I suggested Olbison move to prop because IMO he's the new Langley, offers little else but carrying the ball up.

It was bad enough thinking Falloon was on his way but Achurch as well? Hell no.

I can't tell if Achurch is just lazy and crap, or if he's doing it on purpose at Leeds because he's thrown the toys out of the pram over the way they treated him.
Remember when Leeds signed him? GH was really bigging him up. Not sure what's gone on there but it's not often GH gets it so wrong.



I can't agree. Olbison actually has genuine pace, and running out wide - where he's supposed to be - he can be a real threat. Go back and watch our middle 8s win over Salford last year to see what I mean. At prop he just loses all effectiveness.

I think Olbison has just stagnated in the last year or so, and probably isn't going to fulfil his early promise if he stays in the comfort zone with us.

Loathe as I would be to see another home grown talent move on, I do actually think a change of environment might do him the world of good.

Would be very happy with Ben Evans.

Achurch and Falloon I'm unsure on. Acurch would certainly give us some much needed size. But probably not the aggression or nastiness we're badly needing. Think he'll go well at this level though. Falloon would be a better signing than Howarth IMO but I hope he isn't put ahead of O'brien. Only saw highlights on Bulls TV but he looked to have a storming game against Whitehaven.

Agree with that.

The 'good player' must still be there though, inside. I thought the new coach arriving might have been enough of a 'change' but it seems not - so far at least. Change of club may well be what he needs - suspect I'd put Danny Addy in the same category too, neither have really built on the promise we saw in the last year of SL, I for one, thought they'd both be ripping up this division but, sad to say, for whatever reason, they just haven't.

Is that not a common theme of Bradford in recent years though? Player breaks through in academy, looks like he could be a future star, then ends up stagnating and moving on, only to reach that potential elsewhere?

I would say Whitehead, Bateman and T Burgess certainly fall into that category. Luke Gale maybe too (although didn't come through our academy). All started to look like their progression had totally stopped before going elsewhere and becoming stars. Donaldson not so much as I don't think he ever stopped developing, he was always quality for us.

I think if you bring promising youngsters into a side that’s flawed then you run the risk of stopping their development. They can get bad habits and never realise their potential. It’s happened a lot with us and I think that’s down to the fact that we’ve recruited very poorly for years in the key leadership positions. That’s mainly down to the head coach. Our best coach of recent years (Potter) arrested the slide and got us into the top 8 before points deduction got us. He made sure the side had a good spine so young players could come in under less pressure.

Look at how Addy’s development has gone since he got into the 1st team. For his entire 1st team career he’s been played out of position. Not good for his development or for the rest of the team.

here's a really novel idea - how about a player who can kick conversions?

How many games have we lost this season, despite scoring more tries than the opposition, simply because we can't convert the 4-pointers into 6's?!

It's something we can and must improve on that's for sure.

Three matches.

Enough to have seen us in the middle 8's then!

I wouldn't be surprised if Ryan Bailey was recommended by uncle Tony!

Anyone know why Jonny Campbell isn't still with Keighley? He seemed to go well in first couple of games and then hasn't played since. He was at odsal on Sunday and not even watching Keighley

Looks pretty much nailed on that Pitts and Purtell are off to London

Doesn't seem like anyone wants to offer Olbison anything - the T&A suggests he might end up playing part-time at Batley with Diskin. That seems a helluva come down for someone who was in the same bracket as Whitehead and Donaldson not so long ago.

And suggestions that a number of other contracted players are free to leave 'if an opportunity presents itself'. Presumably that covers people like Mendeika, Campbell, Halafihi etc

A real 'clear out' (and much needed IMO)

Think Olbison has gone 'off the boil' a bit, both this year and last. I've no idea why but he seems to have hit a plateau after his period of being the 'next big thing'. Disappointing but it happens - a new club, new environment, different coaching may be all he needs since I'm sure the basic ability has to be still there. That maybe means that Batley, and Disko, wouldn't necessarily be his best option though.

Some of our homegrown guys have stalled, purely because of the lack of development having SL intensity every week brings. Although coaching comes into it as well. I have been worried about Mellor this season but Rohan I think sees potential & should get his development back on track. Too late for Olbison though. Which is a shame.

Was very refreshing reading that T&A article. Sounds like Smith is going to be ruthless and isn't going to show the the kind of blind loyalty that Jimmy showed to certain players.
i think some players are going to have the shock of their lives pre-season.

Totally agree with this. In his junior days John played 6 or 13 or even fullback, once in the first team was used as a battering ram and we didnt see anything like what Wigan are now with him, try scoring and creating etc. For me Bradford have always fallen foul of wanting to bulk young lads up, John has stripped right down at Wigan. also see Jamie Langley line breaking international back row to workhorse due to putting too much size on

Most of our juniors of the past 10 years have gone on to greater things when they’ve moved. IMO that’s been down to the lack of stability in the club over this period. We’ve also had a lot of inexperienced head coaches (apart from Potter) in that time. I remember Whitehead and Olbison coming through and looking good before either stagnating or developing bad habits. I remember saying at the time if you bring young players into a first team that is poor quality and cuts corners then they’ll start doing the same before long.

Rohan Smith comes with a reputation for being good at developing young talent so maybe this trend will come to an end now – provided we stay afloat.

I'm surprised we're not offering Olbison a new deal tbh. He's not a flair player but at the same time I can't really remember him doing anything wrong or having a particularly bad game either.
He's a very dependable second rower in my opinion, and is also home grown so we should be keeping him I think.
He came off the bench against Halifax on Sunday and made great yards, more than most.

Ah well, just have to trust Rohan I suppose. As long as it was a managerial decision and not a financial one.

Do we have confirmation yet that we're swapping squads with London?

Blame Paul Medley for that if you weren't 18 stone and over 6 foot you weren't getting recommend by him.

Seems that way. Will never forget johns debut for Dudley hill open age 1st team at 16 came on at full back and tore Stanley to shreds, created game squalling try to take challenge cup game to extra time. Played the week after at stand off scored and created loads, a lot of us were shocked the way he was used at the bulls

After hearing who might be in the squad for Sunday I'm quite looking forward to it.
Keyes debut, possible Bentley debut, and Clark and Lumb both back from injury.

Also, more 2017 squad news. Blythe linked with a return to Warrington!