Not seen a thread for this one. They'll be well up for this.

As you've stated, the Cougars will be up for this one. I can see this being a tough game with conditions playing a part. After a successful pre-season and mini Cup run, this is a potential banana skin for the club. Keighley have been steadily improving during 2024. They were nilled against Cas, narrowly beaten by Halifax and comprehensively dismantled Dewsbury in the 1985 Cup and knocked Hunslet out of the Challenge Cup last weekend.

The debacle from last season was one of the worst Bulls performances of the modern era. We didn't get off the bus that day and Keighley put us to the sword. In the games that we actually turned up to play we battered them on both occasions.

Chisholm and Gale had a field day and created chance after chance down the left side of the field. I feel that we are a better team now (without a bunch of DR players called in last minute) than we were in 2023. As long as we go in with the right mindset and with enough go forward, I think we should have enough to see us home against an improving Cougars outfit.

Agreed with above, this will be a tough game and one that we need in all honesty as we edge closer to the championship opener against Wakey.

We need to see how we react when we're under pressure, things aren't going our way, a refs decision goes against us etc pre-season is pre-season and the Dewsbury & Crusaders we haven't had to get out of second gear. So the next two games will be good tests for us.

I personally don't expect a situation like last season when it all went horribly wrong at Cougar Park. For a start the home side had much more quality on the field that day than they have now. They also had a lot of old boys wanting to prove a point in front of a big away following.

This time around its a much weaker team and there doesn't seem as much bad blood either. I expect it to be close but confident of the win.

I know the team has got quite a bit of stick off the back of the last two performances, but for me I'd prefer to look at it as a positive.

If we can score 88 points in two games and only concede 6 points when playing so badly and ill disciplined, what are we going to be like when we start to put decent performances together?

I'm willing to give EOC more time to stamp his authority and style on the team. However, for me I think he would make much quicker progress, especially in terms of discipline if he didn't have Hallas and Flanagan in the team.

Im expecting a comfortable victory, cougars will make it a contest for 20 mins but I expect us to pull away after that.
Like has been said they are not the side they were at the beginning of last season and neither are we.
I’ve seen a toughness in our play, EOC is keen to see strong carries and win the collisions, we’ve score a lot of tries from 1st receiver carries,1 pass out from dummy half, a certain new hooker is big difference there with his distribution.
I’ve been quite content with what we’ve served up so far, with much tougher hurdles to come yet.
13 is an area we will need to strengthen moving forward.

We go into the game as favourites but we need to avoid the complacency we showed in the first 20mins vs Crusaders. Keighley may not have the names they had this time last year but they're a tougher proposition than they were when we put 70pts on them at Odsal.

On the no 13 debate I think Baldwinson will take that place when he's fit and swap with Appo. That'll leave Hallas as backup hopefully which is about right. I'm also sure that Souter could do 80mins at this level so do we always need to pick Flanagan in the 17? I'd prefer to see Barraclough get a chance anyway as we need to think about who's going to succeed Flanagan as he can't have much longer surely?

Corey Johnson would be a good interchange with Souter https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/rugb ... t-28630344

Corey Johnson would be a good interchange with Souter https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/rugb ... t-28630344

Agreed. He's too good to be third choice at Leeds and not getting any game-time. He'd provide a bit of cover for halfback too if he was on our bench as impact hooker as well as keeping pressure on Souter to maintain his already high standards.

did i just hear loan? ... we know how that goes lol ... i thought we were slowly and getting our act together without these loans

Championship budgets only stretch so far, you take a loan and hope Leeds don’t have an injury in this position. That’s the gamble you have to take, if we don’t take this gamble we stay with the two hookers we’ve got now and an untried kid

The Fenton Rogers loan worked out well so if we can have something along those lines I'm ok with it.

Interesting refereeing appointment! Cameron Worsley.

Wasn't he the one that apparently saw Taufua bite an opponent?

Yes, he was.

Think we all have our opinions on that incident. Time to move on.

Putting that aside, he's probably the strictest referee in the champ and ends up backing himself into a corner like against Barrow when they ****housed us by throwing themselves to the floor every time a finger brushed against them and earning the penalty.

I expect a similar game. We need to make sure we're squeaky clean. If Hallas starts confrontation needlessly at the ruck we know how this will end.

Good news then if we've got a ref with x-ray vision. He won't miss any cheap shots when the opposition try winding George Flanagan up.

Struggling to name a 21 man squad for this game.

Elliott Peloshi must be injured otherwise I would have expected him to make up the 21.

Oh good lord. Well hopefully he has recovered from that ‘shock’ that effected him so badly at the time of the incident…

Keighley don’t have the same buzz around them as last year now the silly talk of super league and new stadiums has gone away but they have been ticking along with results.

Plus (unless I’ve got this wrong!) it will likely be their only shot at us this year so they will want to make it count.

I'd go with:
McGowan
Myers
Arundel
Gill
Taufua
Gaskell
Lilley
Smith
Souter
Doro
Davies
Butler
Lawrence
---
Appo
Okoro
Hallas
Jowitt
18th - Oakes

Former Bulls Brandon Pickersgill, Oscar Thomas & Ellis Robson all playing for the Cougars today. Bet they all have a blinder.

Oscar Thomas, there's a blast from the past.

Bit of mixed bag - we looked really useful in spells and then came up with some fairly ordinary plays that let the Cougars back in. We are going to need Gaskell to stay fit or recruit because I'm still not convinced by Jowitt - luckily our superior size allowed us to barge over for some of the scores.

Never really felt like we were going to lose the match once we got a few ahead - but it was a decent 80 mins of entertainment.

Well that was a slightly frustrating afternoon of Rugby League. Despite being the better team for large periods of the game Keighley found themselves almost snatching it from us late on. From the opening whistle, it was evident that Bradford were the more dominant force on the field. We gained easy yards and our speedy ruck got us on the front foot and in decent field position. With some quick passes and powerful running they carved out numerous scoring opportunities for Hallas, Taufua and a great bit of individual skill from McGowan (he's been a great pick up). I felt that we were slightly disjointed in the halves with Gaskell missing. Any news on why he was absent today?

I felt that our discipline was poor across the board today. Keighley were piggybacked out of their own 20 numerous times on the back of us being unable to sort out our discipline. I felt that we were very lucky to keep 13 men on the field at certain points during the game. No real complaints about the referee. He didn't really let the game flow until the second half.

The first half was frustratingly stop/start mainly down to our poor discipline. When we eventually stopped giving away a penalty every set we starved Keighley of any decent field position. In the second half they didn't get near our line until there was 13 mins to go. We controlled the middle section of the game and marched out to a 26-6 lead. We fell asleep towards the end and let the Cougars back into it. Despite the adversity, we persisted, refusing to let the Cougars steal the victory from us. It would have been another embarrassing afternoon if we would have let that one slip. The idiot on the PA would have gone into cardiac arrest if they'd have snatched a win.

One think that did impress me was our goal line defence in the first half. Keighley were given 3 repeat sets in our 10 but couldn't break through. Davies was an absolute workhorse in defence and made some great stops. Taufua also put on a massive hit down the wing to stop a Cougars attack late in the game. He also gained us some fantastic yards in attack.

Into the quarter finals we go and we face Dec Patton's Swinton Lions at home in a couple of weeks.

I must say fans calling for EOC head need there’s examining we weren’t great but under dunning we got beat 42-6 (I think) at least we got through this banana skin