We limp into the playoffs in poor form with 3 losses on the bounce. Can JK and the Bulls turn things around next weekend?

Bulldogs vs. Bulls. Saturday 25th September. 5:30pm kick off.

Discuss the game here.

Anything is possible I guess, but I only see a thumping off Fev or Toulouse if we were to overcome Batley. On current form you would obviously make Batley firm favourites to progress.

Not a cat in hells chance if we carry today's performance into next week.

Bulls are saying 15.15 kick off?

Just caught that. Kick off confirmed 3:15pm.

Can’t see anything beyond a loss for this… sooner we shift some of these players on the better

We've come back before from bad defeats but the concern for me is we're in a bit of a rut with 3 bad losses.

Throwing away the Widnes victory, and then somehow throwing a way a 16-0 lead in a game where we had everything to play for is just an attitude issue which is concerning.

Its almost like we think we've done enough instead of wanting to go to that next level. We build good leads and look excellent then put the cue on the rack, and concede a couple of tries before HT to let the opposition back in. Its happened numerous times.

The frustrating thing for me is it should have been so different. We shouldn't have lost to Widnes and shouldnt have lost to Whitehaven from being 16-0 up. We should have been going into a home tie on the back go decent wins, finishing the best of the rest, some stay aways may have even come back for the play-off and maybe a bit of positive feeling around the club. Finishing in the play-offs is an achievement when you consider the likes of York, Widnes & London have all missed out. Yet we've almost pi$$3d away all that hard work and limped into the play-offs and frustration among the fan base in the way we've thrown the last two games away.

Getting a win at Batley is all about attitude. Do we have the stomach for grinding our way up that slope when the game gets tough?

Ticket link: https://bulldogs.mysportstickets.co.uk/ ... _Bulls_820

Ticket link: https://bulldogs.mysportstickets.co.uk/ ... _Bulls_820

Bulls 21-man squad announced:

On Bulls twitter site it's different to the above. There is no Brad England but Flanagan is in there. Which is correct? I hope England is playing. Also why no place for Myers who was good last week (far better than Oakes) and what has happened to the loan prop from Hull. What a waste of time it was signing him.

Myers could well be a fitness issue only playing 20 mins atm and looks fairly unfit - example being his 80m break caught twice and was done towards the end I could see us using 5 props for this one

England won’t be playing as his foot was still in a protective boot last night

Lad from Hull had Covid so Must still not be fit enough to play, can’t be helped

Fully agree with Bull Mania's summary of the situation.
Very sorry to hear that England is unavailable, arguably our best forward. Disappointed not to see Myers again, I thought he looked a threat on Sunday. Just hope the season which I've mostly enjoyed, doesn't end on a whimper. Clearly whoever wins on Saturday is likely to get bashed by Fev and Toulouse. Whitehaven must fancy their chances though.
Does conceding home advantage to Batley hit us badly in the pocket? I don't know how play off gate receipts are distributed.
Also, I thought the pitch had been widened and the corners sorted, but last Sunday it looked back to being narrow. Was that due to the abysmal state of the track, or were my eyes deceiving me?

Same issues. Not enough desperation to hang on there late in the half.

Can't see us coming back from this unless Batley tire and we have some barge over tries. We look lost.

Can see this being Featherstone 2016 all over again

A million sets and we don't look like scoring. Batley have one set on the half way and go up hill and score Gutless

yup sad end to the season after we had done so well .... last 4/5 weeks we've just not been there

Credit to Batley, they 'wanted it more'. Some of that goal-line defence was awesome

We look totally one-dimensional. Five ponderous drives and then a floated kick from Brough. Predictable and easy enough to defend against once you've worked it out (which Batley did)

Far too many players look out of shape as well. Who is responsible for conditioning these days, because they aren't doing much it seems?

I'm reluctant to join the 'Kear out' brigade but I do wonder if we've gone as far as we can with him. But who would we get who could really take us to the next level? It feels like there is more to come from this squad, but we aren't gelling as a team in the way that teams like...well, Batley, are doing

Kear isn't going anywhere so you can forget about that. I found his comments in his post match interview interesting, describing this season as more of a consolidation after the Chalmers mess but expecting to be genuine contenders next season. Those are some big words, so we'll see how the squad changes between now and next season because the players we currently have are nowhere near being contenders.

As for today's game, I like Elliot Kear but he doesn't work as an attacking pivot from fullback. Pickersgill is pretty lousy defensively but our string of defeats have coincided with his absense because we're missing what he brings with ball in hand. Kear doesn't have the pace or the fast hands that Pickers has and you could tell that we were playing the same system today and it wasn't working. Our plays ended with the ball in Kear's hands more times than I could count.
And when those plays didn't work, we looked lost in terms of a plan B. Our last tackle options were atrocious - at one point we had Anthony Walker throwing a (forward) pass to Jordan Lilley on a crash ball! Absolute madness.

I'm not too fussed about us losing because all it has really done is save us from an absolute mullering next week.

Agree with Nothus, Kear at FB definitely isn't an option going forward. That Hall looked decent though.

So frustrating how we've just thrown a decent season away. Today, we just seemed to hope Batley would tire. They were there for the taking with all those errors. But we have too many players who were happy to take the ball up and that's it. Not that next level of wanting to score a try or make a break.

We definitely lack a player or two who can break the line and create something with some pace or clever footwork. We seem to have assembled a side which only option is to try and run over the opposition and when we come up against a resilient defence such as Batley we are found wanting.

Next year definitely feels like last chance saloon with some of the current crop of youngsters before they’re picked off by SL clubs. Doyle will be off after next season and if we are lucky we might hold onto Scurr or possibly get him back on loan. So I would probably say it’s also the last chance for Kear to have a crack at SL before he retires or moves on.

With our budget and set up we're not serious contenders for SL. We're a second tier club capable of springing the odd surprise. The 2019 squad was going places and had potential but we had to sell most of it because of Chalmers over spending.

Either just enjoy some of the games and tolerate the mediocrity or find something else to do. That's all we can do. The game has moved on on without us. Until a new owner appears with money to burn this is it.

Did anyone notice (I think it was Brown) stamp on Flanagan's ankle? I wonder if anything will happen about this. If it had been the other way round George would be looking at a 5 match ban.

Flanagan has copped a few cheap shots in last few weeks and to be fair he has kept his cool, where in previous seasons he might have retaliated and be penalised.

I wouldn't have given him a new deal back in March but I think he earned a new contract as understudy to Doyle.

Such are our lack of attacking options, Flanagan is our biggest threat