The success was a house built on sand, without solid foundations. Fans were sold a dream (and lived it for a decade) before the mismanagement of the club's finances by clowns in the boardroom killed the club. The days of Saints v Bulls rivalry were the best (from a neutral point of view) and I miss the Leeds v Bulls derby's (even though we usually got stuffed and had to endure Jimmy's gloating).

Hope things work out for you guys. Feel very sorry for the fans.

Feel sorry for you guys but it's not over. Take a 12 point deduction and make the middle 8s. You can do it. Get behind your team. I don't post very often on here but I have always said that Bratford are my second team. I have a Leigh season ticket but when I can I will come to Odsal. True fans of the great game are behind you. Good luck, you are still a huge club

I agree, it was built on sand, that's the correct term for it. The chairman's plan was that, if he provided ever more top line players, the results would get better and better and more and more would turn up at the gate. The flaw in his plan was that there is a natural limit to the numbers you can attract and there comes a point where, no matter how successful, the crowd won't increase. When that level was reached he just poured even more into the side and then blamed the fans in the press for not turning up. The only one to blame was himself.

It's got to be said that until someone said that the king had no clothes he wore the best suit in the country.(bit of the old cutting your cloth argument)

Yes it was worth it. I saw Trevor Foster crying at Murrayfield when we won the Challenge Cup.

Where the bulls are concerned it is all worth it!

Of course it was worth it.
Every memory of my life is founded on a backdrop of following Bradford through bad times & good.
Mostly good memories in my lifetime, but I will stick with them through everything that is yet to come. And god only knows what that will be....

It's interesting that most people on here castigate the Dark Knight for the condition we were left in but say that it was all worth it. We now get comments saying all w want is a stable club. Perhaps what we really want is the thing referred to in politics as Boom & Bust. 10 years success followed by 10 years of turmoil. A case of better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Bring it on. Perhaps we should change the motto to: Life's never dull as a Bull

I get what you're saying, but I reckon we'd have been fine without Harrisgate, and there was absolutely no need at all for it to ever happen

It was Superdome that did us when we switched from the peppercorn rent we were paying the council. Harrisgate was just the final nail in the coffin.

The Harris saga is an easy cop out. Caisley dealt with this in his open letter to the t and a .....

How and in what possible way is it a "cop out"? It cost us literally millions, money we didn't have, and greatly disrupted the team, including losing the services of Jamie Peacock. And this when Leon Pryce was already on our payroll.

Caisley didn't "deal" with it at all, as I recall, except mumbling something about the Bulls having said they had the huge payout covered from other funds. Oh, so that was allright then? That means it didn't cost us what it cost us?

Read the article again

I've read the article. It's Caisley's side of the story so bound to say he didn't make a mistake. I doubt the full tale will ever come to light. However I don't need to know it to see that Harris was an awful signing.

Caisley was our most successful Chairman until his hubris overcame his judgement. Even at school he was an arrogant git.

He had a shocking relationship with the council and convinced himself the club could do better with control of the stadium. I don't know who did the numbers for him but clearly they got them a bit wrong.

The Harris affair was even more ridiculous, how could he possibly imagine Harris would still be Super League quality after three seasons standing around with his hands in his pockets? Notwithstanding the financial catastrophe, that decision cost us the services of Jamie Peacock and Leon Pryce.

Nevertheless I wouldn't trade the memories. That afternoon at Murrayfield, when we won the Cup for the first time in my lifetime, I'm happy to admit I cried. Moments like that made it all worth it.

Interesting that is the 2nd new poster to rab to dredge up that article. As I said to the first poster it absolves caisley of nothing, and if you think Harrisgate wasn't a key (if not only, granted) moment in our downfall then you were either not paying attention at the time or have another agenda to spin now for some rather obvious reason.

I have no particular axe to grind with caisley and would be open to his return, he did more good than bad, but to call the Harris affair anything other than an awful mistake mainly of caisleys making would be delusional.

Agree with so much of this post. I don't recall a player that came back to league from union who was ever the same player that left our game. However many union players (Tait,Glbbs,Bentley etc) went back to union from league vastly improved on skill and fitness.

I too felt the same at Murrayfield having seen us lose 4 challenge cup finals prior to that. So definitely worth it

I have seen documents from the Rhinos side on the Harris settlement and it's no where near what Hans Christian Hood quoted.

I think the impact on the squad was just as damaging as any financial loss, put them together and with hindsight it's still terrible.

Peter Hood if I remember said that he inherited a large debt when he took over, but the Harris debacle added much more to it and as the years went by that total debt became more toxic, I can see why he lumped it all on Harrisgate!

It was a major straw, no doubt, but there were many other straws too, mostly before PH took over, but afterwards also, making a significant contribution to the breaking to that particular camel's back.

Giving Mcnamara a 4 year deal then not acting quickly enough when fans were leaving in the droves because of the tosh been served up was a massive error. Topping that with the cheap season tickets still going ahead with it even after the sponsors who were going to cover short fall had second thoughts.

At the end of the day, the McNamara deal was probably the cheapest solution, and remember Macca had already built a decent reputation at the club, though, like most, I'd quibble at the length of the contract for a first time coach.

In the post Caisley era, remember we became very much a 'selling club' to make ends meet, and many 'expensive' people left, both from the team and backroom staff. All in all it was a difficult period which wasn't handled too well, though the people running the show had been dealt a poor hand.

Fans will always be fans though and just like today, a few will always moan because we aren't singing internationals any more. Back then we were losing internationals and it had many fans jumping up and down and shouting and blaming it all on the coach and chairman. To repeat myself they, both coach and chairman, were firefighting a financial crisis and trying, not particularly well, to keep heads above water on limited resources. All this with a backdrop of fans who just wanted Hape, Vainikolo et al replaced by players of similar stature. I blame Hood for some of it but don't condemn him, by any means.