hate hearing people slate lynch
he has done wonders for bulls and has taken our failure to make play offs x 2 years on his shoulders as he is the captain of the shower of sh&t that we have (a handful of players not all of them i may add)
he has gotten us valuble tries and for people to refer to him the way they have been in a joke. Burgess (may be doing OK but play him for the time lynch does and he would be blowing out of that fat a$$
also scruton is just coming back from injury and illness. koppy is having to carry the can by playing longer and covering lose forward- as is hargreaves because donaldson is not good enough. please respect the role lynch plays as yes he has been dropping the ball, knocking on etc but he is a grafter and plays longer than a lot of bulls players could even dream about. he is also getting on and bulls should really be limited his game time not expecting him to play the long spells he does at present

All we and good but if said player needs resting is he then captain material ? A captain in my opinion needs to be on the pitch rallying the players all the time especially when coinfidence is as shot as ours is

If Trent Robinson is no longer coaching Catalans I would give him a try at Odsal


Seriously & simplistically though, it shows what a coach can do with largely the same set of players who have failed. I was/am one who rated Potter so am struggling for answers. It's not just that you are losing, it is the way you are doing it & the negative way you are playing.

you are right MARKG a prop cannot possibly be a captain as he isnt on the pitch for the whole or majorty of the game. i feel someone like l'estrange or diskin who is a loud vocal character should lead the bulls, someone who is not afraid to dish out some hard words to those letting us down week in week out with penalties, handling errros and dropped balls.
lynch is a superb ambasador for bulls but he needs to be given a rest now while the youngsters do the graft and he can back them up

The same L'estrange & Diskin who have spent half the time that Lynch has spent on the pitch?

Do you see the problem there?

get a vice captain..unlike langley- sick note!! who can fill in if the captain has an injury. Im not sure who to suggest as my guess would be BK?

I believed SM should have been sacked earlier but otherwise this is a fair assessment. Whilst coaches must have a strong say on the overall composition of the squad there must also be a level above them which has a longer term or broader remit. This level has failed catastrophically, not as you say in every single situation where there are always mitigating circumstances, but viewed in the whole over many years. The financial issues have imnpacted but alongside the players who have left Brough, Myler, Robinson, Orr, Brown have all been available cheaply I suspect, prior to establishing themselves as very good players at other clubs and this is only in the halfback position. We simply called it wrong.

I don't see what's to be gained from another wholsesale clearout or changing coach unless we have a real vision of what we're replacing them with and to be honest, I don't think we have that skillset at the club.

Accept lower/mid-table mediocrity. There's less pressure then.

Bit petty that mate ,the reason Cas fans were celebrating was because thats what we do and the two points were vital in our quest for a top 8 place ,if you look at the league you 'll see that we (cas) are now four points clear of HULL KR in ninth place .,nobody in Cas is expecting to win owt but thats the way we like it .
FWIW I was impressed with the Bulls defence in parts but you did seem to tire easily,Cant believe how big young Tom Burgess is.

Delboy66(aye of the tigers fanzine)

You're very easily impressed then Delboy

I agree very much that the point about the turnaround at Catalans in a relatively short space of time is a great point.

I can understand the calls for a mass clearout, even though financially everyone knows, realistically, that isn't a possibility - there may be several departures and hopefully arrivals, (always is) but "mass" just can't be done.

Having said that, the points which mainly grab my interest are:-
a) my view that our young players would have been, and could be, much better if they had one or more really inspirational role models on and off the pitch (and I won't regurgitate my whinges about the lunatic release of Menzies, or indeed Morrison, but what a fkin difference they would be making)
b) the fact that despite all our faults (and they are many) we ARE capable of playing some good stuff, at times, we CAN defend exceptionally well, at times, and we HAVE got some good results amid the dross. The season is doom and gloom, but it is the ultimate overall results - caused largely by our abysmal defence, followed by inability to retain possession - which cause my despond, and not the level of play as such, which I think at many times has been far better and more entertaining than last season, even if the league position isn't.

So, how to sum up; well, i don't think we actually need a wholesale clearout. I do believe Potter is a far better coach than our league position suggests. And I suspect that getting the right men into the spine of the team would produce a disproportionately large improvement. If we can get them. As opposed to crazily getting rid of them.

Don't forget that one such leader by example is L'Estrange, and he will still be here next year. The light at the end of the tunnel is a faint one, and may still be a train, but I do think that relatively few but key acquisitions, could actually make us a competitive side in terms of Top 8. The question is, of course, having got rid of a load, whether we can now somehow find any available.

But I believe that such as Whitehead, Olbison, Crookes, Raynor, Platt and Addy could develop into much better and critically more consistent players with less of the responsibility on their shoulders and with someone's lead to follow. I think the consensus is that Lulia will beef up the centres and that can't but help.

I know we have been very critical and understandably so but we do still have some genuine class in the squad with the likes of Kearney, L'Estrange, and Elima. You could mention Lynch (though not of late); Scruton could come back better next time; and there is no reason why if we can get Whitehead and Donaldson sorted out in close season those two in particular could not be stand out players for us. Also Langley seems to be taking some stick, and maybe he has become injury prone, but there's no denying that a fit Langley is a big asset for us and him and L'Estrange improve the defence no end.

So we look pretty broken at the moment. But maybe it would be no more difficult a task to fix than were Catalans, with the right key personnel fit and in place. At least, that is what I'm hoping.

Thats what you get with watching Cas for so long mate



Delboy66(aye of the tigers fanzine)

bulls = giants 6 years ago

Wish we were

. At least if we were, we would know we had six years of gradual sugar daddy-backed rise to look forward to!

Bulls 6 years ago = Better than Hudds now

Ok I hereby go on record and apologise for my hurtful and insensitive comments about Cas fans over reacting to beating the worse Bulls side in recent history...

As an outsider looking in (I'm a Hull fan btw), it seems to me that you all fell for the spin at the start of the year when in reality you had signed some very avarage players.

Hull are no world beaters but when I look at your squad theres probably no more than 4 players that would bring anything to my side. Even them wouldnt be guaranteed a game.

ITs alright blaming Potter but in reality he has very little to work with, I guess he has the chance to prove his quality by getting rid of the deadwood over the next couple of years and building a useful squad. With these players you are going nowhere no matter who is in charge.

I agree with what you say here. I think it's important to remember that Potter was never going to come in and completely transform the team in one season. We signed an absolute shedload of new players this year, many of which were gambles and risks. Some of them have come off (Elima, Royston, Raynor, Ainscough) and some of them have not (Walker, Herbert to an extent) due to injuries and general disruption within the squad.

To say we all 'fell for the spin' is a little harsh imo. Our full strength 17 is really not that bad at all, certainly better than our current league standing would suggest.
Unfortunately we have suffered from major injuries to key players and a severe lack of cohesion and self-belief within the camp as a whole.

Ha Ha apology accepted



Delboy66(aye of the tigers fanzine)

Amongst the very average players, I belive Diskin and Elima were above average, and I hoped Hargreaves would prove to be so, although he has disappointed me somewhat.

As another poster said, our strongest 17 is better than our position atm. We still do have some quality players - L'Estrange, Kearney, Elima, Langley. But all of them have spent time out with injury and the players who have come into cover are not good enough in alot of cases. Given we were told the squad now had the depth to deal with this it is a little disappointing.

Although you have to consider us very unlucky as the two players we probably need on the park the most (Kearney & Heath) are the ones who've picked up the longer injuries.

An interesting story in today's (Thurs) T&A, with Connor Murphy bemoaning the lack of an organising scrum hall who bellows out instructions and generally runs the team.

I think he has a genuine point to be honest. Lynchy, as skipper, doesn't really do any organising and, as has already been said, he's only on the field for half the game anyway. Add in Connor's points that our halves are generally more suited to stand off or backing up than being used as organising scrum halves and it suggests where the problems are and the type of player we need to recruit.

As a criticism of what we have it's a well though out piece of journalism and I'm pretty much prepared to go along with it.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... d_general/ Here's a link. Agree with above. Probably the best piece of critical analysis I've read from Connor.

www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/s ... d_general/ Here's a link. Agree with above. Probably the best piece of critical analysis I've read from Connor.

Very good piece.

That said, its only really what a lot of people have been saying on this forum for most of the season. Analysing the problem would appear to be a whole lot easier than solving it....