Perhaps EoC understands this too and is recruiting with that in mind? James D for example will hopefully bring some of that professionalism and mental toughness to the dressing room.

I get the impression the "soft centre" has been an issue for some time, well certainly since the return to championship.

Culture isn't an east thing to change in any business and I guess that's even harder with a sports team based business.

I remember Matthew Elliott saying it was easier to weed out people you didn't want in a sports team than in an office environment. You can't sell Dave from accounts to another firm



I think it's harder to build a decent roster of players in the championship because the player pool is so small and the best will always end up in SL. We're left with players who for a variety of reasons aren't wanted by SL teams. I used to admire the culture at Batley a few years back as they used to punch well above their weight. We need to do the same, at a higher level. It'll be harder because we'll keep losing our best to SL.

Bulls 21 man squad. Dan Smith is back from injury and could feature:

I've been lucky to be able to meet and listen to some great coaches and leaders from across sport in my work and one that sticks out in my mind was a presentation by Sir Clive Woodward who shared his experience of building the team morale in the England team prior to their 2003 World Cup win.

He explained that talented teams fail because they make allowances for Sappers... those kind of people that sap all the energy from a room because of their negativity. You can have all the talent in the world, but you stand a better chance of success by having a group of less talented team players working towards a shared goal than you do with a group of gifted but difficult individuals.

There is one very good example of a player who played for us not so long ago, who was Man of Steel but never got a look in at international level (for England) or even at a top competing SL side.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist that we have had our fair share of those Sappers and still do. Some have left during this season but I can name 2-3 more that are still in there who are not bringing the right energy needed.

EoC needs to keep weeding these players out otherwise our culture won't change for the positive.

Danny Brough?

Smith back is a real boost. Was underwhelmed when we signed him, but he looked good early in the season and I think we've missed him. We've plenty of explosive players in the team, we need a few experienced calmer heads in there now and Smith is one of those.

I reckon so.

See also Dec Patton and Ant Walker.

So Fev beat Toulouse last night to go level on points with Bradford. The fight for the top 4 is starting to look very crowded - need a performance today as we know Doncaster can pull out a performance.

Seems like every team (apart from Wakey) are lacking consistency. A real opportunity (again) for the Bulls to up their game, or risk being also runs.

Win, and we've got a vulnerable Toulouse side on our sights with bottom side Dewsbury up next. Lose and suddenly we're just a defeat from falling out of the play-offs all together with Fev & York hitting their straps. Not sure if we we'd recover from a defeat today. Fine margins.

Seems that way. There was a period earlier in the season when we looked really strong (especially defensively), whether we can find that kind of form again remains to be seen.

The good news is, you look at the players we've got to come back Gaskell, D. Smith, Gill, Scurr, Baldwinson, we've got some real quality who will be fresh at the business end of the season. Toulouse are currently full strength every week. It's just whether we put ourselves in a good position to capitalise on that.

If Gaskell does make it back to fitness before the season is over, do we want to change the half back pairing at that point in the season? Who do you drop Sammut or Lilley? Lilley to hooker perhaps, but Souter has been solid. I think Gaskell on his day makes a massive difference, but is it worth the risk? Either way its EOC's call and I'm sure he'd be glad to have the choice/dilemma.

we again give teams at the start of the second half invitations (whitehaven recently and donny today) ... the game was just going through the motions and nothing really given. listening, i didnt think donny could score many (just the one) and after the 6 sets at the start of the second half on our line and with the bulls fans lapping up our defensive effort, it was only going to be time until we eventually took the game. a patient game won

Only time before you took the game??? You offered nothing until gone 60 mins when the ref took you upfield with terrible penalty calls, admittingly your defence was very good especially as we camped on your line for the 1st 20 mins of the 2nd half but to say it was only a matter of time is arrogant and untrue on all fronts. Fair play to the traveling support you took although i didn't know why they wasn't let into the ground until the 63nd minute.

Played pretty awful for large parts, dread to think what the completion rate was in the first 60 mins. Thankfully we defended really well, which is just as well when you can't catch, kick or pass a ball. If Donny had gone two scores up I'm not sure we would be 3rd in the table right now.

We did however take our chances well in the final 15 minutes and came home with the points. Eribe Doro was immense again, we are going to miss his energy massively next year.

EOC must be concerned with the form we are in at the moment though.

Agreed, thought that was a frustrating game, we were pretty ineffective for much of the game and given the way things have gone in close games recently i feared the worst. Pleased we stuck at it defensively and when the opportunities presented themselves we were able to capitalise. Credit to Donny, they made that hard work. Up to 3rd, lets enjoy the win.

That was a tough watch! We constantly made simple mistakes that should have been easily avoided. Misplaced passes, poor decision-making, and a general lack of cohesion made it seem like we were doing everything we could to keep Doncaster in the game during the first 60 mins of the game. Our defense, however, was resolute. Despite the errors in other areas of the pitch, we managed to keep our shape and hold off the opposition, who, to be fair, were clueless when they got near our goal. We faced 4 repeat sets with a man down and withstood their attack. Richard Horne will be fuming about that.

For the majority of the game, it looked like it could go either way. If we had been up against a better team, there's no doubt we would have been punished for our sloppy play. But as it turned out, the opposition was just as ineffective, and we managed to keep them at bay.

Then, in the final 10 minutes, we finally turned on a bit of class. Taufua's break up field swayed momentum in our favour and Doncaster never got back into the game. Lilley's try sparked us into life, and suddenly, the scoreline looked much more flattering than the performance deserved with Appo and Holmes grabbing 2 late scores.

It was a relief to get the win, but this game highlighted that we need to step up our game significantly if we want to compete with stronger teams going into the play offs. The result may look good on paper, but today's performance still leaves plenty of room for improvement. When we stopped dropping the ball and started completing our sets we pinned Doncaster into their own half.

MOTM: Doro

Whilst there’s obviously so much improvement that can be made, the fact we’re in the hunt for 2nd speaks volumes about the quality in this team for me.

After all the injuries, changes and players used etc to be in contention is an achievement. And before you all say it; every club will have could have/should have results. The fact of the matter is, with 5 games left we’re within 1 point off 2nd, which we’d all have taken.

Yet reading social media you’d think we were 9th like in 2022. Well aware that we haven’t been at our best recently, but find some of the comments baffling.

Having sat below some fans singing Nigel out yesterday, I do wonder what more the club can do, having got the lease back and building a hugely competitive squad for 2025

Good to put things in perspective. We are still in the hunt for 2nd. It's easy to focus on negatives (i've been guilty of that many times!). I didn't hear the Nige out chants yesterday so i would hope that suggests this is a very small minority. Whatever you think of big Nige, since his arrival we have been a much more stable club.

Initially, his past raised some concerns, but Nigel has proven to be an invaluable asset. His leadership and strategic vision have not only stabilised the club but also propelled us up the table. Under his guidance, our performances have improved, leading to increased profitability and new investors and a renewed sense of stability within the club. He has his critics, and rightly so, but he's done a decent job so far at Odsal.

I for one agree with BullPen, we’ve had a very good season so far, yes we’ve had a few poor results but almost every team has them, we’ve made some terrific signings this season a lot better than I could have imagined.
We’ve had our fair share of injuries, and we’ve been reliant on a few key individuals who are now feeling the strain.
Hopefully if we can get a few back we can have a good crack at the playoffs.
As for social media, I don’t partake and think it does a lot more harm than good these days.

I would imagine we are among the top 3 spenders in the league as well, so we are probably about where we should be. The positions from 2-6 are extremely tight at the moment so I'd imagine we will need at least 4 wins from 5 to stay there. If we can go on a bit of a run we might have an outside chance of 2nd place as Toulouse are also inconsistent.

The biggest banana skin game I see is Fax away, they will throw absolutely everything at that game to get a result in their final home game of the season.

Last I heard Bulls had the 5th highest budget, Sheffield had 3rd highest believe it or not. Bulls probably not far off, but by no means underachieving, just bloody annoying!

Annoying yes, the end of the world no.
This was a point I was making earlier in the thread around better game management.

Frustrating as it is, sometimes you have to suffer those to learn and lock in the mental toughness to see out a result. I'm sure the recruitment for 2025 has some of this in mind and I've no doubt this element of our game will be a topic in the post season review and the pre season build up.

I guess you need to look at where we are at a macro level, rather than a micro level.
The curve in the last 2-4 years is definitely on an upward trajectory.

Bumps in the road? Yes. Need to make wholesale changes? No.