Other thing that maybe being overlooked is that it was widely rumoured that a few of players that came down from SL with us took lower paid contracts last year and higher paid ones for next year, presumably on assumption we'd be back in SL with a higher cap. We now have to accommodate those higher wages within championship SL cap. Suspect that will have as much to do with reduction is squad size as anything.

Think there will be two or three signings over next few weeks and departures of some of fringe players. I think club has probably waited until issue with Card service provider was sorted and they were back in position to take card payments before starting with signing announcements to try and build some momentum. Rumours re Gaskell/Obrien etc needed addressing before they became entrenched IMO.

I think the players agreed to an improved contract IF we got back into SL.

I haven't bought a season ticket and I don't intend to until probably the weekend before kick off. May as well have the money in my account as long as possible. I've never really used the benefits so not much incentive to rush out to renew now the early bird discount has gone.

I agree. I see no need to rush to give the club my money before Xmas.

At the risk of being lambasted on here I would ask is it worth losing one of our better players (no-one in particular). As they are all on contract we could perhaps better use the transfer fee to finance 2 or 3 good players. Having 1 world beater is OK until he gets injured. Otherwise, as the saying goes, we would be stupid to do what we did last year with the same resources and expect a different outcome.

You are all emperor's new clothes people. You have all seen that it isn't possible on Championship resources to win the MPG in all but extreme circumstances, which are unlikely to arise again, yet you are all talking as if we have a decent chance of going up. We haven't. Nobody has. If you haven't got a SL quality team then you will never win that game against a SL quality team, and usually you will get mullered.

Sure we will go through the motions, but really, we are not hoping to win an unfair comp, we are entirely dependant on some other team suffering a meltdown. That can happen, as we of all people know, but if it doesn't, this system does not allow promotion.

And having been the beneficiaries of a Wakey meltdown, we blew it anyway.

Ah. But if we put the chances of promotion at 1,000,000:1 ( for example) then they tend to happen 9 times out of 10..... (RIP Sir Terry).

Blind optimism. New season, the odds are stacked against us. Whatever strings the RFL tried to pull in our favour last season wasn't enough so they'll have to work harder.

because everyone knows that we've done our time on the RFL naughty step and they love us now.....

Maybe you forget we best Salford by a fair margin?? Yes the odds are stacked but if we had performed to our full potential then we could have won the MPG... We didn't perform to our best for the full game and the obvious result happened.

We will never be off the naughty step with the present regime at the RFL. However it is the system which is wong, as when it came into being we were under the impression that we would be contesting the teams as they started at the beginning of the Season, given injury replacements etc. This did not happen - and as someone pointed out two teams were given points deductions for playing ineligible players the previous season, so one can take it that these rules did not apply. So what rules were in place to make the competition fair? One- championship clubs were on an unequal pay incentive and two the difference in the two leagues is almost insurmountable. Three, dont hold your breath that this is going to alter.

Unfortunately for us, we were the lower ranked team in games against SL clubs. In those circumstances it really meant [iwe[/i needed to play at our best and the SL clubs needed to be a bit behind [itheir[/i best. If both played to their best we were always going to lose against SL clubs, imo.

Salford were poor and well and truly behind their best form so, on the day, our top notch performance deserved the win. In the other games, we were overpowered by better sides who clearly brought their A games. In the final, you're correct to say we [icould[/i have won, but whilst having our moments, we certainly weren't at our best and Wakefield managed to pull it together sufficiently to take the spoils.

We SHOULD have won the MPG and it is certain if poor Danny Addy had kicked those 2 goals then we WOULD now be in SL.

But it was only because Wakefield were in disarray leading up to the game and short of key players as well. That's what gave us a chance (which we all know we should have taken). All I am saying is that such an opportunity isn't likely to come along again.

If we had played Salford in the MPG then I would anticipate the bookies giving us a respectful 28 start. We had a great win, but it wasn't the MPG. In which we would more likely have ended up with another 50 past us. IMHO of course.

I agree with this completely!



Agree to a point.

But whilst I am really not a fan of the new system... It does creates that "one off" game where anything "could" happen. Next year will be no different in the sense that whoever reaches the MPG has the chance in a "one off" game to gain promotion, regardless if wakey or any other club have a meltdown or not.

Taking my Bulls hat off, I honestly believe we had a better team overall than Wakey in the MPG and that's why it's frustrating not to have performed for the full 80! If we had and got the result, I am sure we would be talking very differently about the chances the system offers championship clubs. Even if we still didn't agree with it.

IMO the biggest problem with the system is the fact we weren't playing at a high enough intensity on a regular basis and that naturally will have a huge effect in high intensity games like MPG. That said I actually feel as though we have a better chance next year based on having a team where half the squad wont be new... plus a years experience in the championship and lessons learnt from the qualifiers- hopefully!

In summary... I don't think ours, Leigh's or anyone else chances will be weaker next year- perform on the day and you give yourself the best chance, don't perform and then it's back to championship. The format certainly won't change for the next couple of years so we need to learn how to handle it better.

Going back to the thread subject, I am pleased to note that the Bulls have now come up with a payment plan for memberships, which is especially good news and attractive for those missing the old "early bird" discounts. The deal is to pay in 4 equal monthly instalments. You can do it through the website, too. Nice touch. (If it works!) www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/membersh ... stallments

Going back to the thread subject, I am pleased to note that the Bulls have now come up with a payment plan for memberships, which is especially good news and attractive for those missing the old "early bird" discounts. The deal is to pay in 4 equal monthly instalments. You can do it through the website, too. Nice touch. (If it works!) www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/membersh ... stallments

I don't see why we can't spread payments over 10 months. Starting now, it covers the off season and finishes in July with 2 months of the season to go. Merchandising is at its peak before Xmas as well which covers any potential shortfall in the offseason. Many people would allow it to roll over to the next year. Can easily forecast income, especially as central funding is monthly from the RFL. The only problem would be spotting people cancelling their direct debit, but some decent software would cover that. Oh well, something for the future I suppose.

m.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/spo ... ___Ferres/ Another positive story to help drive membership sales

m.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/spo ... ___Ferres/ Another positive story to help drive membership sales

Managing expectations and preparing us for a permanent stay in the Championship. Ambition sailed with the vote of confidence in Lowes.

Presumably we're being prepared for the moment 12 months hence when we're told 5th in the Championship can't possibly be judged as failure.

As on any view, that would be a comprehensive failure, that would take some preparation. Is Derren Brown joining the board?

Well you have a go at explaining it then.

So the team is essentially staying the same, the coaching staff is a man down, the head coach is the same and our rivals are all improving. We weren't good enough in 2015 when we faced arguably the poorest team we're ever likely to see in the MPG. Excellent news once again from the club and Ferres. Considering the buzz we had about the place this time last year, the club seem to be getting it all wrong so far as I can see.

I don't think selling season tickets is Steve Ferres's strong point.

The past few articles haven't made me want to rush out and renew. In fact they've had the opposite effect though I'll probably do it out of a sense of obligation rather than enthusiasm. I recognise that we're a bit skint and the competition is going to be harder but if you seriously wanted to sell tickets you'd be emphasising the fact that we've:

held onto our better players and mention how good they are - how many assists and line breaks from Gaskell for example.
that we'll see further improvement in young players, look at how Olbison came on.
that we've the best academy in the champioinship and better than many SL teams too, do a bit more on that - we hardly mention it.
that we went the furthest in the play offs of the Champioship sides and will be aiming to go one better now we're more experienced.

If you want to sell anything you have to excite the customers and get them to feel like they want to be part of it.

So basically we need to highlight the positives and play down the negatives.

Someone really needs to let Steve Ferres know that

Yup, a bit like government manifestos - promise the earth, don't mention it might not all come off and [inever [/imention you might need to do the exact opposite.

If, in the end, it doesn't work out, you can always blame the other lot who haven't been in charge for ten years.....

Are we now getting to a position where Steve and Jimmy are looking like Dumb and Dumber?

Have to say I'm encouraged by jimmy's statement saying he, 'may' have made the odd error in his use of the squad, I mean, he might not actually [ido[/i anything differently next time round but clearly he is thinking about it...

Might as well bump this thread rather than making a new one.

Robbie revealed in his column today that we are 'around the 2500 mark' for season ticket sales. I'm going to take that as less than 2500, otherwise he would have worded it differently.
I'm not sure of exactly how many we ended up selling last year, somewhere between 3.5 and 4k maybe?

I guess they will be hoping to hit 3k this year before the start of the season, which is just under 3 weeks away.