Like a lot of social media it’s a pack mentality and outrage is the default emotion.

Frankly I just think this reflects our current political climate

Thank God we have RL to take our minds off that fiasco.

That probably won't be far off the 17. Plenty of talent there, but seven of those 17 plus the coach have been with the club for 2 weeks or less and three more are DR players who also won't have been at every training session. Suspect it will take a few weeks at least before we know what this group of players can achieve, especially with the three PNG players coming from a country where the LOWEST recorded temperature in recent years was 13 degrees centigrade!

Absolutely! It's like the wild west on there. They are currently outraged about the pricing for this season. Now we'd all like to pay less and you have to have sympathy for people with families who simply can't afford for everyone to attend. However there's something almost sinister about how the same names keep popping up hammering the club and urging supporters not to attend games. A lot of people read this stuff and some are influenced by it.
I've posted a couple of times, conceding the prices are high but trying to explain why, and pointing out all the various offers for cheaper tickets. They don't like it and the response is swift and vitriolic, but I feel, in the absence of any official response from the club, that this campaign needs challenging.

I think that is just endemic of social media as a whole. There are only a minority of breathless haters, but they have the lions share of airtime. They seem to froth at the mouth even more should you try and poke holes in their pointless (and often wrong) arguments. And then instead of trying to argue they just shout louder and try to drown you out.

If people are influenced by such nonsense; believing fake-news on social media and swallowing unfeasible lies blindly, then it doesn't bode well for the future of this country or others.

But there is no way that will happen.

Oh, hang on.....

Fev have the potential of a decent side if they can avoid injuries and avoid Leeds wanting the likes of Ashton Golding back (which I can't see them doing, as he's never a Super League player).

However this is the absolute perfect time to be playing them. Too many new players in key positions who haven't got experience of playing together. If we don't beat them this week, we won't beat them in the return fixture. Realistically, it's a game Bradford should be winning, and that's with no disrespect to Fev, it's purely that it's early days for them.

Am taking a Fev win. Roughly winning by around 12 - 18 points

Good effort.


Looking forward to our game on Good Friday. I expect you’ll be taking Fax to win by 70?

I don't mind Bulls Banter. I think most are good intentioned. However like most places on social media it's like the new age Wild West. Gal that runs it deserves a bit of credit, like here it's a thankless task, and she's probably got 3000 people to moderate either single handed or with limited help. She's raised sponsorship for John Kear and players previously, which is a good thing.

Social media seems to have an effect on people which causes them to lose all semblance of politeness. You simply can’t debate with people in that frame of mind and it can take an effort not to end up in an argument. In the end everything is polarised. There is no place for nuance. I think it’s made the world far less tolerant.

Get over it snowflake.

If I was John Kear I'd have been smiling to myself that they failed to raise his sponsorship for the coming season, because I think "John Kear, sponsored by Bradford Bulls Banter" in every news article cheapens his image considerably.

With respect to "good intentioned" folk, well those with good intentions not the ones who get attention are they. The ones who get noticed are the ones who say stuff that people disagree with. People do it all the time online in politics, sport, music etc. It's a form of attention seeking - people are purposefully controversial and purposefully walk the line between what's acceptable and what's not in order to get comments and likes. This transcends into what can be described as an online snake pit. Try for yourself - go on there and post "Chisholm is crap" and see what happens.

I don't think the group serves much of a constructive purpose anymore (nice idea in principle) other than the sponsorship.

What’s the possibility of a frozen pitch on Sunday?

50/50 I reckon.

As much as I'm looking forward to the new season, I really, really, really don't want to go and sit in that freezing cold stand for two hours in this weather

Well the first thing we generally have in this sort of weather is the terracing being closed, and spectator access being restricted to the Main Stand.

But that will all be moot if the pitch is frozen solid

Im going for Bradford to sneak a close one in a game of two very evenly matched sides. Fev will surprise a few this year and their side is not as bad as some pundits are making out with their predictions.

The covers have been on since the start of the cold snap. I think it'll be on. Wrap up warm everyone....

I think if the pitch is ok there’ll still be the question of ground safety. If it’s on I can see us all being in the main stand.

Well, they sound pretty confident: [urlhttp://bit.ly/2HMmfIV[/url

19 Man Squad: Dane Chisholm, Steve Crossley, Rhys Evans, Connor Farrell, George Flanagan, Matty Garside, James Green, Sam Hallas, Jy Hitchcox, Liam Kirk, Jordan Lilley, Jon Magrin, Elliot Minchella, Ross Oakes, Brandon Pickersgill, Ethan Ryan, Jake Webster, Matty Wildie, Mikey Wood

I'd go:
Brandon Pickersgill
Jy Hitchcox
Rhys Evans
Jake Webster
Ethan Ryan
Jordan Lilley
Dane Chisholm
Liam Kirk
Matty Wildie
Jon Magrin
Matty Garside
Elliot Minchella
Mikey Wood

Steve Crossley
Connor Farrell
George Flanagan
James Green

Sam Hallas and Ross Oakes to miss out for me.