I personally reckon we'd struggle to get 1 in 5 season ticket holders to stump up £250 right now. I suppose nobody knows until the question is asked.. but I'd be surprised.

to Adey's long and highly considered post.

On the point of how attractive or not we may be to an incoming (say) top Aussie coach - I take the points made entirely, except that the only situation I see as being possible is if we not only chose the "new coach" option (££££) but also were prepared to give the new coach options for acquiring/disposing of players (££££££££).

I wasn't suggesting that we would get a new coach in a vacuum, or that he would come, if we just said "that's yer lot, work with them, you've no budget save what you sell". I don't see any top coach buying that.

But as Adey has pointed out, there is every reason to suppose that there's no chance of being able to muster the relevant amount of £££££ to make this scenario happen and so it may be academic.

Looking on the bright side - not only have we offloaded the rest of Tame Tupou's wage - we got five hundred quid for him as well. Maybe that's hwta Mac referred to when he said it was not all doom and gloom?

Off up to Darwin for ten days, so won't be on much. Wanted to put down some considered thoughts but I won't better Adey and FA's contributions. The Sack Mac camp have made some fair points over the past couple of days and there's a lot for the club to consider.

Have fun.


Lets hope we win while you gone, then we can blame you.

How about an extra 1,000 on the gate paying an average of £20 to see a better performing team?

Indeed. Or better still, 5k on the gate since as a minimum that must be what we need? That is part of the longer-term underlying solution. Although its not an average of £20, and the profit and cash contribution from each incremental body through the turnstiles is well under half that so you won't get as much extra cash as you might think.

But the cash inflows would (largely) come in time, whereas the cash outflows consequent upon the action most on here are clamouring for would be front-loaded. Unless someone can come up with a pot of cash NOW, Job not sorted.

So to sum up.
i) We can't afford to replace the manager.
ii) THe Chairman doesn't want the job but neither does anyone else
iii) The players are contracted on their current salaries so we have to stick with them
As you say we are in a Catch-22 situation. It is surely time then for the club to have one last throw of the dice. We cash in on our only asset and sell Sam Burgess. Selling Newlove launched the Bulls and so maybe selling Sam could save them. Whilst it seems a little drastic what pleasure is there watching him performing like a thoroughbred in amongst a lot of pit ponies (For thos born after Maggie Thatcher. Pit ponies used to drag coal trucks underground. N.B. Pits were big holes that coal used to come from)

Lets take this 'we cannot afford to do any thing' into the future.

Come the next round of license applications we will not have contributed anything on the playing front, out of the playoffs this season, can we improve on this next year. The marks for the grounds being x% full will not be achieved with the reduction in support. Both areas where we scored strongley last time around.

How will we compete with the other teams in super league plus the teams from NL1 who may outscore us on both the above.

Do we want to stay a top flight club or possibly risk being in NL1, but with a good balance sheet.

The "points system" is entirely irrelevant. That was proven in the last lot.

They'll make up a points system that best suits the clubs they want in the league. Then ignore that same points system in order to put the 14 they want in there, regardless of how they scored.

Hence how Celtic ended up in the league last year, as well as another club or two I could name, whereas the likes of Widnes, Toulouse, Halifax & Leigh, who probably scored more than them, didn't.

Forget the points system, it won't make a blind bit of difference. We get a franchise if the RFL wants us to have one. Simple as.

I have posted precisely this on a number of occasions recently, and in more detail. To recap: we received a B licence last time - that's 5-7 points. IIRC re scored 7. If we don't get the OSV, then next round we gain a point for the salary cap breach, but could lose 3 for ground < 40% full, average attendances <10k and not making a major contribution to the game. That looks to me to be the worst case, and gives 5 points so still (just) a B licence. We'd have probably 7 points with the OSV, worst case.

I asked questions about this process at the Fans' Forum, with precisely this in mind.

My guess is that without the OSV we would still outscore enough clubs to remain in the "pass" band, but with another season like this one it would be far more marginal and we'd be sweating. With the OSV, we would be strongly-placed for an A licence provided something improves on the field. Remember the "contribution to the game/top 8 finish" criterion SHOULD average last year, this year and next year, as would the "crowds >10k" criterion

However, I also think DILLIGAF may be right in that if the RFL decide they want us out then they'll tweak the criteria accordingly. We have a large club not far away who clearly do not wish us well, and with a surfeit of clubs in West Yorkshire and a resurgent Halifax club who will surely be a strong candidate next time round we are far from secure.

And remember - you lose a point for not having "a good balance sheet" (the "solvency" criterion), but unlike clubs with a rich owner this club CANNOT fail the solvency test and still keep operating. Some others CAN, because they end up with a technically insolvent balance sheet kept going by loans from directors/owners. We don't have that luxury. I wish some people would understand that we simply do not HAVE the option of living beyond our means to buy success - we've done that before, and this is where it got us. The only way this club could survive with an insolvent balance sheet is if we could find someone to lend money to the club who would certify that he/they would not seek repayment. Any volunteers?

Stuff and nonsense. All we need to do is sack the coach, fire Hood, get rid of at least 80% of the squad, buy all the best players in the world to replace them and all will be well. As eny fule kno.

Finally you've seen the light, its not taken long has it? Once we follow that plan everything will be rosy again....dont know why it took you so long to see the bleeding obvious =whiteload of nonsence that people seem to believe is possible in dreamland

Edited.

As usual the only people on here who are talking with any sense are FA (mostly) and adeybull!

Its a shame people are choosing to ignore them, maybe people would understand more if they listened!

I doubt any coach would have touched us with a barge poll when Noble left, lets not forget the masiah Noble left the club in a worse state than Peter Fox did in 1994! How many home grown internationals left with him? and what sort of set up did he leave with the kids??

McNamara and Hood was left to clear up the e Noble and Caisley had left behind with little funds! without the use of dodgy offshore accounts!

But dont let me get in the way of your mindless "we all hate McNamara" thread!

PS has dropping Platt and replacing him with the ever dependable Halley made any difference?

McNamara to stay and finnish the job the majority of other coaches wouldnt dare touch!!!

If you're that stupid that you really believe that's my position, then there's really no point in trying to explain to someone who seemingly can't read.

i.e. the minority who think you should keep Macnamara.



That's just rubbish. There is never less than a queue of coaches, unemployed coaches & aspirational former players looking for such opportunities. There will still be even now. At the time Bradford were one of the 2 most successful teams of the SL era.

You joined the ranks of the mis-quoters too now? For "should keep" read "give us a better, realistic and affordable alternative".



What isn't rubbish though is that we wouldn't have been able to afford a top dollar coach. And as I recall it was an aspirational former player who got the job.

Excuse me if im wrong here, but i can't remember all the best coaches and "aspirational" former players forming an orderly queue at the main gates at odsal! quite the oppisate, Wigan, Warrington, Leeds and Huddersfield where more intresting to them than coaching at Bradford!

Being the 2nd most successful team in the Super league era means absalute feckall when the majority of your best players iether sod off, retire or are injured for example Les and Hape, in the space of 2 years!

That is maybe to do with the fact that McNamara was given the job as soon as Noble left and therefore there was no position available.

What he said.

As with everyone on here, I have no idea who was available nor who will be available. But I would be convinced that there will be numerous with as good a CV as Macca had at the same cost, almost all overseas. Brown, Matterson, Morgan were rookies too. It's no coincidence to me that the struggling British coaches - Agar & Lowes - were cheap, easy options, promoted from within.
I could give a number of options, a number have been quoted, you would just say they are unaffordable. You pay peanuts...

McNamara isn't a monkey, though, and while snappy posts are fine, it's still gross over-simplification.

When you say that, you disregard the fact that if the Bulls sacked Mac then there is a big wedge of cash needed to pay him off and so it isn't just a question of the wages of an incoming coach, in terms of being able to afford one. Though i'm sure you know this.

Finally, there seems to be plenty of signs that the club is continuing to back Mac so if there is any suggestion that the [isole[/i reason he's still here is money, then i would say the evidence doesn't support that.

Where is this recent evidence? RER seems to have his ear to the ground. His later postings indicate that might not be the case.

Even though I don't think Mac is a monkey, the evidence in league positions indicates the opposite.

I now think that Macca is realising that his previous signings have been pis$ poor and is now making better ones. If we sign a quality half and at least look into a centre so we can use sykes as back up then i'll be happy to start next season with him as coach. We can't really salvage this season, but seen as we know he'll be here then we'll have to give him another season to prove himself.

What do you mean, where is it? Don't you read stuff on here? Is his name still on his office door? I've been saying for a few weeks that he had that dead-man-walking air about him but nothing has happened, he's still here, so who knows? I don't think anybody does, and I certainly don't claim to know.


12th to date, previous years 3rd and 5th? It might at a stretch be used as evidence that he'd [iturned into[/i a monkey but surely not that he [iis[/i one? Or don't previous decent league finishes count?