved on pitch performance is another method which we're seeing this year. And we're starting to see the benefits with attendances starting to rise back up slowly. Which in turn will allow us to spend more on the cap.

I am not remotely convinced that we are spending the 4th least amount on players/cap. If I was take a pot shot I would say that we are outspending the likes of....

Quins
Wakefield
Catalans
Castleford
Hull KR
Salford
and possibly Huddersfield.

However, I am sure that the facts can be supplied to us by WB so that we can end all this speculation.

How a team with the likes of Menzies, Orford, Kearney, LeStrange, Lynch, Scruton, Hall and Langley can be spending so little is puzzling.

I'd be a little surprised if were as low as 4th from lowest salary cap spend tbh. The figure I've heard (allegedly from a board member) is that we have 200k of cap space free.
I'd tend to agree we're spending more than salford,cas,wakey and quins. we may be spending more than cats and hull kr now but probably werent at beginning of season given that they've lost mogg and cooke from their wages bills respectively. Also catalans have a couple of big names on long term injury so you tend to forget them - greenshields springs to mind.
Doubt we're spending more than hudds especially after their signing of brough, which you've got remember they had to let kirmond go to wakey on loan as a makeweight to get the cap space needed, so I'd imagine they are spending near as dammit full cap now.

Its all speculation at end of day though as we dont know the details of any of the players wages and are only guessing. for example in our case, outside the players you mentioned, we've got a fair few home produced ones on their first senior deals which tend to be cheaper. Plus we've got kearney,reardon and sculthorpe all on their 1st deals back from serious injuries, and hence gambles, which will reduce the amount they can demand in wages.

I had a very interesting chat tonight with someone - not on the Bulls payroll, and well-qualified to give impartial observation - who is extremely well placed to offer informed and objective comment about all this.

Strangely enough, his opinions of the club, its people and its head coach are pretty well precisely the opposite of those held by posters like ME.

But clearly he knows nothing, and his opinions may be safely discounted?

Was it Bulls4Chumps2010?

ME, of course I don’t have the full facts and figures re: total salary spending across SL, I’m only going from information I have read and discussions I’ve had. Frankly I cannot be bothered to enter in to a discussion with someone who is so negative and blinkered.

I just cannot understand how you can ignore all the good things happening at the club (granted much is behind the scenes) and focus solely on first team results. Surely even you can see the Bradford Bulls in the last few years is very different to the Bradford Bulls at SL inception with regard to spending on and off the field?