I think you're right there - Kear's post match interview implied that this would be the case.

What a great preseason it's been.

It’s been a great pre-season. Chalmers and the other club chairmen deserve credit for this concept. Yesterday both clubs had really bought into it and it was a great occasion. The match was as tough as any I’ve seen in the championship. We’re certainly battle hardened now. I don’t think anyone will have any complaints if the 2nd string play Toronto. Being honest we don’t really need to be playing them now at all. The injuries to Bustin and Gibson show that these games can be risky.

Could be mistaken as I didn't have one yesterday (early kick off and still being full from a late morning full English) but I think they get them from Haigh's Farm Shop... they are amazing and certainly puts us to shame with the Rollover slop we serve up.

The bravest person on show yesterday wasn't any of the players but the poor lass who had to try and get through the Bulls fans leaving the ground with a tray full of them. How she didn't get some nicked is beyond me!!!

It depends on your definition. If people are defining "friendly" as a pre-season game, then it was a friendly, albeit (as one fan said on twitter), a friendly with a posh dress on.

However I've always held the opinion that "friendly" is the wrong term in some sports and RL is certainly one of them. I don't recall watching any game at any level of RL that was friendly while the match was underway. Even kids games, fans games, amateur games, the whole lot, it's less than friendly from whistle to whistle. "Trial game" or "Pre-Season" game would be much more accurate, and I'm not just talking about the Yorkshire Cup matches, but all games that aren't a part of the official competitions.

Of course the one thing I do love about RL is how "friendly" it usually is before and after the game. Be it from players or fans. Yeah there's a few idiots, often fuelled by testosterone or beer they can't handle, but generally it's much more friendly than more popular sports we could name.

It was a “friendly” in terms of how the fixture is formally recognised. The appearances and scorers don’t count on official records.

I’ve seen a lot of pre season games in my life and they’re usually a kind of “low energy” version of the real thing with plenty of errors. You see heaps of substitutions and as such they’re not much of a guide to how teams will line up when the season starts formally. The Yorkshire Cup seems to have changed things a bit – at least as the competition got into the semis. The game versus Dewsbury was tough and didn’t have any of the usual characteristics of a pre season game. The final against Batley was as tough and intense as any league game, possibly more so. In that sense it wasn’t a friendly on the field – nor did it follow the pre season pattern. Both teams wanted to win and both coaches did. There was no talk of “performance being more important than the result”.

I noticed an interesting contrast actually to the final and the Leeds/Cas game that was going on at the same time. With the Leeds game, Cas were leading by 2 points towards the end when the Rhinos got a kickable penalty. They chose to run it, presumably know that the result really didn't matter and it's better for them to work on things other than kicking goals. In the Bulls game, when the scores were close, 2 points were kicked, because the result mattered to them.

In that sense, I think you're absolutely right. Although it still has the hallmarks of a trial game (I refuse to call them friendlies any more), i.e. more subs, some players left out, it does give the games a very different feel with some motivation that normal trial games are totally lacking.

On the subs I totally lost track of how many there were with all the sin bins that happened. The props swapped twice (4). Storton and Milton came on (2) and Hitchcox came on for Gibson (1). I think Milnes came off later in the game (1), Webster came on for Oakes and Flanagan came on for Wildie (1). I think there were ten but could be wrong.

I think it being a cup final of some sort added to the spice of the game. No one will care who won the Yorkshire Cup when we kick-off with Fev in just over a week. But that game had more in it than it would have if it had been a normal "friendly" It would have been interesting to see how many would have chased back Rettie & Campbell if it was just a friendly. As Bullseye said, we look battle hardened.

I certainly don't think we're going to get bullied like we did in 2017. Anyone who tries it, I think can expect some punishment back as we saw with the skirmishes in the game. We look a team ready to fight fire with fire. Bring it on.

I find it curious that the seemingly mild mannered Kear ALWAYS produces team like this.

From what I've heard of Kear he really fires them up behind closed doors

That away game at Dewsbury in 2017 when Keyes had his jaw broken and Thomas was chucked into the barriers is still an uncomfortable memory. We had a team of kids and loanees and we got badly beaten up that day. The ref didn’t want to know and we seemed unable to fight our own corner. It happened a few times that year. I have a feeling a lot of our lads have grown up since then and it won’t happen again.

Watching the full game back there was plenty of house tactics going on from Batley. Its good that the team have the agression to stick up for themselves but not take it overboard like other teams seem to do.

Out of curiosity, how does retrospective action happen? Does it have to be put on report?

There was a blatant headbutt from Manning on Flanagan (skip to 58:45 on the full game video) and its plane as day. George just laughs it off.

Flanagan has had a two game ban for dangerous contact reduced to one - so he misses the Toronto friendly. I only heard about this via the Bulls website. The official disciplinary page on the RFL website isn't up to date (like much of their content). No idea if any Batley players were up for suspension.

On Flanagan he did a great job of putting a few Batley players off their game and getting into their heads. Brown, Manning and Dickinson were all intent on doing some damage to him on occasion. George is certainly no angel either I hasten to add.

I think this ban is from the game the week before,so I expect Sunday's game will be dealt with next week.

Cheers.

Shame the RFL site can't keep up.

The nice thing is that - unlike previous seasons - having a player banned makes very little difference. If George gets a ban, we just go with Wildie and put Hallas on the bench for the hooker interchange.

What a difference to some of our recent situations!

Or go with Keyes and Chisholm in the halves, with Lilley as the interchange 9. Yes, the options when missing players certainly seems better with the current squad, all across the board really.

That competition for places should mean better performances all round. In the recent past some players got in the side simply because there was nobody else and was nothing to do with how well anyone played.

Flanagan will end up costing us some league points this season with his lack of temperament. I'm sure of it.
I'm all for playing with your heart on your sleeve but I don't think he knows how far to push things and when to stop.

You may well be right but he did the trick for us last weekend despite going in the bin twice. There are plenty of knuckleheads in the Championship that can be put off their game by his antics.

I don't think I will ever forget that game. That was the game that nearly finished me with the sport. Referees get stuff wrong, but what went on in that game was criminal. I was bang in line with the shot on Keyes. So was the linesman, who thought it was a fair shot, then 1 minute later, came storming onto the field with his flag as he noticed the interference by ourseleves.. It was disgusting TBH Then Thomas been thrown into the railings. The ref thought it was only fair to sin-bin a player from each team!! Never come away from a game feeling as angry as that. If it happened now, I think the entire team would pile in.

On Flanagan Nothus, I do agree that he may inevitably cost us a game. However he is exactly the horrible b*sta*d of a player we've been lacking. He's also arguably been our best player in the crunch games. The championship is a different league but I'd have him in the team.

agreed Bull Mania. and how many points will he win us to offset those lost? and having him as second shift is sensible to me when opposition players are tiring, for both his quick thinking and for his nettle.

Agree, absolutely need that element in a team......Mr Lowes anyone?

He has the capacity to win us lots of games as well. Towards the back end of last season Kear used to bring Peltier and Flanagan on around the same time and the pair of them caused a lot of trouble going forward. He was the difference maker last week and against Halifax in the previous friendly game.

I agree, he can be a loose canon at times but I feel he'll win us more games than cost us.

He's great fun to watch and the team gets a visible lift when he comes on too.

He's always talking, whether it's berating his team mates, winding up the opposition, or having a 'word' with the ref.

He is one of those players that you're glad to have on your team and that opposing fans hate with a passion. That's good enough for me!