Some good (notably Morrison, Scruton and Sykes) but mostly poor (notably McAvoy, Platt and Jeffries) but for me the worst decision is the release of Ryan Atkins. To see a player represent another team, look good but then disappoint when you sign him may on occasions be forgiveable. To have a quality player in your squad, work closely with him and then release him is terrible.

It's not his signings that have been the major problem to me. He took over as coach during a period where we couldn't buy the kinds of players other clubs were, hence why we saw the likes of McAvoy coming into the club, who acquited himself as well as he could during that year he was at Bradford.

There are a few good signings smuttered amongst the list, but like I said, to me that's not the concern.

The main worry is how we look on the field, which to sum up in a word would be "lost". Our conditioning also looks a concern, I know you might get the odd knock, but in the opening two games we've had four players going off the field with knocks IIRC (Solomona & Langley, Deacon & Burgess). I raised this concern last year before Cardiff, when we lost both half-backs to the same injury (hamstring).

Is that really the worst decision?

I suppose it does look a little odd to say that in the same post as referencing the signing of McAvoy!

It might not be the single worst but I think that my point stands about recognising talent within the squad.

This is getting circular and repetitive very quickly - let's try and fix that.

Results

2008 was the worst season the club's had since 1998, no doubt. But it was not the catastrophe some make out. The club won more than half its games and did not fall outside the play-off zone as Wigan and Hull have done fairly of late. It's a situation I'd like to see improved, but not an unacceptable one that demands immediate action.

Looking at this season, it seems bizarre to me that results like drawing with Hull KR and getting pipped by Huddersfield are 'unacceptable' when they are superior to those that last season's second and thrd placed teams attained against the same opposition.

Recruitment

This is what Bradford's success was built on, but it's had the squeeze put on it by external factors

[list[*other clubs' getting their act together (no one's letting any Jimmy Loweses go any more and plenty of others are in the market for anyone half-decent that comes available);[/*:m
[*lack of funds at the club;[/*:m
[*the drop off in youth development (Burgess and the rest vs Leon, JP, Fielden as was, Deacon) leaving more spots to be filled by outside bodies, if not youngsters who previously would not have got into the Bulls frst team squad. [/*:m[/list:u

Add that all together and it's unsurprising that McNamara's buys have had a lower success rate than Noble, Elliott and Smith's.

The McNamara regime is doing something to counter this problem long-term by increasing focus on youth development, building links with Cumbria etc. In the short term the team has been left unbalanced by the failure to secure Mogg, Shenton and Bird, but given that Leeds and Saints also failed to pick up a decent centre this off-season, I can't see how McNamara can be held responsible for failing to magic up players who just aren't avalable to sign.

Tactics/Coaching

Here I'm on shaky ground, rarely seeing games. But results do not bear out the idea that McNamara is clueless. The club's results during his tenure have been at least the equal of every other club in the league with the two obvious exceptions.

He is young and inexperienced relative to some. But then we knew that when we gave him the job. In fact that was part of his attraction - we give him a go and as a result save money relative to what a seasoned coach from outside the club would demand. He gains experience on the job, gows into the role and owes loyalty the club for giving him that chance. Odd to see many of the same posters who decry the jettisoning of young players in favour of those brought in from outside demanding the same course of action taken regarding the coach.

At the moment, the impact of his coaching is limited by the players available to him. I suspect his coaching would look a hell of a lot better with Bird in place of Ben Jeffries, but recent developments make that a moot point.

Conclusion

ME and others talk about McNamara failing to fix 'the problems' as though they're one of the women off Last of the Summer Wine and Steve Mac is their feckless husband who hasn't got round to putting those shelves up because he's too busy rolling down a hill in a bath. The problem is that 'the problems' (the short-term ones) are ever-changing. Every club in Super League is trying to better themselves as if their lives depend on it because their lives do depend on it. Hull KR and Huddersfield were never going to lie down, and denying them any agency in Bradford' s two (two!) results this season is unfair. This a zero-sum game and we're running hard just to stand still.

Bradford with their B license have a bit of breathing room but not so much that they can afford to gamble by ripping up their long-term plan for recovery when it's less than halfway through. A new coach could do better long-term than McNamara, but I see no evidence that there is any such person willing to make a long-term commitment to the club, to work his days off travelling to meet players, to build with the long term future of the club in mind rather getting to a final or two in the next couple of years. And I fear that a more likely consequence would be a break-up of the McNamara project, little to no improvement on the field in the short-to-medium term and a further decline in the long-term. Yes, there are league positions below fifth.

Have I said long-term enough? Hope so, because someone had to.

You talk about repetitve? You are right because you still keep harping on about his failure to sign Mogg, Shenton and Bird not being his fault. THAT IS AS MAY BE (even if I did actually take comfort in the point) but the fact still remains that there is little signs whatsoever that improvement is getting made anywhere on the pitch which, despite his long arduous treks to Cumbria, is ultimately where he will be judged.

In fact, I could even suggest that he spent less time in the car and more on the training pitch addressing our obvious problems but you would no doubt find some other way to make an excuse for him.

Finally, I agree that it is not unsurprising that his signings have had less of a success rate than that of his predecessors. That is because, ultimately, not many of them have been very good. Again, it is ok that you can go on about the failure to land players and his wonderful youth policy but this is somewhat contradicted by the fact that young Halley has never been given the chance behind the mighty McAvoy and now Sheriffe/Platt and whilst he is scoring tries for fun at Wakefield, we are scoring not a lot.

Dang!l

All I can see and hear when I try to read your posts now, thanks to AF, is [url=http://newmedia.leeds.ac.uk/1710/last%20of%20the%20summer%20wine.midthis![/urlicon_lol.gif

Halley's had his chances, you're rewriting history there. If he was a McNamara signing I have no doubt you'd be decrying him as another that is not good enough.

I think we've established now that you refuse to consider context, refuse to look beyond results in the short term, refuse to consider the fact that the two clubs that have kept a settled squad supplimented by quality academy products (oh, and one Man of Steel shortlister a piece courtesy of us) have been head and shoulders above all the rest during McNamara's reign. No one's got closer than we did in 2007 and no one's particularly more consistent. People still gnash their teeth over our play-off exit to Wigan by a single point that year - Catalans followed up their third place finish by conceding fifty to them. People are quoting Cas and Quins as examples of what can be done, but did you check their boards last year? There were the exact same moans as on here about how clueless the players, the same mistakes made over and over again...

It boils down to this. It's not as bad as you make out, and there is no short-cut to success in any case (Bird could have been it, but sh.t happens). We're not particularly well off, we're no longer particuarly well supported, I'm hoping that Hood et al show particularly large balls, face down the mob and see the plan through. That's the only realistic way I can see Bradford becoming exceptional again.

In fact, hit [url=http://www.slstats.org/this site[/url and point out the one club whose results you wish we had since Nobby left, Leeds and Saints apart.

Catalans? Like I said, lay down and died at home to Wigan and in the cup final at Wembley, and failed to maintain a real challenge for a top two spot despite Leeds wobbling. Now that may seem harsh, but if Bradford side had replicated those exact results over the past four years... if a Bradford side had started this season with a home thrashing by Huddersfield...

Go on, I dare you. Who has had a good set of results since 2006?

So McNamara has tenure... Looks like ME and co will be stuck with him for a while yet





Brilliant

I know where you're coming from Andy because I've said plenty to that effect myself.

However there's no getting away from the fact that since 2006 performances and results have got worse. I know we're going through a major transition and it was always going to be tough but after a while people will want to see some light at the end of the tunnel.

If the strategy is to sacrifice the present for long term benefit you have to be careful you don't go too far or by the time it bears fruit there's nobody watching anymore, no money left and you can't hang onto the young players you've been nurturing. You need to find a balance.

At the moment some people think things are alright others think we're still on a downward path. Just a sign that better times are around the corner would satisfy me and maybe some others. If that's seeing a few juniors show some positive signs for the first team or us show some improvement to our defence around the ruck I'd be happy. Others may want to see more. 2009 really is make or break for McNamara and the "long term" policy or there won't be any fans left to see it come about.

I think a lot of people on here fear that we won't see any of that if the opening games are anything to go by. I realise only 2 games have been played and there's plenty of time left but frustrations are building.

Indeed. If things carry on slipping there is no guarantee Bradford will continue to get SL franchises - admittedly things will have to get a lot worse though.

That said it is still early days on the field and I have a feeling things will improve soon.

d:REAM for entrance music then?

I think the "Enter Sandman" that they use now is quite apt. Some of our attacking play is so predictable it sends you to sleep

One thing though Sam - attendances and on-field performance don't seem to show athat great a correlation. CF 2004, 2007 - both decent years in terms of how the team played but both seeing a drop off in support.

You might want to avoid those New Labour connotations in the current political/economic climate - unless Gordon Brown decides to bankroll the OSV project to rejuvenate the economy

2004 - after the Lord Mayor's Show. 2003 was simply the best ever and would've been hard to follow.

2007 - The worst summer weather on record had a bit to do with it.

For the most part across RL you tend to get more fans when you're successful.

Being of the generally positive pursuation, I've been backing McNamara and espeically the long term plan to bring through another generation of young stars, as i dont really see the point of sacking him in the final year of his contract for little guarenteed improvement. So I agree with most of your sentiments af. However, where I have a problem is why does all the long term solutions need to be so tightly pinned to Mcnamara?

Could the "club, Hood et al" rather than just the coach not be the driving force to reinvent itself? Such that if we replace the head coach for whatever reason with a suitably qualifed and respected replacement (insert name here) that the new regime can continue any good work whilst attempting to rectify any percieved failings on the pitch. So the kids and stars like Burgess stay and the community programs and Cumbria scouting continue, irrespective of the head coach as the "Bradford Club" has good long term plans not just the coach.

I'd hate to think our entire long term future if dependant upon McNamara alone, if he ends up being very successful (stay with me ME and others

) then he could up sticks and take a better club opportunity, what then for the long term planning?

But generally I wouldnt advocate sacking McNamara this year unless an absolute collapse of form and lack of wins occurs, which you cant forecast from a disjointed start to the year IMHO (we look rusty from not playing decent opposition in pre season if you ask me, some of the attacking failings in the first two games are what i would expect in preseason) where with a bit more luck and intellegent rugby we'd have won at least one out of two against two well organised and determined teams.

It all feels a bit cr@p at the mo, but I agree that its not as bad as some make out.....yet (ask me again after we play Nobles mob)

Is that the 2007 where we only won 3 of our last 9 matches.

After the successful Leeds side of 99 fell apart it took them five years before they won anything again. Taking out that 99 Challenge Cup Leeds were "in transition" for over 30 years.

Can we expect the green shoots of recovery to show this season? I'd hope it's not going to take us much longer. There was a 17 year gap between us winning major trophies 1980-1997 and 30 year gap 1949-1979. That's almost Leeds-esque

Seems reasonable. though you do have to contend with people who want to knwo why the generation fo young stars haven't won the Cup, WCC and SL Trophy in these first 3 weeks.


They don't, necessarily; it's a given that 99% of all coaches in all sports move on, most sooner rather than later, it's just that on all reports, it is McNamara that has been the persuasive factor in our signings of the Burgesses etc.


If it had not been for Jeffries' brainfart we had already got the 2 points vs HKR. They also beat Saints away, and should by all accounts have beaten Leeds, so at this stage of the season aren't playing like whipping boys, much though it suits the case of the NT to make facile generalisations like "we 'should' be beating 'teams like these' ".

If Tadulala had not lost hold of the ball in the act of scoring we would almost certainly not have lost to Huddersfield either, however disjointed much of our attacking was. A battle-hardened Hudds. were fresh off the back of a fine victory at Catalans, who were a better team than us last season, so it came as no surprise to find them as competitive as they were.

If we won our game in hand today then we would be up to joint 4th, that's how bad it is. We've already seen enough to know that our pack can more than mix it with the best, and the defence is very good if not yet perfect, so we aren't that far off at all.


No Burgess, no Langley, no Solomona, no Deacon . . . sounds tailor-made for a famous victory to me.

This is my point, coaches move on, the club carrys on, if its McNamara or no long term then we have bigger problems as a club than just McNamara. but as it is McNamara who has instigated this turn around in youth policy then I see no reason (barring my previous caveats) why he cant at least be given this season, up to the end of his contract.



I agree, with all the possesion we had, a lucky/scrappy try early on against Hudds or Hull KR could have seen a confidence start to flow in our attack that is certainly absent at the moment. Huddersfield and Hull KR are both playing well at the moment, whereas we were playing like we were in preseason, (partly the coachs fault, but not entirely) And I think we are guilty as Bradford fans of not giving enough regonition to the two teams we have played, they both played well and took their "limited" chances well. (one of HKR's trys was from a quick tap after a restart on the 20, not that they systematically took us apart)



We might do it, and surely thats the point of it all?? as long as some improvement is shown and its a good game I wont be slitting my wrists even if we lose again, which is quite possible away at Wigan....but far from certain IMO, playing two weeks on the spin will help for a start.

No Lynch...maybe no Godwin...sure in the wars right now. We can't use the injuries as any excuse though given how the likes of Wakefield have performed in adversity.

"My centre is giving way, my right is retreating; situation excellent. I shall
attack!"

Maybe this time out we will.

Deja vu...wonder who'll fill the JP role for us this time round?

It most certainly is.


God, the poundings I've watched us take at Wigan, and yes, the more unexpected a win, the sweeter it is. Pretty much a full pack out and a scrum half short is tough, but we should like it tough, and I'm with you, it's how the lads on the field perform first, and result only second.

He also failed to persuade Shenton and Mogg to join us. For every Ying there is a Yang.