Im not giving up silly

No it isn't! Scraping into the playoffs in 8th, or not, is not really material. Do you really think it is? I don't think the season will look much better or worse either way whether we don't make the 8, of if we do and then get beat in one more game.


I'm entirely with you there. I still find it difficult to beieve which players I am actually watching, some of the time.


Probably.


No they haven't. Plenty of dark depression, true, but also a lot of the opposite. If there's one thing it is contriving to lose so many games we should have won but we've had plenty of good and optimistic times too. The present isn't one of them.


Then you're a deluded lunatic, though I don't think you actually believe that. You telling, say, Steve menzies, how to go on? Don't make me laugh.


Who knows what's going on behind the closed doors. Certainly you can be forgiven for thinking that.


But that's only if you believe and accept that a lot of these poor performing players, despite being "experienced and big name players", can't play and shouldn't play. I'll freely admit to being completely baffled by much of what I've seen.



To a point I agree, but they've been playing when we've been gash too, for example Menzies v. Cas.



But there is, eg Saints away and the other games which I'm sure you watched so know which ones. That's not the issue. The issue is why some of the time we play as if there isn't. But it's fookin' baffling.


If that was something they needed to do then surely they've had ample opportunities to do it already.

A good and passionate post. Mick. I reckon everyone can see where you're coming from. I certainly can.

The who knows where i will be next year bit obviously gave me a different impression.

From a personal point of view i do not like to see bardford struggling as the first rugby i watched was there at the time of Mumby et al but having a lean couple of years has led a certain humility from Bradford fans which has been sadly lacking for a long time particularly in respect of comments made towards, Fax, keighley and Huddersfield.

McNamara has tenure? He could prove very difficult to remove if this is the case

Remember what Hood said at the fans forum the other week?

"Anything less then a good run in the play-offs this year will be seen as a disaster"

Surly McNamara has to step aside, move up/down if we don't even make them ???

The big question is then who do we replace him with ????

I wouldn't have Noble back

But that's only stating the obvious


Yes, but don't call him surly

Hood never said that.

He said that the aim was to have a good run in the play offs. Clearly he sees that as achievable.

When asked what would happen if we didn't manage that he said "well lets see what happens first".

I guess a lot depends on how the rest of the season plays out. If we lose ot HKR and stagger on to the end of the season finishing third from bottom he'll find it very hard to stick by McNamara.

Sorry what I mean is that I'll still be going to games but I won't be going all hand over limb taking time off work etc just so I can make the games.

I have been to many non Bradford games this year, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wigan, Hull KR, Leeds, St Helens, Hull FC, Keighley, Castleford etc and have enjoyed watching these nuetral games a hell of a lot more then our very own games.

Best performance so far for me was the 21-10 win at Warrington. That is the only game where I can say that we never looked like losing.

My apologies, that's how it came across to me

As much as people are going to slate me for this i dont see McNamara as the issue. Infact far from it.

In very limited patches this season i have seen Bradford play some awesome attacking rugby. St Helens away. Wakefield at Magic W/End. First half against Cas last week.

Now there's nobody on here that can say that Macca's half time team talk on Sunday was "Right lad's, you've done the hard work, its easy on in from here".

The biggest issue is that we allow heads to drop.

The lack of confidence in our team is unprecidented. The stupid 2 point calls against Leeds/Saints right on their try lines show this.

Sykes' tackling has cost us 2 games in 2 weeks. Every try Cas scored 2nd half came from a break down that wing, straight through Sykes, and the Leeds first half rampage all went down that wing too. The guy cannot tackle. Simple as. As a defensive centre he's shocking. If you struck off the amount of tries scored down that wing this season we'd have won far more games.

I'm fully in agreement with Mick. Another loss and any slight hope we have of being in the top 8 is gone.

However i dont feel at all inclined to jump on the "sack the coach" bandwagon.

Let the slating of my post begin.

Rough with the smooth mate. If we don't make the play offs the coach has to go as it's the minimum requirement especially looking at the team sheet on paper that's a given.

But you can't have it your own way all the time that's over a number of years or within the same season. I mean this year by and large has been rubbish but it's still been enjoyable and the feeling of beating Leeds at home and Saints away was the same as any Grand Final win it's just it didn't last as long.

Just watch in a few years when you're sat in the new ground watching the team trouncing the opposition this will be a distant memory.

That's life roll with the punches.

Whatever but don't ever lose that pride in being a Bulls fan because no matter what other people say in jest, you can say you were there when we won all those trophies and no one can take that away from us. The treble for example no matter what happens in the future Bradford Bulls were the first team to hold all four trophies at once in the Super League era that will never change.

GOOD TIMES









I'll still be following Bradford even if we got kicked out of Super League, it's just that there doesn't seem to be any passion, honesty, pride or fight.

At least from what I remember about the 1992 season we had all of the above

Good post mate but Im finding it hard to defend McNamara now as the play-offs sink without a trace.

I do agree that what he is doing behind the scenes is first class, it just doesn't seem to work on the pitch

I honestly thought earlier in the season once we had some confidence we would turn the corner, not so. I cannot accept this shutting off which has been with us since that awful Wigan play off a couple of seasons ago. We certainly need someone like Jimmy Lowes in the team to revive our fighting spirit. The team know they can beat the top sides but somehow fail to build on what they have achieved. The Cas match was another game which have driven us all to despair, and apparently won't be the last. This must be the most inconsistent set of players we have had. In the past we have had players who have given poor performances, but mainly because they had nothing to offer. Most of the present squad has talent, but just do not use it, and I am bemused by the players all season telling us the best is to come, but do not deliver.
It is a long time since I have felt so depressed about the future of the club.

It's simple until McNamara and his staff go we are not going to see any sucess. Hood wont complain about him signing players who have a fairley cheap salary. He's the biggest joke of a coach i have seen in 15 years of watching Rugby League, does anyone know his win percentage as coach.

Pretty naive to think that it was Macca deliberately signing cheap players with Hood looking on approvingly.
Rather obvious it was Hood setting the budgets and Macca doing what he could within them.
There again... there is no evidence and has been no comment ever that Macca even had a choice in the signings.

PRIDE is very emotive but generally subjective to the person who has it.
So some posters are I think at cross purposes.
I have PRIDE in the very existance of my club and this will remain as it always has from far darker days when its existance was in doubt.
I have had had PRIDE in lots of players for what they did and the honest endeavour they gave to the club notwhithstanding some with lesser abilities.
I've had PRIDE in many Bulls team's ability to win matches through talent, team organisation and/or bloody hard work.
I've seen players that had a PRIDE in the jersey that far outweighed the reasonable expectations of their skills and endurance.

It is the latter two that has been missing for the last 2 seasons, so the question is : how to engender this?
Is it coaching, is it culture... or what else?

I think everything Mick has said is fair and justifiable. I agree that, if we lose on Sunday then our season is dead. We might aswell then give Donaldson, Whitehead and other youngsters some game time. I know i'll be standing by the Bulls until the end of season and next season. I can't say that I know i'll be happy with my lcub anymore though. I think the recruitment in this off-season will be vital to us. I think it wouldn't be too hard to work out whether the club has high ambitions or is willing to wait as long as it takes for the Academy to bear fruits. Overall, this season will have been a disappointment as a whole. Somehting needs to change, but I am not the one who is in the position to make that decision. I hope Hood has some ideas about what needs to be done.

It's the logic of the management that I fail to understand. We had it last year when we gave Platt a 3 year ext and loaned out Halley. We now have Halley as one of the few triers in the team and Platt can't even get in the 17. And in your post you point out what a disaster Sykes is in defence. Hir reward is a one year contract. If you were a Rhinos spy and wanted to screw the team up you couldn't do a better job.

Hood as always said that he is willing and wants world class players at Odsal, as when we thought we had signed Greg Bird. McNamara is the the one man to blame for the trash that he signed, he has gone for a team of speed and it has not worked and never has done. Paul Cullen is spot on, he has noticed that the Bulls are getting the ball out wide too early in the tackle count and not making any meters due to the shambolic back line we have (not including Halley). Our first 3 drives on a set should be taken by any of Lynch, Burgess, Kopzcak, Scruton, Menzies, Worrincy, Langley ect then get the ball out wide and we might see a better team display.

Great post mate

Except that's actually rubbish, though, as we don't have any particular problem scoring points (our average per game at over 22 is reasonably comparable to all but Leeds and Saints which for a club in our league position is weird) - and you can't score those points if you are not making any metres.

Our main downfall is and has been our at times shambolic 'defence', followed by coughing up the ball, followed by giving cheap penalties away.

Are you saying Paul Cullen talks rubbish? Controversial....

Actually, Cullen seems to talk an awful lot of sense to me. I know he has a way with a turn of phrase, shall we say, but there's nowt wrong with that. And he does provide Sky with some very stimulating analysis. He doesn't seem to have whatever it is it takes to be a top level coach for some reason (though he's nobbut a lad yet) but he certainly seems to know what he's talking about and has great knowledge of the game, and some interesting thoughts even if we don't all always agree with him.

The sound of his voice really grates on me and I switch off. I also don't like Hemmings who is a bona fide talker of rubbish.