He'll be saving Baile for the Million Pound Game; I hear he's tipped him to play at 6




As is the confidence I have in our 'leader'...

Probably because he's not as good as Olbison, Ferguson, Pitts, Haggerty, Mellor or Lovegrove. And arguably Blythe and others I'm forgetting too.

I'm in two minds about this game. Initially, I wanted us to put in a good performance, and win. (those are 2 aims, of course)

But, recent performances haven't been great and I have the feeling there's a loss in us just waiting to burst out. We can't win the CC, and I don't think we actually make any money in the CC until probably the QF. So is it wrong to think it may be best to drop out of the CC now?

Lovegroves been used as a prop (which he is far too small to be one) Agree he's not as good as those mentioned (although think he's better than Blythe) but he's still a decent player and i don't see why we wouldn't give him a run out to keep the above players fresh and keep them on their toes.

If it is wrong, then I'm wrong as well. I have my ticket for tomorrow's game, and I'll be there cheering them on as always. However if we were to lose and go out of the cup, I won't be all that fussed.

I don't disagree with playing him in the cup, largely because as has been discussed, the cup isn't very important to Bradford at all. I personally would have given quite a few of the fringe boys a run out in this game to keep them a bit "up to speed" and let more senior players have a rest. But I can completely see the logic of not playing the likes of Walshaw in the league, as we need to ensure we keep picking up points, and to do that you want your best players in the 17.

We won't win the cup but i'm surprised that nobody appears to thinks that it would be of benefit to progress and draw a Super League team?

Crowds are always poor for cup games. You don't really make much out of it until around the QF stage allegedly, which means getting through 3 games before getting there.

With promotion being the single biggest priority, the cup really is a distraction for us this year.

Because it really won't have any sort of baring on the end of season performance.

Don't believe me? Look at Leigh last year and their cup run. Didn't do them any good and in fact you could argue that it hurt them in the long run. Wins against heavily depleted or badly demoralised teams seems to have added to the arrogant belief that Leigh were going to get promoted at a stroll where as, all it really added was additional games to an already long, hard season and a probable desire from SL teams to bring Leigh back down to earth.

I will not be too dispondent if Bradford go out of the cup early as it's an unnecessary distraction

I have no interest in how Leigh performed last year. It has no bearing on how Bradford did or how they will do this year. I thought that our cup tie against Hull KR served as good preparation for the middle 8's. Some may see it as a distraction while other's may think that it could be a welcome challenge in what could be another "23 game pre-season". I don't think that a decent cup run will hurt the Bulls but I also don't think that an early exit would be an issue either.

You fail to add the backlog of fixtures also created.We ended up playing six games in three weeks prior to the 8's.

Part of the problem Leigh had was that due to making the 1/4 finals we ended up with a back log of fixtures. Think we ended up having to play matches Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday just before we went into the Middle 8's.

Unsurprisingly after that we had a lot of players who were either injured, walking wounded or just plain tired going into the 8's and that was reflected in our awful performances.

I said this a while ago in a different thread. A couple of easy fixtures and then Leeds away please. Get some cash in.

The downside to that though is that if we progress to Round 6 where Leeds enter, we would have to play the Oldham game midweek some time, as I believe Rounds 5 and 6 of the cup are the only "free" weekends. So although it might bring a bit of money in (but still not loads, as it's still the cup and not usually well attended), it will potentially have an impact on the league. I personally would much rather be able to play Oldham on that free weekend than have a fixture against Leeds this year.

If we managed promotion, we'd have 2 or 3 fixtures against Leeds next year and a much better impact on finances than a one off cup game.

Trouble with most CC fixtures is they COST you money.

I suspect if we did somehow draw Leeds then we'd happen make a few bob on that one, though still wouldn't expect anything near a 10k crowd, anything else will be a miserable crowd and a likely loss or break even

Do they though? I thought the gates were split in such a way that costs were covered as a priority.

I think the club rearranged the Oldham game for the round 6 weekend because that is the last free weekend of the year. If we end up making it that far then we'll just have to play it midweek. No disrespect to Oldham but we have a big enough squad to be able to handle that I think.

Watch us go and lose tonight anyway

It's not just the Oldham game that gets affected by playing it midweek though. Yes, you may be able to rest a few for them, but you're still gonna use a lot of the same players as if you put a full "reserve" team out, you're gonna lose. And then you have whichever game follows that as a 3/4 day turnaround aswell.

A midweek game really affects 2 matches, arguably 3.

It used to be case that gate was split between clubs AFTER hosting club had taken its costs for putting game on out of pot. Hence a lot of suspiciously low cup attendances being announced in the past.

This was changed a few years ago and gate is now split on a percentage basis. 15% (plus £1k for championship clubs) to host club for costs of putting game on, 5% to RFL for Challenge cup prize pot for eventual winners, then remainder split between participating clubs.

Below par so far.

That's embarrassing.

Well at least we can concentrate on the league now....

Looking at that shower tonight the league could provide an even larger embarrassment.

you nearly won, like (we) Leigh did at Batley....all be forgotten in a few days.

Not that fussed we're out of the cup, but being out-enthused by yet another part time side is very concerning.
Also sounds like we might have a problem at centres now with Purtell and Welham both being injured.

I'd love to say that will see the end of Lowes, but I don't think there's a chance in hell that Marc Green will cough up the money to sack him.

Well, as debaser says, no distracting cup run for us, which logically might help focus on the league, but losing is never good, well played dewsbury.....but....far more worryingly its just another indication that we're no where near where we need to be to get promotion.

Being out-enthused whilst 2 men down on interchange bench is maybe more understandable. What we've learnt is Thomas isn't an option in halves and addy can't play hooker. And as a lot on here wanted we don't have cup as a distraction anymore and we've avoided any expense associated with hosting a cup game which can go towards a 7.