This. Losing Morrison, and then even worse Menzies, was lunatic folly of the highest order, I said it then but now that it is as plain as the nose on your face, it gives me no pleasure whatsoever to say I was right. Indeed it wasn't even a tough call. Morrison was never "injury prone" as some uncomprehending idiots kept nuttily claiming, and as for Menzies, well, having the good fortune and nous to have signed a legend, what the feck do you then let him go for? And yes the result is, no real leaders on the field, coupled with no real halfbacks on the field, result is . .. well, our results.

I can't say I know that much about SL player salaries but 150k a year for a 2nd rower/loose forward sounds an awful lot of cap. I assume that was simply a figure plucked out of the air to demonstrate a point... you would certainly hope so anyway.

I read in one of the rags that Cas were operating closer to a 1m cap limit than the 1.6m or so allowed. Hood has stated that the full cap is available to the Head Coach which would suggest that we are spending closer to 1.6 than 1m. So why are we currently 6 points behind them in the SL standings? Poor coaching? Poor recruitment?

Duckett is quoted in today's T&A that he is confident that the Bulls fans loyalty will soon be rewarded. Unfortunately I think the club might struggle to convince some of floaters than next year will see us making any great strides in the competition ladder. I think the signings we have made have been pretty decent but we're still a long way off being Silverware contenders IMO.

Which coach in the right mind wouldnt spend the full salary cap Do you really belive thats its all available to spend?

I guess they might choose not to spend fully up to the cap if the right players aren't available. No point signing players to simply spend the money. Which is why I suggested at the very least that we were likely to be spending more than Cas or at the VERY LEAST the same. I would like to think that Hood is being genuine when he publicly stated that the full use of cap was available to Potter.

There's always a player available at some point that will strengthen the squad. I dont believe for 1 minute that the full cap was made available, just my opinion

Stats should be taken with a pinch of salt and perspective. For example, using super league.co.uk, to create game averages. Irrespective of minutes on the field.

Langely makes av. 70m per game, Bryn 68m per game.
Langely tackles 29 per game, Bryn 21 per game.
Langely makes 1 tackle bust every other game, Bryn 1.5 busts every other game (if thats possible?lol).
Langely misses 1.1 tackles per game, Bryn 0.8 tackles per game missed.
Langely errors per game 0.5, Bryn 0.4.

Not much in it at all. But it could be argued that Bryn is doing the same job for half the money (I would presume) and is far more reliable/less injury prone having been fit for selection twice as much as Langely. So maybe get rid of Langely, move Bryn to loose (2 try assists already at prop, could be developed?) and get in a house prop to bring back the biff!! Please not Bailey tho...not a fan.

But in all seriousness...there's nothing wrong with the pack. Look at how they dominated Huddersfield, I'd keep them all. In my opinion the problem this season has been with the halves and three quarters, the lack of leaders and the lack of a cohesive team of 13 playing to a gameplan/set of tactics.

Agree about stats; they do point in a certain direction but they don't tell all the story by any means.

I think the pack has been 'OK'. That is to say, I wouldn't regard recruitment there to be a big priority, but that doesn't mean we should rule it out either, assuming that funds and right recruit(s) are available. I think that, as well as not trusting stats we shouldn't put too much bearing on what happens in one game either, after all, if we just look at the Huddersfield game in isolation we should be looking to a play-off final appearance, but we all know where we are, and there is a reason for that.

Morrison picked up a lot of long term injuries while playing for Bradford. However, rather than label him injury prone, I'd rather point the blame at the players around him not pulling their weight and as Morrison is a leader it seemed to be that he forced himself to push himself further than was sensible or safe and thus caused himself to get injured. If Morrison had been playing during the awesome foursome days then I doubt he'd have picked up half the injuries that dogged his Bulls career.

Would still have him back at Odsal though. We've lacked a leader this year and I think Morrison could be a very big missing piece to the puzzle of the Bradford rebuild.

thinking about the amount of field position we've had over the past few home games, it's quite clear that our forwards have got us into a decent position fairly regularly. I still think we could do with a nasty un in the ranks but it's not as much of a priority as everyone would think.

It's been a constantly recurring argument about Glenn. I was one who didn't want him to leave but could see the club's POV when he'd missed more than half of his last season at Odsal with injury. With hindsight, I guess they would admit they got it wrong, but at the time, on the face of it, given his age and the way he threw his body about, it didn't appear to be a totally unreasonable decision.

Actually, I doubt how others played affected his game over much, he's always played like someone using superstrength Duracell for energy, he did when he was in Aus (so I'm reliably informed) so it didn't start when he came over here. For what it's worth I'd have him back gladly.

I see Scruton has gone to see a specialist again regarding his wrist.

His season has been hampered by injury from day 1 this year and it has taken it's toll....

Hope he's fit/ready for pre-season.

aye, if need be rest him for the season. we've always got crossley on dual reg waiting for his chance.

Is burgess made any mention of joining his brothers ? Looks a top talent

Soft as and have been for 4 years. Only Elima and Langley and to a lesser extent Sibbit with any fight in them.

I dont tend to agree with you much but you are on the button with this. We need one or two nasty aggressive ba$tards.

Watching the game, thinking, what would our forward pack done 5-10 years ago?

When the ref giving everything to Wigan, and the Wigan pack cheating (Hocks cheap shot on O'Brien comes to mind), we needed all the forwards to lose their temper and start smashing everything that moved.

Tonight only Elima had that fight and the rest let him down.

Look at previous players, McDermot, Fielden, Peacock, Foreshaw, Lowes etc. They would have been so angry to have been stuffed that they would have started brawling. I don't condone it but it showed they cared!

Our forward pack is too soft IMO. I don't even think we need world class replacements, just those that show aggression. Lee Radford, for example, would have show more fight for the shirt than tonights pack (Elima excluded).

For me, I think, we need to invest in this area!

Adam O'Brien looks like he is going to be a quality hooker. If we dont sign another Loose for next season, id be tempted to go with L'Estrange and O'Brien as the interchanging hookers, with a backrow of Elima, Langley and Diskin at 13.

How big is Tom Burgess!

He looks a prospect but he does look as though he needs to shape up and get fitter. If he does that he could be one heck of a player.

I'm not a fan of playing hookers at 13, it hasnt worked at any time for us this season and can't see it doing so long term. If anything, I'd prefer to see Addy there. He's a clever player, but he needs to improve a bit defensively.

If 'lesser' means losing every single collision and going backwards 5 or 6 metres in some tackles then you're correct.

Unfortunately I agree.

They need a bit of Basta*d about them. Like an Anderson player or Peacock type prop.

Or a Ryan Bailey?

Or a Ryan Bailey.

my stats were standardised, but not necessarily per game as you have done. your total distance per game will be affected by the amount of time on the pitch far more than the metres made per carry. I usually standardise missed tackles a game as a % of total numbers of tackles per game, which when taken with that total tells you both how much and how well they are tackling. And Jamie on these scores even when he has had all the injury problems this season is better than Bryn, so that is what I would want - a fully fit Jamie Langley (who is passing the ball more as Potter claims in the Hull KR Bullseye). and again to compare a fitter langley with Bryn, go back to the SL stats and compare Langley for 2010 against Bryn for 2011 where the gap is much bigger. or go back to 2004 and 05 to see how far Bryn would have to develop to get anywhere near a fit and more creative than defensive Langley. and if I were to convert a prop it would be Koppy as his are far better than Bryns on the offensive front.