Is it because both the majority of the team isn't very good (with one or two exceptions) and the coaching just isn't very good either?

I honestly just think this season has taken its toll on them all. They're done both physically and mentally, and I don't blame them for it one bit. You can see them giving their all, players all over the pitch clearly playing with injuries. Caro could barely walk out on the wing but played on through it.

It's also yet another season where we're into the mid-fourties in terms of squad numbers. You just can't go through that many different players and expect any level of cohesion to remain.

1. Shaun Robinson throwing the ball in Tongas face for no reason. Same old grubby tactics. Should have been a penalty. No, same old pathetic talking to both players.

2. Shaun Robinsons fake dive. Its cheating and he should have been binned. One of the reasons i watch RL is because that rubbish doesn't belong in our sport.

3. Ball goes dead from Swinton, we get a 20m tap and Butt boots it out of the stadium. Its a professional foul. What good is calling time off for us?

Along with the calls that go against you such as Bentley being held down after making a break and ref gives a knock-on along with Swinton dropping it in first half and ref somehow giving possession to them. Those calls can go for you or against you though.

We're utter cr@p and it doesn't matter whether we won or lost today so im not taking my frustrations of us being cr@p out on the ref.You may think Campbell's was a red but i personally didn't, i also feel they have been worse spear tackles (Toulouse at home) that have had less punishment. My frustrations as I've said is ive seen our players knocked unconscious with shoulder charges to the head, launched into barriers and nothing has been done.

My problem isnt when knock-ons go for us etc but when actions like the 3 mentioned above aren't officiated, they just make it an awful match.

Its the end of the season for me had enough. The RFL will be clapping their hand when we go down.

It was poor sportsmanship from Swinton I'll agree, but the club should have known what to expect. I wouldn't really call any of those decisions that the ref got wrong, you don't really see penalties conceded for poor sportsmanship.
The Robinson dive was stupid but why are we even giving him the chance to do it? I think the frustration just got to our guys today in the end. Probably a culmination of a few things I suppose.

We have 4 general groupings in our squad.

The first group are the players we were left with. These are the players that every other team in the championship didn't want when they could have been picked up on a free in December. They all have weaknesses which are evident to coaches, either fitness, skills or mentality.

The next are our u19's. Some great potential here but really short of experience and a few are still developing physically as well.

Then we have a few individuals we have signed during the year who bring something to the team (when not injured or banned....)

The last group are our loan players, a real mixed bag of talent & experience who can't develop consistency in our squad due to the nature of the loan system.

How on earth can any coach bring that together?

I think I'm at the stage where it seems impossible to fix. In times past I used to look at performances and improvements were obvious. The usual "we need to get a 7" or "we need to tighten up the edge defence". Now tackling, catching and passing seem like aspirations beyond the possible.

Now there isn't really a strong area which I can call adequate for us to build around. Any long term plans based around players like Bentley and home grown talent is a fallacy because no matter how many good home grown talents we can deliver I don't see it being possible to keep them long enough to impact the club.

Whilst top teams aren't required to develop talent, we become a feeder club and without funds to develop the squad it's all I can see us being.

We, the fans have been milked for all we're worth (money) this season and the club will continue to be milked too for our academy and the stadium as soon as it becomes profitable.

I see no light or redemptions, the thought of a restructure saving the club turns my stomach as we shouldn't receive special treatment, which to this point those who have seen the RFL's actions towards the bulls know we haven't been given yet.

You got told wrong.

Damn. Then he had NO excuse.

Agreed. I just want us to start in L1 next year, like we should have done this year and try and rebuild.

I think if we are all honest with ourselves this is exactly what we expected to happen when the RFL dithere just long enough to make sure we had no squad.

Yes the ref was bewildering at times and swinton played the best supporting actor role with great aplomb, but we're shot to pieces, Bentley and Sironen had good games but the number of us limping and hobbling is frightening.

Keyes playing when he shouldn't, it's debatable that Peltz should have played. So with him gone and Campbell being dealt with harshly (I'd have said 10 was sufficient), it's no wondered they ran out of steam. I am just stunned they were still giving 110% at the end. Some of 2015/16's show ponies would have sacked it off after 60 mins and gone hiding on the wing...

Only saw a fleeting glimpse of Robinson diving yesterday, but just seen a video on twitter (wobbly headed bull)
My god it's horrendous. Not sure which is worse, the fact he did it or the fact the linesman came running on with his flag thinking it was a penalty



Sorry i don't want to see that stuff on an RL field. I won't hold my breath but he should be banned. It's cheating. Over to you RFL.

I hoped I would never see it in RL but its creeping in,
Football is pathetic and it ruins watching a game.

Some of the tactics been employed by teams i.e diving like the clown in the video, or faking an injury to take the pace out of the game ala Rochdale, need to be stamped out now before the RL ends up like the not so Beautiful game.

Agreed, there's been a few games i''ve just not enjoyed watching because of the nonsense going on (doesn't help we're awful, but i'm use to us being rubbish,i'm a Bradford fan) But it needs stamping out. Unfortunately with the refereeing department looking in crisis, we're getting referees who aren't ready and don't officiate the cr@p that goes on. Straight away yesterday could have been a cleaner game if the referee awarded a penalty when Robinson threw the ball in Tonga's face. He didn't and as a result Swinton just played him like a fiddle.

He should be banned for that. More Monty Python than Swinton Lion

The game yesterday was one of the worst I have watched in 25 years,
as you stated it wasn't just because we are diabolical.

There was never any flow to it, it was start stop and penalty after penalty for the wrong thing at the wrong time.

I dare say if the game was allowed to flow a bit we would have probably come out on top, slightly.
If i'm honest its put me off wasting my time going watching matches.

Yesterdays game should have been a hard fought encounter, with little skill but a lot of "biff" it was in reality shambolic.

I wasn't there yesterday but I've just seen this video on Twitter too. If the RFL don't do anything to Shaun Robinson for that, they may as well be telling everyone it's ok to do it. The (very clear) evidence is right there.

I'm also told from a colleague that there was an incident where the ball was thrown back in from the crowd to Macani for a restart, at which point the other Swinton winger stuck his foot out to interfere with the restart. Unpenalised. As well as that, some kind of "keep away" kind of incident when the Bulls were trying to take a tap, where the Swinton players kept deliberately putting the ball away from the man trying to pick it up?

I know it's "win at all costs" but this kind of unsportsmanlike behaviour just isn't welcome on an RL field IMO. Biff I excuse, it's always been part and parcel. But play acting and clutching your face, and playing keep away with the ball? Grow up lads.

Why give them the opportunity to even act like that in the first place though? You can see Sironen lash out at the player on the video. I doubt he even connected and if he did it certainly didn't justify such an ott reaction, but why do it?

You're going to get wind up merchants in this division. I dare say it will be even worse in League 1. Our players need to rise above and not get sucked in by it.

I think we might be coming away from yesterday's game with a ban or two. Swinton might have been grubby but we gave them plenty back. Campbell will get a ban and Scott Moore caught a Swinton player with a really bad high shot in the second half. The sort of tackle that would have caused pages of outcry on here if Josh Barlow had done it.

The referee was as inept as we were, probably worse. I can only assume it's some sick joke by the RFL. Surely, these people have to have SEEN a rugby game before, even if they've never played in one, before they're allowed to referee one? Maybe they didn't have a proper one spare so they asked someone in the pub if he'd mind filling in?

Having done a bit of research, he has done a few games in league 1 and been an ingoal touch judge for a leeds game. Ours was his first game at championship level. Still ridiculous he hasnt done more in the league below before moving up. Refs are getting fast tracked too quickly, there is a mass shortage and nothing is being done on the face of it other than give young refs who havent had time to develop games they arent ready for

The pathetic Sh1te from Swintons number 2, not just the play acting, has no place in the game. Is it any wonder fans are leaving the game ? And the Campbell tackle shouldn't have even been a penalty. No wonder the game is Fvcking dying. It's all right saying we shouldn't do this or that and get drawn in but if we want to watch touch and pass lets all just off to watch Old Brods and have done with it.

From my view, from the stand side, it looked a definite 10 mins but no more. It was dangerous and the players head tucked underneath but it was more the momentum of the players rather than Campbell trying to cripple some one. It was harsh.

Sorry but it was a red card any day of the week. You can't lift someone up and tip them over the horizontal like that, it was a very dangerous tackle.

Agreed. Seen the replay and still not changed my mind that 10 minutes was the correct decision. The Toulouse tackle we had earlier in the year was more dangerous and much more above the horizontal, but that was a sin-bin. Watching the replay, the ref was very quick to send Campbell off. Only spoke to one of his touch judges for about 2 seconds. Swinton players laughing and clapping tells you all you need to know.

I've seen far worse than that all year and not even get a penalty. Remember this one against Swinton? Just a penalty. Not even a sin-bin. Toulouse one? I could go on. We've had players speared, knocked unconscious from shoulder charges to the head, thrown into railings and the referees haven't acted on it. The consistency is farcical.