Today's results just reinforcing the gulf between the two leagues. All the CL clubs scrapping for that 5th spot.

Leigh were competitive though and had a few things go against them. Wakey at home is a big one for them!

I have no doubt, I bet you hear it a lot!

Salford 46 Leigh 18 [despite Paul Cullen's assessment that "Leigh are the best team in the champ [iby far[/i"seems to suggest that there is a little more in play here than just Lowes [and presumably, Rowley being poor coaches.

The context of both our defeats is the fact we play in a league which, in general, is way below our [iactual [/i standard, let alone our potential standard and prevents us playing, week by week, under the sort of pressure which we need to allow us to compete at the higher level.

Maybe we should just play Leigh every week. It seems to fire everybody up.

Apart from our support staff, who behaved impeccably.

The bookies, as I pointed out as soon as the odds came out, are the unbiased realists and the odds of Wakey making the 2016 SL were 1/12. Which was greater than the other SL clubs. The bookies had Leigh as the leading candidate from the rest (at a miserly 6/4) but I assume that that is because the bookies know one Championship team wil be in the playoff final, and so anything could happen on that day. Barring that factor, the bookies always call it pretty close.

As for Lowes, as I have said, he led a team oto the field that on the day were flat, nervous and basicallly standing around in awe. Of Wakefield ffs. No disrespect, but our lads should have been full of fire and confidence and if they had come out and up and at em, and had a right good go, then i for one would not be complaining. But they didn't. And they didn't meekly surrender either. They just looked nothing like the team we have been for most of the season, instead verged on the shambolic for much of the time, and the blame must ultimately lie with Lowes.

"It's just one game"? Hmm. For me, as I also said, it was our biggest chance to try for SL this year. So far as I am concerned that result killed our chances stone dead. Pity, as I honestly believe that team could run Wakey very close if we played the right way, but Wakey did nothing extraordinary or frightening, they just stuck to their task, and yet we seemed unable to offer any response. So on the strength of that (and a couple of other recent results) you'd have to conclude that for whatever reason, this team doesn't have the dog or the heart to force its way into SL contention. God help us if they come out against the other SL teams in a similar beaten frame of mind, but anyway it doesn't really matter as we just blew our season.

Just seen the scores

Salford giving Leigh a good thrashing.

Maybe we aren't the only bottlers?!



If it finsihed now, we would be in the big game against Wakey. Even I wouldn't bet on us in that!

Leigh have a good go against Salford. A
Couple of things went against them. Wouldn't write them off next week at home to Wakefield.

Us on the other hand, if we give Rangi Chase as much time and space we gave Tim Smith yesterday, he'll put 50 past us on his own.

It is starting to look like all of the 23 rounds and these play-offs are pretty irrelevant as what will happen is the worst SL team will play the best CH team in a one off game at the end. That £1m game was planned to happen from the beginning. The rest of the games are just a build up to it.

It will all come down to the Leigh Vs Bulls game and then a game with a SL team. So, looking back those 23 games meant nothing as Leigh and us were always going to be in the top two and one of us is going to be in the last £1m game.

If fans see that happening again next year Mr Green may regret saying it was the longest pre-season in history as those fans may decide to pick and choose which of those 23 pre-season games to go to next year. Why pay £220 for 11 warm up games.

That is the problem for the RFL if it becomes obvious that everything is meaningless until the last few games in the play-offs.

This is why I said weeks ago that these play-offs are good but the the top CH team should get automatic promotion and bottom SL team get relegated. The other 6 could then play-off for additional up and down places. 6 team play-off not 8 teams.

That would make all teams push right to the end in the normal 23 games as one goes up / down each year and stop such as Wakey preparing for play-offs half way through the season. Once you are guaranteed in bottom 4 or top two what is the point in trying any more till the play-offs.

I think this would be a better idea as two teams would get what they deserve and other 6 would still have something to play for.

A very dissapointing result yesterday but not a disaster. Wakefield have brought in one of the greatest and most experienced coaches in the game. If they had lost yesterday they would have been going to Leigh next week with their SL place under serious threat and with it their contracts. That was all the motivation they needed and probably inspired them to get on the front foot from the off.
As for us it was only the second SL team we have faced this season. The players will know now what they will be up against in the coming weeks and level of performance required in order to compete. Hopefully they will learn from yesterday and be more competetive next week.
There's still a long way to go and a lot might rest on Gaskill's availabilty. If Tim Smith had left the field after 12mins instead of Gaskill then who knows how it might have played out.
Certainly not time to write them off yet even if the odds are against them.

That's the point I made yesterday but was told I was wrong and were just infact turd.

Well how is it that the Bulls Fans are blaming the fact that we have been playing Championship Football all season. Its only a factor for us because the Club has been lazy and the players unprofessional. The management and coach are directly to blame for that. The heroes of the championship are Halifax at the moment. They have actually done us a big favour. We rather blindly perhaps have been focusing on the so called troubled teams but Halifax have shown that a determined team with a bit more class can beat the other two big guns....

Halifax haven't won a game yet. Plucky losers are still losers.

Bradford's problem is Gaskell. We don't have a plan B if he's out of the team, mainly because we don't have any leaders out on the field. Back in the glory days, we had guys like Lowes, Peacock and Robbie and others all out on the field. They led by example and if one was off, the others would step up and take the team to task. Who have we got out there who you can say could lead the team? Someone who, when the chips are down can stand up and get the team over the line?
Danny Addy and Harry Siejka should both have their hat in the ring to lead the team, yet neither do. Addy just doesn't have the confidence in his own ability to make the step up and Siejka...well, Lowes keeps saying "He's playing his role" though what that role is, I don't think anyone actually knows and I'm not sure "Spare Prick At A Wedding" is actually a recognised role for a rugby player

True in the context you mention, but they are going home with dignity and a bit of pride.

Yes again ... who? ... What? yes I get it ... JL, who I really want to believe in does not communicate anything, so all we can judge on is the games. Poor all season. He said about the last game, that the players have not been doing what he said to do. Effective Communication. We as supporters might not be as far of right as JL may well be wrong. Focus,Passion, Desire and absolute determination is missing.

That's just it - we are a long way from turd. I genuinely believe that in the right frame of mind a confident Bulls can compete with Wakey and Salford. And it wasn't losing I was bothered about - it was how we played. If we had lost but played a decent game I would be cool

Wouldn't this premise require us to have cruised through the fixtures easily, thereby leaving us unprepared for playing teams of a higher standard? In fact, we've struggled to beat teams like Batley and Dewsbury, haven't been able to beat Leigh and were borderline outclassed by Fev, who didn't make the top 4. The league wasn't way below our actual standard.

Absolutely we are clearly not good enough so why the pretence we have a God given right to SL. Carry on with the progress made this season off the field and carry on building

The trouble is a lot of the off the field work is built on the massive vote of confidence the fans have shown in the regime, namely continuing to support the club like they're still operating at Super League level. Can that be repeated in year two? Highly doubtful.

If we are to build successfully on the field we need to sack the site foreman because the work the brickies have been turning out this year on his watch would be condemned for demolition.

Has anyone got any faith in Lowes doing any better next season? In my opinion, barring a miracle in the next few weeks, he has to go. He's simply not up to it.

Part of the problem for next year is that we will be paying out wages to a lot of players that seem to have been discarded by the coach and they have the security of a 2 year contract. We can't really complain about a low salary cap whilst we seem to have squandered large chunks of it.

The opening 30mins yesterday showed we've become too used to playing at a championship level of intensity.

I'm not sure why but we were far too tentative and our line speed was pathetic and we allowed far too much space around the ruck and for Smith.

Were the players nervous or lacking in confidence? If not then why the collective failure? The buck really does stop with the coach sometimes to judge the atmosphere in the dressing room and do something about it if necessary.

We played yesterday like many games this season where we underperformed but scraped a win. There's no way you can get away with that in the 8s.

It's hard enough when you lose key players like Gaskell, Pitts and Mullaney without the rest playing like individuals.

We probably blew it yesterday. Some players who look good at championship level were shown up. Others fell short of their usual levels.

Thankfully we've a chance to make amends on Sunday. I don't expect to win but I expect a better performance.

I disagree about "intensity". I didn't think it was a particularly intense game at all. I am sure the team as it ran onto the field was, psychologically, not ready and looked as if they really didn't want to be there. The frame of mind they were in, they were beat before they came on the field. Why that is, would be the question, but I'm sure of it.

The game as a whole wasn't top level SL high intensity but it was certainly a few levels higher than we've been used to in the first 30 mins. We were already 2 scores down when Gaskell went off but I do wonder if the players also lost some confidence seeing our main playmaker leave the field.

Salford look to be in fine form so it isn't going to get any easier anytime soon. We'll probably need to be somewhere near our best to get close to them on Sunday. I'd be surprised if Gaskell is fit for that one as well so I can't see us adding to our 2 points in that game.

The T and A match report and follow up with Lowes make interesting reading. Lowe' view we were awful whereas Ross says there's a gulf in class.

It's a weird contrast because Lowes is the more correct assessment yet he's the man responsible and some of his decisons re; recruitment and selection are unfathomable. Ross has had a bit stick off Lowes for raising perfectly reasonable issues in the presser with regards to how generally poor we've been all year but his view that Wakey are too good to go down is ridiculous.

Lowes is basically correct when he says our promotion prospects are still in tact. We can play a lot better than we did and it's entirely feasible we could go to BV and win the million pound game but his decision to sign X AN Other instead of Jarrod Sammutt when Siejka, Mullaney and Gaskell were all injured has made him a hostage to his own belligerence. The physical and mental preparedness of the Bulls also says something very deep about Lowes as a coach and his relationship to the players.

During the season Ross has been right in his assesmnet of the Bulls and Lowes has been wrong. A O'B looks like a 30 year old version of Brian Noble, making tackle after tackle. If we don't go up Lowes should go for this alone, and perhaps even if we do.What is extremely frustrating is all the idiots who have talked about the gulf between the Championship and SL are looking smug when the truth is that there is probably very little difference in relative spends between oursleves and Wakey and on Saturday they were there for the taking. Right now this looks like the biggest of missed opportunities.

The frustrating thing is that we ran HKR close for the best part of an hour when we played them in the cup. It would be hard for any journo to have watched that cup game and then come away thinking there was a 'gulf in class'.
I have no idea wtf happened to us on Saturday but we're better than that.