So we are over halfway through the season and are currently in a bad run of form. I can understand some people's frustrations but some people are over reacting too much. Quite a few of you will have seen my thread a week or two ago about people we need to release/try get for 2014 but for now let's focus on this year:

2013 Outs:

Tom Burgess - Big loss, severely weakened our pack now that he's gone. Imagine him playing in this team? It would improve us massively.
Kyle Briggs - not a huge loss but would have been excellent cover in the halves and dominated Leeds and Wigan in 2011 so his back up could have given our squad a bit of depth at halfback.
Ben Jeffries - in semi-retirement but we lost his quality kicking game. Atm we lack ideas near the opposition line and last year Jeffries was a key man when it came to us scoring tries. Could really do with him this year.
Ian Sibbit - not the best player but added a bit of size to the pack and imo is a lot better defender than Walker, Whitehead and Olbison so we have missed his solid presence.
Olivier Elima - huge loss to our pack, added a hell of a lot of size and aggression (something we lack now) was outstanding in 2011 and was very good in 2012. He's the type of player that helped us dominate games and missed him massively.
Bryn Hargreaves - again see Sibbit. Bryn was an absolute workhorse, him and Manuokafoa this year at Prop would be a lot better option than Langley/Scruton imo. Added size as well which we lack (or he could have added depth.
Jason Crookes - I believe he is one of the biggest losses so far. Has pace to burn and would have been an excellent partner to Lulia this year which I think would have broken up a few teams defences like last year, also chases back very well like Kear. Missed him a lot this year. He should have stayed as he isn't getting a lot of games at Hull.
Craig Kopczak - Wales international and a very good prop forward. More agile than most, really missed his presence on the pitch and again would have added experienced depth.
Paul Sykes - not the best player ever but he did a job when asked and does have a but of pace (faster than Purtell anyway), experience and would have added depth to out small squad. Plus he can cover a large amount of roles.
Callum Windley - no offence to this kid but I didn't see anything in him in the Challenge Cup against Doncaster so we haven't missed him at all. O'Brien is the future.
Karl Pryce - hate to say it but we miss him and his size. Might have been lazy but I'd have him here in a breath. Scores tries for fun and always pops up to score important tries (even if they are walk ins) also tall so taking kicks (attacking and defending) would have been beneficial to us. Also provides good depth.
Phil Joseph - we lack size in the pack. A player like Joseph is adequate back up. He's a tank and would have only improved this year (as seen at Widnes). Plus he always gives 100% and always busts his balls to make a tackle. Not the most gifted but again would have provided depth.
Alex Ball - didn't play for the open age so can't comment.
Shaun Ainscough - absolute silly letting him go. I agree with cutting costs but he can score. Can chase back. Isn't afraid to take his man on rather than cut inside. As much as I like Foster he just isn't fast.....Ainy is. Also plays with a lot of pride and passion and even if he didn't start every week......excellent back up.
Liam McAvoy - big lad. Went to Leeds which wasn't a good decision imo. Would have got good game time and instead of playing Evans (who I rate) and letting him get experience for Wire we could have had a home grown lad on the bench every week in McAvoy.
Cain Southernwood - I liked him. We threw him in at the deep end in 2010 and I think he should have got a run of games rather than just 2. But he would have provided great cover in the halves.

So with 16 players gone and 4 coming in it really decimated our squad. To even be in the top 8 at this point is a phenomenal achievement. A couple of those players above would give the current squad depth and quality however Cummins has to work with what he has and with the annual injury crisis it's a lot tougher than expected. Personally I am glad we are not bottom and are still in the playoffs but taking into account last year finances, this year (and next year half sky money) plus the personnel we lost we should all be pretty damn happy about where the club is currently. We are also making inroads outside of rugby with concerts, mela, comedy nights and speedway etc.

People need to understand that with a 23/24 man squad it will be hard to get into a playoff spot. Take this year as what it really is.......a step in the right direction, the 1st step of the rebuilding phase.

Now I am not excusing some of the poor defence and lack of a decent attack but these players stayed with us when they could have quite easily gone last year like a few members of the team but they didn't they put their faith in the Bulls and the fans were a big factor in that. So let's just get behind them for the rest of the year and let's see what Cummins can do for the rest of the season as he builds for 2014.

Sorry for the long post but it needed to be said.

Losing so many forwards has been the biggest blow IMO. With a few injuries and loss of form we can't re-shuffle. Obviously rercruiting in the forwards had to be the priority for 2014.

Exactly and that point is backed up in the OP. Lots of size and aggression was lost in the off-season and we need to replace it.

Some interesting points there,regarding big Karl,I too wish he was still here,his trying scoring record over so many games cannot be a fluke

The main thing is the forwards we no longer have,size and aggression is sadly lacking this season

Think we need a Euro lottery winner for next seasons recruiting

Burgess, Elima, Hargreaves and Kopout would have walked into the side at the moment. They left a huge gap which with the best will in the world Sidlow, and Evans have had no chance of filling.

I believe I am a grounded supporter, my expectations of this season are realistic, and if we make the top 8, then it a successful season for me.

The list above shows why we are weaker in the forwards and I agree with the post re Ainscough and Pryce. It's also a shame that Mr Hargreaves can't be talked out of retirement, as he had a great season last year.

If I'm honest, I'm not entirely happy with how we have been performing over the last few games. Even with the missing players, we seem to be causing our own downfall. The number of times the team has worked it's socks off to pin the opposition in it's own half and then give a penalty away on the last tackle is becoming a serious issue. The discipline has been really poor, and this has allowed other teams easy yardage. We got a "tonking" from Huddersfield the other week, and we were guilty of the above numerous times. I must of seen Brough kick 40-50 yards from his own half at least 5 times! It does appear that the same players are usually responsible for this, I think L'estrange is a consistent offender of the above, along with Evans.

We have seen players kick out on the full from the kick off (3 times against Wigan) and players kicking out on the full when in play (twice last night, I think). Not only does this give the opposition easy yards, but then allows them to get a roll on and raises their confidence.

Our players are looking tired at the end of the game, and I believe this is a result of the amount of defending they are having to do during the game. We just make it so hard for ourselves.

When Wigan came to Odsal this year, I didn't think their attacking play was 'outstanding', but their defensive effort was immense. They didn't give away a penalty so we spent most of the 1st half within our own 20. Same when Leeds came to Odsal, they were extremely disciplined in defence and never let us out of our half.

Also, when we are having no luck in attack, and we can't find a way though, we become impatient and try a miracle play, which rarely comes off. We need to realise that we don't need to score on every attack and try to get consecutive sets. A simple little grubber into the in goal and put pressure on the defender. If they come out of their in goal, keep them pinned for their 5 tackles and try again.

Sorry for the long post, to summarise, the players we have at the club this season are more than capable of competing, they just need to be more disciplined and stop the "brain farts" when attacking! I havn't lost faith, but we need to realise what we are doing wrong before our play off hopes fade away.

In my extremely limited playing experience I remember it's easy to lose composure once the odd mistake creeps in. Once that happens further mistakes follow. Individuals try extra hard to make up for it but do so on their own which leads to more mistakes and the team goes from being a cohesive group to being a bunch of individuals. It's a snowball effect.

I think part of our current problem is that we're having to work very hard when faced with a stronger forward pack so we're under pressure from the off. When we have everyone fit it's a different story. Having said that I agree that there are too many stupid soft mistakes and we compound these with penalties all too often lately. Composure is the key. I think this needs to be emphasised by our on field leaders.

The original post is an excellent summary. Some people have too much expectation and seem to have forgotten where we have just come from. I am not happy that we seem to be losing quite regularly but know for sure that it is not lack of effort ( in some cases because of too much effort). I am just grateful to have a team to support this season and consider that being still in the 8 after the last few weeks is remarkable. Early season with a relatively full squad we were quite competative, now, as injuries start to bite our small squad is exposed. I am sure that things will improve as players come back from injury.

Good post.

I think most fans, to be fair, seem to know where we are, what the position is and are able to put some sort of a handle on roughly how long it's going to take us to get away from where we are. Though, that said, there are oddments who still appear to think we are still in 2003, with £millions in the bank, and a team of internationals on the field [and a couple more on the bench.

I think we maybe need a slice of luck to get us back on track, 'cos it's pretty certain that, like old adage says,"losing becomes a habit". Like another saying, though, "you make your own luck", and we need to start doing that asap; maybe starting with a new set of 'resolutions', like 'I will not put my hand on the ball, or on his back, when the tackled player is getting up'. That one alone will probably save us five, or more, penalties per game, and that's a potential 30 fewer tackles to make.

To be realistic though, I think our thin squad is starting to creak, as reading the coach's comments it seems that we have some blokes starting games who [ireally[/i could do with a weekend off. Things aren't going to get any easier.

I like the thought of this - it's the repeat sets that are costing us!

Don't get me wrong I did state that there is no excuse for the missed tackles and the errors/discipline. And I do think the likes of Walker need go but we have missed the size in the pack (as stated in the OP) and also our idea in attack has gone. We are okay scoring against the likes of Cas and Wakey but we have no idea when it comes to the Hull teams and the top half of the league :/ To be honest anything better than 10th is a massive achievement in my eyes.

TBF we beat HKR without too much bother earlier in the season. It's injuries and form loss that's taking it's toll now.

Had a fully fit pack then though. Last year if we got one or two (Manuokafoa and Scruton) injuries we could rely on Burgess, Hargreaves, Kopczak, Elima, Sibbit and at a push Joseph to cover. We pick up two injures (same players for example) we are left with Walker, Langley, Evans and Sidlow.

To be honest I struggled to remember a team look as uninterested as KR did at Odsal that day. But I think we are suffering now from "too" problems - too small a squad and too small a pack - size and numbers. At a pinch we could get away with our current backs if they were behind a pack which could assert itself.

Excellant original post and many sensible comments to follow it. Is it me, but the wheels seemed to come off after the Jay Willey affair. I wonder how much damage this has added to the obvious injuries and tiredness aspect of our losing form. As has been said to be in the the top 8 so far into the season with basically one hand tied behind our back is actually commendable.

We should never have gotten rid of Richie Hawkyard.

Who?

Don't think the Jay Willey thing has anything much to do with the current situation. The problems stem from the time it took to get the OK Bulls set up and the smaller budget at the beginning of the season. Even if Willey had come on board recently there'd be little her money would do at this late stage as all players are contracted.

Think it's more to do with the small squad. I hear there are a lot of players carrying knocks that would normally require a few weeks off or surgery but who are playing on because there's nobody else to come in, this is bound to affect performances. For instance Sammut has been wearing one of those plastic boots for some time due to an ankle problem and hasn't been able to train as much, he's not the only one. Also Jamie Foster's pectoral injury was serious and painful and he's going to take time to get back to full confidence in the tackle. That rather explains the bad tackling versus Hudders.

It's real backs to the wall stuff at the moment.

Exactly!

A wee poser that got a call-up to the first team away to Huddersfield when we used to beat them all the time. Live on Sky. He thought he had all the style. Ridiculous badger style haircut and wearing a pair of bright green boots he was the classic "look at me" player.

Now I have always believed that if you want to stand out, then you had better do for a good reason.

He was useless. Played about three games, including, IIRC, the first game we had lost to Huddersfield in years (it spawned the t-shirts they brought out celebrating the win), and was never seen again.

Went down to the championship with Swinton where he was still out of his depth he has hardly ever featured.

In fact, so bad that he only got ONE game for Scotland.

I think that was the only game he played for us. First team anyway.

I believe he's first choice fullback for Swinton nowadays though. When they're not being forced to play Warrington reserve players.

Oh I know exactly who you meant (I think I know practically all the Bulls players since 1996 IIRC including Calros Hassan) I was just being sarcastic as Hawkyard didn't feature much and I actuallyy can't remember him as I was like 9/10 at the time.

It is never good to have so many changes in one go, but things must be really bad if the likes of Sykes and K. Pryce are being remembdered fondly. None of the players on the OP's list are really worth worrying about - certainly not of the magnitude of losing Fielden, Peacock and Pryce in a quick spell.

K Pryce has blown more chances than Gazza.

No it's not of the same magnitude but I'd rather have Sykes and K. Pryce this year as back up because we could certainly use their experience atm.

They're not being remembered fondly by me.

Karl Pryce, the big girls blouse that he is, would not be welcome by me back in the team even if the only other choice was to start putting random fans there instead. Sykes is only missed by some fans because he often used to pass to them during a game.