https://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article ... head-coach

https://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article ... head-coach

Wow.

We knew this would be the case on the day John Kear got the boot.

Now the poor bloke will get a load of abuse that his results don’t warrant and are no reflection on him as a coach because the club went behind milking this for 10 weeks!

Laughable. I won’t be renewing my ST, I’m sure many others feel the same.

Nothing against Dunning, but clearly the cheap option and not evidence of a club wanting to make progress.

Noble to support in a consultancy role….. shows loads of confidence that the brand new coach is capable.

I imagine they couldn’t afford Noble but he’s offered some time to the club as a favour.

Wow. Best of luck to Mark but what a massively underwhelming appointment. It took us 10 weeks to appoint JK's assistant?!


Its an inexperienced appointment that just confirms the lack of ambition and aspirations that we have as a club. The strange thing for me is that he's only got the job for a year and half? Are we going to be appointing somebody else at the end of next season?

Agreed. Why they took 10 weeks is anyone's guess and has just wound up the fan base. Dunnings results actually read well. But fans will just look at it as the cheap option with needless quotes from the club such as "high calibre overseas coaches have applied"

I'm prepared to give Dunning a chance. I was totally against him getting the job when Kear left, but watching the team hes put his own stamp on it with some decent rugby, and some good results to back that up against the likes of Sheffield & Widnes (who Kear failed against) but the tough work starts now. Going in as a temp and freshening things up is very different to nailing a game plan to beat the likes of York, Barrow, Batley etc

The Nobby link up could be interesting. Although I suspect that the rationale behind that move is to soften the underwhelming blow of Dunning's appointment. As others have said, the appointment reflects our intent - unfortunately.

I think, if that's the level of our ambition, I'll be watching local cricket next year onwards.

Nothing against Mark but if people with great track records have applied and we've gone pound shop then that's all we need to know.

*Edit* Ultimately, Nobby and his decisions around Harris, Peacock amongst other lead, in my view, into this terminal decline we find ourselves in. We never look forward do we? SL and the glory days are a decade in the past yet we can't draw a line in the sand.

That's me out for 2023
It's 5+ season tickets lost for the club as our group all feel the same
Cheap option
No ambition

He’s a young British coach. He knows Bradford inside and out and should know what changes are needed short, medium and long term.
He should be able to integrate and promote youth into the first team better than Kear could. And keep them as well. His results have been as expected. We’ve lost to the top 2 and beaten the ones below us. Our results against the teams in 3-6 are what will define his ability. I’m ok with this.

I’m sort of looking at it as the club are doubling down on the academy. We’ve kept the academy going without central funding. Kear didn’t really use it properly. So we’ve appointed a coach who the club are certain will. Dunning will use the academy players when he thinks they’re ready, regardless of age.

3 season tickets from my group also not being renewed.

I’ve emailed the club / CEO / Wood with a very lengthy summary of my feelings. It won’t make any difference but resignation letters are in fashion!

I might go to the odd game on the gate, but I don’t see the club surviving much longer. Crowds are at 1k at the moment and the vol of non renewals will see us at 500 for some games next year.

All the people threatening they arent going to renew their season tickets.... absolute clowns. Its the beginning if July for gods sake. By the end of the season we could have had 10 weeks of great rugby and a decent run in the playoffs.

But if course you wont be getting season tickets.

Very underwhelmed by this appointment. Considering we ‘apparently’ had coaches of better calibre applying. I’ll see how the rest of the season goes. But I can’t see us getting better, and I’m bot sure what player will look at the Bulls for 2023 and say, I’d love to play under Dunning.

Having met Mark Dunning via work for BullBuilder a few years back I found him to be a decent guy who obviously knows his stuff. He's done pretty well since he took over and I wish him all the luck in the world for the future. Obviously competing with the likes of Leigh and Fev is out of the question but aspiring and looking like we can be the best of the rest is what we need to do now.

The way this appointment was dragged out for 10 weeks has been a big mistake. The sense of anticlimax is palpable. The club needs a big reset on and off the field to address the decline we've seen over the past season and a half and this appointment now looks like "more of the same" which may be unfair to Dunning but it's how it's going to be perceived by the majority of supporters.

Brian Noble coming back on board temporarily in some sort of vague consultancy doesn't really enthuse me either. He's been out of the game at the sharp end for years and I can't see him having any influence over first team selection or tactics. So what does he bring? He was never a great advocate of the academy and Jamie Peacock said he found Noble was more comfortable dealing with seasoned pros than he was with young players (and that was 16 - 17 years ago!). Dunning is an inexperienced head coach so is Noble there to provide a sounding board? Given Noble's lack of up to date experience is that wise? It feels like the Noble news is a sop to supporters.

So what next? We need a strong end to the season to try to tempt some supporters back. Then some decent recruitment in the close season, get rid of the wasters and fatties and be ready for 2023 with a much fitter and motivated side that's going to be in with a shot of 3rd or 4th place in the championship.

Anything less and we're on borrowed time again.

It’s all well and good coming to call others clowns.

Its the club who are responsible for an underwhelming appointment which will ultimately harm attendances.

We conceded 56 points at home at the weekend and they think this will inspire fans?

If you’re happy to renew then good on you. I’m not going to come on here throwing insults at people because they’ve got a different view.

This club has had my loyalty and money for 20 years. I’m sad I’ve got to this point but I’m not going to feel guilty about it.

I think there's a lot of knee jerk reactions in here. I'm keeping my powder dry until I see how our 2023 squad shapes up.

Appointing from within is not necessarily a disaster. I remember seeing plenty of Wigan fans fearing the worst when they went with Matty Peet as their head coach and look how that turned out. Conversely, appointing a big name head coach doesn't always mean success either. There are plenty of examples of this, including several at Bradford!

Thanks for that
If your happy to settle for a club who's aim is finish in the playoffs but nothing past that then carry on.
Halifax,Widnes,Keighley will have a bigger budget than us next year along with Fev/Leigh Toulouse/Wakefield.
Where is the ambition?

I think he meant that you are clowns in a Stephen King sense. Brooding and cool...

Well said Northus. Finally someone with some sense!

Depends what you mean by knee jerk.

I’ve suspected for weeks that the reason for the prolonged process was in the hope that results justify a cheap appointment.

That’s my view, it hasn’t changed following the announcement and this combined with the amateur way the club is run shows a complete lack of ambition.

It’s not just the lack of ambition, it’s the dishonesty that goes along with it. They’re talking about competing at the top end of the sport - they’re deluded or dishonest (probably both).

It is incredibly underwhelming, especially after the carrot of "big name interest from around the world". Why even suggest that? Some more amateur RL-ing from our utterly inept marketing department.

I mean Dunning has done okay-ish, but I can't see this bringing anyone lost to the Bulls back. It's the opposite of when we signed Kear.

It screams "we're skint, we're mid-table and we'll make do. Now pay to come and watch an average team".

Also, to clarify, I'm a 'Definitive Clown'. Can I still be grouped as an 'Absolute Clown' for census purposes?

By knee jerk I mean immediately saying you're done as a ST holder. Mark has won 5 from 8 games and I think everyone can agree that we're playing a much better style of rugby now than we were under Kear. Why not just wait and see how we look going in to next season before making a decision?

I will say that I'm a bit disappointed in us bringing Noble back in. He won't be cheap and I really don't see what he can offer. If Mark really needs help that much then why offer him the head coach position?

I know, it’s all about the money. Well, to start with we need to get our elite academy licence back. Which I think is later this year. Then that frees up £100k of funding to spend on the first team.
I think there’s a plan and we’re going big on the academy, which has always been a strength. I think we’ve got better relationships with local business since 2012 and I don’t know, but I’ve a feeling our corporate income is rising, based on all these bullring tweets.
In every area, except the stadium and the first team, I see improvement. Increasing income streams in those areas above, increases our first team budget for next year.
Untangling the knot that our stadium has become is a huge piece of work, needing several phases and partners. I can only hope we make the playoffs and the CEO can keep the majority of the remaining fan base onside otherwise we’ll urinate up a wall all the other things that seem to be going on. I hope the next fans forum can articulate some of this and allow some of you to reflect your (understandable) initial reaction

If you’re looking for positivity, try and catch an academy or scholarship game although there’s not many left. It’s mental how many good players we have. And it’s the key positions as well - 1, 7, 9, 13. All getting called up to the Yorkshire academy origin games.