I will throw a name into the ring who would be good for the bulls
MARTIN RYDYARD

Then why do we seem to be rushing to sign up as many as possible of them for next season?

Won’t have a chance of getting ridyard

I think theres a good team in there. We're definitely lacking leaders though. Need to get the team by the scruff of the neck and cut out these basic errors out. No more chances now. Sudden death rugby (im not counting the Hemel game as it doesnt prove if we play well or not)

We've gone backwards since Lilley arrived, we had a nice half back pairing emerging (at last) with Keyes looking a decent long term bet at 7, and we then threw another dynamic in there and we have lacked attacking cohesion since, we are pitiful 10 metres out and very easy to read - I certainly don't think he's improved us.

We have no attacking structure or plays to speak of, and whilst that's got us past a most of this league of amateur teams that might struggle at the top of the national conference, we're going to be crushed next year if we don't sort it.

Our time at the bottom of the championship and top of League 1 has not been kind to us, and we have an underperforming group if we are honest and we all need a wake up call, we should won this league by a canter.

Why not if he was available? Considering the signing of Webster and reported interest in taking Hitchcox permanently we are targetting the right quality so if he could sign for Fev why not us. Not that I am saying we should be in for him but if any of the interest in Keyes rears its head again I think he would be perfect to target as a replacement

Interesting angle. I think much of our lack of cohesion isn't just down to the halfbacks but also the changes at hooker and fullback. Changing the playmakers certainly doesn't help and when those same players start to take the wrong option (plenty of that in the 2nd half) everything falls apart.

It's difficult. I appreciate that Lilley can play hooker (though we're not short in that department, tbh) but we seem to have a settled pairing of halves and his addition means that three into two doesn't go, and I feel he's wasted as acting half. I wonder what the plans are for next year, based on the assumptions, that is? Both Keyes and Chisholm are signed for next year but we all know how that can be relied on, so do the management know something we're not aware of? Obviously they know lots of things, but I'm thinking something specifically to do with the halves.

Off at a bit of a tangent, but is it just me who thinks that our lack of ability to put people through gaps, or even create gaps, is as much down to lack of runners than failings in the playmakers?

I'm not sure Chisholm is to be honest, he was saying on twitter he's got nothing signed for next year.

Your right though, how many times do we see people looking for runner only to be disappointed to see acres of clear field between them and the next Bradford Shirt and the attack is stopped dead.

I honestly think we have the team to have blitzed this league and that's really frustrating.

But...turning to experience as a reason I do believe we'd not have lost to York had Gibson and Smith been in the team and I never thought I'd say how much we missed Smith but he does appear to have a certain quality on the pitch that we sadly lacked whilst panicking against York.

Had they been in the side consistently we may have been looking at a different story. I know they both seem to have gorilla glue on their hands but they appear to have been given the Scott Naylor role as centres.

As far as I’m aware Chisholm’s deal runs out at the end of this season and negotiations have been ongoing, he is a fulltime player. Keyes is under contract for another year and remains part time. IMO I’m not sure if the mix of fulltime and part time works well or not with certain groups of players. Lilley is due to be here on loan in 2019 too and we do need at least 3 bona-fide halfbacks in the squad. How Kear decides to fit them in or who to drop is an interesting conundrum but so far I’d say the understanding between them and with the rest of the team could be improved.

On the point about a lack of runners I think that’s valid. We often see halfbacks or fullbacks looking for them but nobody puts their hand up and runs a line. I’m not sure whether that’s down to a lack of ability to read the game or whether some players are harder to run off than others. There is a lack of support play in general and this means that players very rarely offload. This has crept into our game of late compared with earlier in the season. It makes us very predictable in attack. We have the predictable “out of the back” move that we seem to execute far too slowly and standing far too shallow. Often the opposition is offside or our PTB is slow so why we’re so shallow I don’t know. The other move is the one where we go wide and throw an inside ball for the fullback to come into the line. Again executed well very rarely recently. Other than that it’s off the cuff barring the kick to Ethan. It’s getting too easy to defend against.

When you look at the stats we have the best attack and best defence so maybe we being a bit harsh, we have beaten everyone bar Workington. We have looked our least impressive against teams that beat us up down the middle so perhaps the halfbacks get too much criticism. It’s a fact that we need at least 4 props in the 17 versus those sides (I’m starting to think that Kear’s dropping of Peltier vs Workington is up there with Smith’s dropping of O’Brien versus Fev in 2016).

TBF IIRC decision to drop Peltier against Workington was due to external factors rather than purely being a tactical decision by Kear. Think he'd spent a lot of previous week dealing with family matters and had missed a lot of sleep.

I heard that too and he did have a poor game the week before. However he was "water boy" on the day. He wasn't at home attending to domestic matters. I sincerely hope it was a selection that was unavoidable from Kear as we sorely missed his go-forward. I remember Wood coming on for Crossley when Moi Moi was coming on for Wilkes and thinking we were going to get schooled and we did.

All good points Bullseye. I'll watch the full game when its up, but from the reaction, and observation throughout the season, i think our biggest issue is ball retention. It seems to have gotten worse since the York defeat which is worrying.

IF we play to our potential, we should come through the play-offs fine. A pack of Crossley, Peltier, Green, Bustin should dominate any pack (down to Kear to get the selection right this time)
Our attack has been slated all year and Yorks lauded, yet we've scored over 50 points more than then with Hemel to play. But rightly its the way we're scoring the points. Our first try against Oldham was a pearler though. Fast accurate passing and a beautiful soft ball from Chissy to put Storton through the gap who ran a superb line. I think the reason we're not doing it is because our attack is becoming so disjointed from schoolboy errors. Not managing kick-offs, Hallas doing a poor pass on first tackle from dummy half, props dropping ball cold. If we have a couple of sets on oppisiton line, we'll envitably score. But we're just getting no rhythem in any of our last few games because of all the errors.

The errors killed us in the second half. I can see why Kear was putting so much emphasis on the first few tackles of each set in training as described by Bullinenemyland. We seem to get forced into errors very easily. A lot are totally avoidable.

Trouble is, if you have too much emphasis on mistake free rugby you end up playing in the most sterile and predictable way.

Not booting the ball out on the full or ignoring a 3 man overlap twice to try and score at the ruck would also help.

I am glad Bullseye pointed out that we are the second best team in this division, next to a very creditable and entertaining York side, and our numbers are as good as anyone.

Sunday second half was mystifying but we did win pretty comfortably away against no mug side, our defence looked mean, and our 24 points seems to have been forgotten. I do think people's overall view of games is coloured by the finish rather than the start but we did very well first half.

I've moaned enough this year about constantly giving up cheap possession so I'll shut up.

For next year though, people forget how young the team is, and they will have had a full season (well, not all, as we have had a constant stream of newcomers) under Kear, so they will be older wiser and many will be better and some bigger too. I always say when building a new team it takes at least 3 seasons to get near some sort of proper cohesion. Then, you may have a poor side; an average, good or just occasionally very good side.

Our problem has been, and is, we don't have the luxury of time. We need to get promoted and then do it again.

That brings another problem - the old one, that a team which gets promoted from L1 is not necessarily going to crack any pots in the Championship; more so at the next level. So that means more disruption. But, to me, I have seen loads of promise from the young members of the squad, who i think will all make it, and what we are short of is 80 mins. of leadership, and someone to shake us up an get us around the park when things are not going well. Whether any of our current squad can reliably do that job, I'm not sure. I would have liked keys / Chisholm to get most of the season and i know you need cover but I'm not sure Lilley's style has helped. I'm thinking that if still here, Chisholm will surely be fitter in 2019 now he'll have had a full season with his reconstructed knee. Keyes would credit any team and would be my first pick along with Minchella.

Add Magrin and surely the pack is reasonably competitive for the Championship so we need to sort out the roles for leadership and direction, and I genuinely believe we could, if we get there, hold our own in the Championship.

Whether we could be promoted from it - well, no, you'd have to say, if say Leigh or HKR as they were is the standard you need, then we are a long way off. But I'm not bothering to even look that far ahead, we're still in L1 and if we go up then I'm sure Kear will know what's needed to play in the next league. I remain of the view we are jammy to have someone as good and experienced as Kear.

I think it's been said a few times that the top six (or so) of champ1 are of very similar quality to the general middling championship level and I've seen little this season to dissuade me from that, tbh.

I definitely agree that we have a young side, which should improve simply through time spent in a good environment. Getting players to 'gel' is always a problem though and the usual end of season 'in and out' scenario under the contract system, which pretty much means up to a third of the squad is probably out of contract at the end of every season doesn't help, but of course, every club has this to contend with.

I'm sure you're corect in saying it will be very difficult to achieve promotion from the championship, given the quality of the likely opposition. To be honest, I'm far from sure it would achieveable and any realistic promotion campaign may have to be 'parked' for a year to allow for our own development. Obviously, the club can't exactly announce this... but I'm far from sure we 'need' to get promoted again next year. I think we need to be somewhere 'in the mix' and looking as though we are making solid improvements. I think that is far more critical than actually delivering a second promotion, certainly in terms keeping the fans onside. Next season is another world though, so maybe any chicken counting, when the season arrives, will look very different. I think we'll have more of an idea where we are when all the ins and outs have been sorted.

If we do go up then anything more than avoiding relegation would be a bonus.

I'm looking forward to next season if we do go up.Hopefully we can get our backsides into gear and have a good season and not tail off like we did on Sunday.

I cant buy into that mate. Even after all we have been through I still th9ink with the team we have atm we'd be a mid table Championship

Maybe a bit pessimistic Bullseye - but I don't expect us to be anywhere near the top end. I suspect we would be in the mix along with Sheffield, Swinton, Dewsbury etc. Unless we suddenly sign a whole lot of quality, I haven't seen anything this season to think that we'd be anything much above the 8th-12th position.

Of course, getting promoted would be a good first step

Yeah let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've got to get there first. If we do go up we need a few more seasoned campaigners so we don't get bullied again up front.

This thing about 'seasoned campaigners'.... I recall that when John Kear was appointed a lot of people suggested he'd make just those kind of signings. Again, when we went for the 'hybrid' part-time/full-time squad it was suggested that it would enable us to sign some experienced tough, hard nut forwards who wouldn't necessary want to be full time

But we didn't. We signed people like Mikey Wood and Callum Bustin - young lads making their way in the game, who have done well without really being able to dominate in those tough games. IMO we've been light up front all season. I wonder why John Kear didn't identify this and deal with it right at the start of the season?

Which seasoned campaigners can we realistically target? Who springs to mind?

AIS, First choice pack imo certainly have plenty of games behind them.

Green 120+
Flanagan 170+
Crossley 180+
Garside 200+
Laithwaite 100+
Minichella 100+

Let's be perfectly honest here. The days where we could draw up a list of 'targets' and actually make moves to sign them are long gone.
We sign players from the ever dwindling pool of those available. Do you think someone at the Bulls sat down and said 'hey, let's go after that George Milton, he's decent'. I don't think so.
We signed him because his agent put a call in, we needed players and his wage demands were in our budget.

The same thing will happen next year, and the year after, and the year after that until we finally get back into the upper echelons of the sport or die trying.

The only way we will ever truly have some genuine quality in our squad is if we take a gamble on someone most could deem a risk (Chisholm/long term injury etc.) or if we develop our own. If it's the latter option we'll probably get a couple of seasons out of them before they move on (Bentley).

Our season ticket sales give us an edge over the whole of League 1 and some of the Champ sides, which is why we can match or improve upon the salaries of players like Magrin and Wildie.

Fair point, although only two of those are prop forwards, which is what I tend to have in mind when I think of the kind of forwards who can 'bully' the opposition.

I don't know who there is available. All I know is that most of the Championship teams we played last season (and teams like York and Workington from this season) seem to have quite a few of that type of no-nonsense prop with a bit of 'mongrel', as the saying goes.

And for the most part they bullied our pack (Jon Magrin included!). I couldn't really see Steve Crossley or James Green bullying anyone, much as I rate both of them as good, honest 'go forward' prop forwards.