Quality of match report plumbs new depths.

Sorry to keep banging on about this, but the english language is a beautiful thing, and that guy's output causes me actual physical pain.

Has someone dragged Ray French out of retirement?

Not as bad as the player profile where someone posted on twitter for Oscars Thomas profile on the Bulls website, his position was marked down as Full Back/Half BLACK



Onto the game. I think Keyes was injured as he wasn't in the 19 man warm up. I thought we totally out smarted Batley and won that game with our brains. Pryce is getting better and better. Him & Moore picked the right passes at the right time. Superb

We actually look a more complete team than last year. We had plenty of dogs bodies and some talent but absolutely no one to steer the ship last year. Pryce and Moore are clearly guiding us around superbly. Campbell was outstanding and my M.O.M. He's cemented that right wing spot now. I agree with Northus. I am frustrated with us having an unused back on the bench every game. It will come to bite us in a tight game when we're tiring.

I have to say we are playing some of the best attacking rugby i've seen for a few years. When the ball gets out to the left, the moves, and passing between Thomas, Bentley, Oakes and Ryan are a joy to watch. Defence is still a bit wobbly and our discipline and errors are frustrating. Hopefully Smith can get up to fitness and replace Mendieka who isn't up to it IMO. No idea how he didn't score in the first half and his inability to draw a man in is frustrating.

Great 2 points to gain. Lets not love up against Dewsbury who will be fired up for us before returning to their weekly slump like every year.

Don't be sorry, it has the same effect on me. I don't mind them wanting to save money here and there, but I believe the club's website and social media outlets are a big indicator of a club's professionalism, and whoever is running ours is damaging that professional visage. But I suppose if they don't want to pay for someone to do it properly, maybe the money is being spent elsewhere. Regardless, I avoid reading them now.

The "typo" that Bull Mania mentioned was a particularly bad one though and spread around social media like wildfire last night until someone has since changed it. For the official website to have "half black" listed under a black player's profile could very easily offend someone in these days where offence is taken very quickly. Surely that's as good an example than any of needing someone to proof read rather than just using a spell checker.

Probably our most complete performance yet yesterday. I was impressed with how we contained Batley's forwards. Having three props on the bench was a great move. All the pack played well. Pryce had his best game yet and when he ran the ball Batley couldn't deal with him. He wound up a few in the opposition nicely too.

Ethan Ryan's finishing just gets batter. Oakes too is a real handful for the defence and it was great to see Campbell take his chance. He's got that wing sewn up now IMO.

The kicking game could have been better but with a makeshift halfback in Smith it was understandable. In the end it didn't matter.

Excellent game from us, marred only be some pretty naive defence particularly in the first half.

We toughed out a game in which we would probably have crumbled in times gone by and that was good to see. So many great tries, though, and whilst I don't think you could really quibble with Oscar getting MOM, I think there were half a dozen reasonable candidates, my own choice being a near call between Johnny Campbell (if he can play like that, how come he's figured so little over the last two years?) and Mikolaj Oledzki, (Leeds have an absolute diamond in that kid) and I give it to Campbell only because I thought his intercept try was probably the gamebreaker, which put the game out of reach for Batley.

Pity we don't yet have a bigger squad, as it would be nice to be able to keep most of the team out of the firing line against Fev in the cup and save them for Dewsbury in a fortnight. I think we should be approaching that game, if not quite like a cup final, at least as the important fixture it most certainly is.

I don't understand what's happened with Batley. I know they've lost John Kear and a few players - Keegan Hirst is a big loss - but they looked a shadow of the team we played last season.
They finished either 3rd of 4th last season so they will have received a decent wedge of central funding, they're still a part time team but I can't work out where any of that money has been spent?

Probably returned to the norm after an exceptional year last year. Under Kear they were fighting relegation most of the time and only just avoiding it on a couple of occasions.

Still doesn't explain where the money's gone.

Maybe they used it to support and strengthen their business rather than over paying players? (A lesson that a few clubs maybe could learn from... mentioning no names

)

Hirst turned out and scored for Dewsbury yesterday; assume he's on dual reg from Wakey?

Wouldn't mind us going in for him if he get's frustrated not getting a shot in SL.

Typical arrogant Batley thought they could just turn up and win against the team that finished a few places below them last year. Sorry Batley you're not a big club anymore and just turning up expecting to win against the team at the bottom of the table isn't going to win over the neutrals.

I read that one thing they'd invested in was their training/gym facilities, so they don't need to spend money on private gyms/premises anymore. A capital expenditure which increases infrastructure quality and reduces outgoings in the future. Whether that accounted for all of it, or they're keeping a "rainy day" fund, I'm not sure.

They run a tight ship at Batley. No way will they have spent it all.
They've had a lot of work done around the club, but most of it has been done by sponsors, which will has kept the cost down.
The lads that extended their contract after their outstanding season last year got a nice bonus built into their new deals and they have a bigger squad this year, but they certainly aren't the type of club that will throw all the extra money at the playing budget.

Not a bad showing from us in second half...
The first half defence was very poor, Mendieka's defence is not good enough, Smith in that centre with Campbell for me..
Keyes and Pryce 6 and 7...Oscar played well too, J.C would have been my MOM though.

Leon was my man of the match. He ran with the ball more and caused problems for Batley each time.

As much as it was a good result, lets hope we don't fall in love with ourselves after that, there wasn't much between the two teams until the last few minutes.
Too many errors early in the tackle count.
Too many penalties given away.
No idea with attacking kicks.
No patience near the opposition line.

Still plenty to work on.

Second half was enjoyable...we were poo in the first half, our defence was very very poor, handling errors were under 10's level.
although when we play with confidence we look good with the ball in hand, for me we need a couple more experienced heads..

Has anyone read the T&A article with Beattie today?

Has he seriously said he hopes there is interest in our younger players or has he been misquoted??

I think it's a misrepresentation of the quote. He's bigging up the young lads saying that they're SL quality, but hasn't quite had the eloquence to make his point

I didn't read it the way Ewwen did to be honest, but even if he did say that, it's a statement of the flaming obvious. Our academy sides were beating SL teams in their league last year, and seem to have started this season in the same vein. Given the performances of some ( all....)of the youngsters in the first team and you'd need to be a real dimwit not to realise that bigger clubs are going to be slinking around.

How do we manage to keep young players?

Obviously we can't manage to pay them the same as SL sides so what is it that we do that keep them wanting to stay at the club?

Outside of the basics like paying them every month on the agreed date. I'd say regular first team football. Once they are established first teamers they are off to superleague where they belong. That's a fact of life while we are in the championship.

What I find gutting is seeing Adam O'Brien turning out for Halifax. Not because of any rivalry with them (good luck to them) but because he is genuinely superleague class. He's at the wrong superleague club IMO.

If Ethan Ryan were to leave I'd want to see him ripping it up on the wing in Superleague or NRL getting the show biz billing his finishes deserve.

A few years playing regular first team for us and I'm sure he'll be ready to step in to that level and certainly international honours.

There is no way in hell that Ethan Ryan won't be playing Super League eventually. As well as the spectacular finishes, he is one of the best defensive wingers I've seen in a long time. I wouldn't like to try and count the amount of times his read or a great ball and all tackle has saved certain tries down his side.

I just hope we get a good couple of years out of him before he inevitably moves on. And I won't begrudge him that move either.

From reading this and the comment you were replying to, the best way forward is an open and honest approach. Let players like Ryan, Oakes etc know that if someone comes in and it feels like right time and move for them; we'll let them go. But if it doesn't feel right, they're not quite ready for that level it would be better to have one more season at this level, if they go to Club X they're likely to not get a shot and just get shipped out on dual reg at this stage (i.e. O'Brien) etc etc

Would require players to have a lot of respect and trust in whoever was delivering that message as it could sound like you're just trying to keep them but if we're genuinely looking after the players best interest than it could work. May be being a bit naive here