I think some slack should be cut really - we've had several seasons of mediocrity, many without any hope of a future in the upper echelons of rugby league. Things just feel a little bit different now and the fans can feel it have a right to be hopeful of a productive season ahead irrespective of their choice of online discussion forum!

Maybe it's just me but I'm not reading any expectations from fellow fans that I think are unrealistic, either good or bad. The consensus appears to be that we will be the battle for 5th but mid-table is fine.

Unless I'm missing some Facebook based over optimism?

Halifax are a good side and we will be a good side as well. Probably a good run out for both teams. Nothing to get carried away over, nothing to get excited about either.

I wouldn't particularly "miss" the Facebook side of things, but, to be fair, you do have to smile sometimes...

I was driving past odsal at 8am and could see work being done on floodlights

Well it's better than trying to do it the dark !!!

I saw a twitter conversation between a fan and Damian Irvine and he confirmed that some have been ordered. That was a few days back so hopefully it's sorted.

£500 a bulb apparently so I bet we've not bought dozens.

Thanks for the full match on YT. Good comentary Mick and the video itself looked a lot more sharper and Professional than last year ( pity about the floodlights

TBF we dont need to replace every single faulty bulb. If we just brought Coral stand end lights upto a similar number of working bulbs as Rooley Lane end and that would be fine for the limited number of games where they are needed.

Watched the full game on YouTube. Few thoughts.

1. It was a good hard game which will do both clubs good. Some real fire and venom in the tackles which I'm sure Kear and Marshall will be glad their players received.

2. Wildie looks an excellent addition. We saw with Hallas at hooker how much it hampered our attack. Quick, accurate passing from Wildie gave Keyes and Lilley time with the ball.

3. Olly Wilson will break through into the first team in 2019, just like Storton did last year.

4. I think losing to Workington and having to go through the play-offs was a blessing in disguise (as tortuous as it was at the time) Most of last year, in fact probably for a few years we have lacked backbone and fight. We've been bullied by teams, especially against Fax. We seemed to mature from the Workington loss and handled the bullying, little bit grubby tactics in the final. And I think it really brought the team together. Halifax are obviously a classier team than Worky and certainly weren't grubby. But they've bullied us every single time we've played them and we just haven't had the bottle to stand up and fire back into them. I saw a team that had no problem giving it back to Fax and even try and be the bullies. If Walshaw puts the same shot on Keyes like he did two years a go, or our full back gets thrown into some railings, we won't just stand around and ask the ref if he saw it. Webster and Wildie looked like leaders.

The results irrelevant and doesn't prove where either team will finish. But I think it shows we can compete for a top 5 spot. Many points will be won whoever performs the best on the day.

I thought there were pluses and minuses for both teams and at the same time nobody should get carried away with a friendley result. For Bradford I thought for your second game in you looked pretty slick with the ball and caused our defence, which has been top 2 or 3 in the championship in terms of points conceded for a number of years, a lot of problems. My initial thoughts after 20 minutes were that your pack was struggling to make yards and I thought we might go on to dominate that area of the game but from that point I thought you were more than our equals up front. I think the downside I saw for Bradford was that one or two of your players, particulary Webster, seemed to be struggling fitness wise and although its still pre season I might be a little worried with the new interchange rules coming in.

For Fax I thought there was more bad than good but from the positives a couple of our new signings looked pretty decent and it was a hit out against a good team so no harm in that. Negatives I feel that we gave up a bit once Bradford got a bit out of sight which is not a normal trait for Fax over the past few years and we also had the usual problem of us struggling to score points and although we did have the excuse of having no first or 2nd choice half backs on the field our attack looked slow and very easy to read which worryingly happens quite often when our 1st choice half backs are on the field.

Both teams will have different aspirations this season and although Bradford are keen to downplay their hopes this year I have no doubt they will be challenging for at least 5th with that squad and anything higher from them will be a bonus. Next year could be the season that the Bulls kick on. For Fax any less than 4th with the squad we have would be seen as a poor showing. Personally Im a massive fan of our derby matches and are glad that Bradford look like been more than competitive this season as it always adds something to our games so they are one of very few in this division that I will genuinley look forward to.

I'm a bit disappointed you didn't take my Bulb Builder suggestion seriously,!

Funnily enough, from my viewpoint in the main stand, where I could only actually see the lights on the pop terrace side, the Rooley end seemed noticably darker than the southbank end.

Yes you are correct but its to do with the angle of the lights...

The lux levels at the Southbank end will be higher as it has both its own two stantions plus additional from rooley lane end, whereas the Rooley Lane end has its own two stantions but very little from the Southbank side.

Interstingly, would it surprise you that there is NO MINIMUM LIGHTING REQUIREMENTS set out by the RFL for Rugby League in their current operation guidance.

This used to be something in place but seems to have been removed in the last 12 months or so... wonder why???

You're not suggesting the RFL are helping the bulls out are you?

mmmm I wonder who our landlords could be.....

This used to be something in place but seems to have been removed in the last 12 months or so... wonder why???'"

Can we not all hold our phones up with torch light on? With the many thousands that attend Bulls matches it would surely surpass any floodlit stadium in the land!

Yes. We were practicing against Halifax !!

There must be a minimum requirement for SL as they have to purely for the TV... I think it used to be 1000Lux (off the top of my head from what I remember). Championship was 300Lux and League 1 was enough for the official to carry out their duties (i.e. see each corner flag from centre of field)

But as I say, the minimum floodlight levels have been removed. I don't think this is necessarily to help us but I genuinely cannot understand why.

I'm sort of surprised that the RFL actually had a minimum lux level for floodlights. Historically, they were introduced piecemeal and, by modern standards, the early ones were quite dire, even though we thought it bloody marvelous at the time. I'd have thought it was just like any other 'seeing' problem like fog, for instance, and would have been down to the referee's discretion as to whether it was playable or not.

There used to a problem with Sky games back in the day as I can remember extra lighting being used in the stand to cover TV games. I'm not sure how much difference it made to the players but it certainly blinded those standing on the terrace. To be honest, I think the modern cameras aren't anything like so fussy as I've seen a few games live which looked quite dark but looked fine when viewed later on TV. Our game against Fax being a good example.

New bulbs have been fitted. Well 12 new ones to be exact. Should be enough to make things much better.

Bulliac having decent lighting makes a huge difference to players - I speak from experience of playing under many substandard floodlights in my time.

Good grief, those pics on twitter of the changing of the bulbs makes me feel VERY queasy...

Oh yes, I appreciate that but I was speaking about the early SL days at Odsal where the lights were actually pretty good but not, obviously, [iquite[/i up to the standard needed for the cameras back then.


Btw, I'm impressed you've played under floodlights...the nearest I ever got to floodlights was touch and pass out in the street!

It sounds odd that the RFL would remove any minimum lighting requirements.

From a player/referee welfare point of view surely the RFL have a duty of care for them under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to protect, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of its employees. This certainly applies to the RFL where the referees are concerned since the referees are paid by the RFL, and more broadly the players because the RFL are running the competition they are participating in, thus they have a responsibility to take measures to protect them. I would argue that the low lighting levels might have a detrimental effect on the welfare of the players and that the RFL would have some questions to answer by not having a lighting policy in place.

As far as the Bulls are concerned I am disappointed that they haven't prioritized the lighting situation for the same reasons. Not just that, they could have scheduled earlier games to circumvent the issue in the first place, much like they did for the Boxing Day game. We don't need the floodlights in the summer (normally), so why not just save the money and scheduled pre-season (and maybe early season) games for 1pm or 2pm kick offs such that the floodlights aren't needed? I understand with the Yorkshire cup it was a double header - do the same thing, kick the first game off at 11.30am and the second at 1.30pm. Problem solved.