i think the bulls could well miss out on the play offs again. i thought so last year(me and ewwenorfolk had a bet on it and do again this year) i think the bulls for a few reasons are weaker than last season.

1, they have lost all their leaders, deacs, morrison, newton and burgess. the heart of the bradford club bar langley is gone.

2, they have lost their best player in burgess

3, if orford gets injured they are fooked, they have an nrl fullback who couldnt get a game at 6 is now their back up scrum half????

4, their squad is full of average journey men.

5, their coach is not up to the job.

this is just my opinion and i could look very stupid come the end of the season(it wouldnt be the first time)

I just don't think it takes a possibly over the hill scrum half, and a couple of has over the hil NRL players (with niggling injuries) to turn you from a poor side into a good side over night. Sounds familiar that....

I must have missed the signings of these "...couple of has over the hil NRL players (with niggling injuries)" somewhere - could you enlighten me who they are please?

Interestingly, I see that the "... possibly over the hill scrum half" is rated higher than all bar two scrum halves in the competition in his points value by at least on major RL Fantasy League site, despite him playing for a team that your mate above thinks could well miss out on the play-offs again.

First and foremost, my post was a sarcastic dig at Hull's signings, not Bradford's.
Secondly, I do think Bradford have improved, but I'm sure you'll admit they needed improving did they not? Leeds have brought in Eastwood when they didn't need to sign any1, hell they could have released three or four and still be better than the rest. So Bradford are now, in my opinion, at a level to compete with the likes of Rovers, Saints, Huddersfield, but to have replaced the 6, 7 and 9 positions is a bit risky in that it may not gel straight away. And the loss of Burgess would hurt the best team in the world, so is definately going to hurt Bradford.

Oh and mate, don't embaress yourself by quoting a player's value in a Fantasy RL Game lol.

All in all, I just don't think bradford are going to be this force overnight, and we may have found our new warrington for this season

OK...that makes more sense now. Yes indeed, sure did need improving - hence the changes. And I'd agree should make us more competitive now - Leeds will still be a big ask, although we've played a strongish Leeds team in a friendly and they looked far from invincible - and yes, it will surely take time for 6,7 and 9 to gel hence me not expecting miracles immediately. If we finish well up the top half of the table, and are challenging again for honours from 2011, I'll be content.

As I've stated on the bradford site in the past, Bradford's recruitment reminds me of Wigan's trent barrett strategy a couple of seasons ago, they've spent big on one superstar in orford, added 2 or 3 other good aussies in kearney, hall and l'estrange and then seemingly with little salary cap left, they have plugged the holes in the squad with talented but untried youngsters oh and danny sculthorpe! The first 17 looks pretty good, but there's nothing in reserve of any strength so in theory if they keep their key men fit for a full season......

Incidently make up your own mind if Wigan's "all your eggs in 1 basket" theory worked, they reached the playoff semis from a lower play off position and reached the challenge cup semis but never won anything, I'm sure Bradford fans would take that after last year.

leeds did have peacock(5*), webb(2*), senior(4*), bailey(4*), ablett(3*) and kirke(3*) missing. they have 21 gf winners rings between them. plus nrl gf and world cup winner eastwood missing too. yes it was a strongish leeds team you only just lost to, but it could have been alot stronger and imo a lot harder to beat.

*gf winners rings per player

but taking that aside, they're not all that...

Please don't perform the RLFans equivalent of saying Beetlejuice three times, and invoking Smokey TA.

Come on Wilko, I think you know you're being a bit harsh with your criticism here.

Yes you were weakened on our friendly, but you cannot deny that Kearney looked good and was very dangerous with ball in hand.

So Menzies & Lynch aren't leaders at all then? Plus Orford is a proven good captain, adn L'Estrange seems like one of the characters who is always spurring the team on.

Saying our squad is full of average journey men is ridiculous and you know it.

Journey men : Sheriffe, Platt, Sykes, Sculthorpe are the only real journey men I see. We have alot of youngsters coming through, and a fair bit of good talent.


Would you seriously call any of Menzies, Lynch, Scruton, Langley, Halley, Kopzcak, L'Estrange, Kearney, Orford, Hall, Kearney or any of the youngsters journeymen? Less than a quarter of our squad are what i'd consider journeymen, hardly full of them?


And if we hadn't have let Burgess go, I doubt he'd have played like he did in the 4 nations for us, if he doesn't want to be here, plus you had the same thing with Ellis and didn't seem to suffer.

Lastly, he needs to prove himself, and I find it harder to disagree with your last point!

Jake Webster will not only set Craven Park on fire, he will set the WHOLE WORLD on fire this season X 3.

STOP IT!!! lol

See you all tonight, hope its a good game!

Kearney must be good, you named him twice lol

Plus not so sure how you have rate Halley so highly, yes he looked pretty good last season but is that enough to call him a consistant performer at a high level?

Looking forward to tonight myself, will be my first chance to catch a game so far.

Has the team being named yet

ok my old mucker where do i start?

ok lets look at the journey men, add to your list reardon, nero, worrincy, godwin

so thats reardon, nero, worrincy, godwin, Sheriffe, Platt, Sykes, Sculthorpe. that more than a few holes in your squad plugged imho.

kearney could go either way, all i will say is chris thorman was awesome(maybe the best player on the pitch) in jjbs testimonial in preseason 09 when fc beat leeds and we all know how his season went?



the players i mentioned, deacs, morro, newton, burgess. deacs he was the bulls, its heart, its captain its leader on and off the field. morro and newton your pack leaders and burgess your best player and hope for the future. dont disrespect them by saying orford and L'Estrange who have been off the plane a month warrent a mention in filling that void, that will take time. even menzies despite his true professionalism has only been here 12 months and is really only here for his last pay day.

lynch and langley are still around i will give you that and the return of reardon is a plus.



ellis wasnt the same thing at all! ellis wasnt leeds best player, he was one of many awesome players, imo burgess was your best by a mile. leeds were back to back champs when gaz left and was out of contract. burgess left early from a team that couldnt make the playoffs, thats the difference.

like ive said mate you could have a massive season, i dont think its a rosey as a few of you think but probably not as bad as i think! as seen as i recon you could well miss the play offs again. you said yourself on the bulls board that there are 9 teams that could finish anywhere from 3rd to 11th.

its gonna be a cracking season thats for sure!

sorry to all you robins for derailing your thread!

What's your definition of a journeyman? Of those players listed I think Nero, Worrincy, Sykes, and Reardon have only played for 2 clubs including the Bulls.

TBH I think only Sculthorpe can be given that tag. The rest may not be top quality but they're not "journeymen" as they've not been through a host of clubs.



You could apply the same thinking to Brett Delaney or any player at this stage of the season.



Deacon was past his best in the past couple of seasons. He's not been the player he was. Hence the need for change.

Morrison was barely on the field for us last year and Newton was very inconsistent being good or awful sometimes in the same game!

Orford's going to be better than the late model Deacon. Anybody in their right mind can see that.

Hall on the field is going to be better than an injury prone Morrison and by all accounts Newton's attitude won't be missed. Having L'Strange as a dummy half who's played with Orford before should help things gel.

As for Burgess, on paper he may have been our best player but he rarely showed it for us last season.

Things may take time to gel but given the way we played at times last year you'd have thought that we were playing with a completely new sett of halfbacks and hooker then too!



You said Reardon was a journeyman a few lines above? Make your mind up!

Reardon and Nero aren't journeymen imo. And you've even stated that the return of Reardon is a plus.

Newton wasn't the heart and soul of our front row, never mind our pack or our team, he was lazy for the majority of last season, not the typical charecteristics of a leader imo.


I don't think we'll be top four, top eight is a must imo so we don't get accustomed to being a club out of the play-offs and I think we can manage top 6 if our team can gel well.

I suppose you are right about Burgess, but you know as well as I do there would have been no point in keeping him if he didn't want to stay, so we got the clause (which was more important than the 250k imo) to hopefully get him back a better player.

I don't think that it's as rosey as many think, but I'm going to keep my feet on the ground, no we won't top the league or win every game, but I hope we see a bit more passion and pride and a lot better rugby league from our new playmakers.

[uRovers Line Up[/u
Shaun Briscoe
Peter Fox
Kris Welham
Michael Ratu
Liam Colbon
Paul Cooke
Michael Dobson
Rhys Lovegrove
Scott Murrell
Scott Wheeldon
Clint Newton
Matt Cook
Ben Galea

[uBench[/u
Chaz I'Anson
Michael Vella
Josh Hodgson
Liam Watts
Ben Cockayne

Another fringe/reserves team then.

6-0

Cooke Try.

Rovers go 6-0 up after 13 mins with a Cooke try (boo!) and Dobson goal.

Both teams sounded to be at full strength to me from what I heard before the kick off.

They're obviously resting senior players Mills and Fisher so they're ready for Salford.

Bradford equalise after Rovers conceding four successive penalties. 6-6.

Bulls now 12-6 up, Galea off after two mins, susp ankle injury.