Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 8:31 am  

if some people think he shouldn't be offered a contract, then chances are he shouldn't.

[Bulliac]

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:08 am  

'Some people', have a weird handle on just where we are, as a club, though.

Looking at our squad there are few, if any, who wouldn't do well in champ1. Obviously it was difficult to make decisions whilst remaining in this division remained a realistic possibility, but that ship sailed some time back and that excuse sailed with it. Without any doubts, virtually all the players we as fans wanted to keep will have been signed elsewhere by now.

I despair, I really do.

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:27 am  

Being brutally honest I'd say there are quite a few of our current crop of players that I wouldn't lose any sleep over them leaving. The problem is who to replace them with.

[Bullseye]

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 9:32 am  

Let's face it. We won't be keeping anyone who's had an offer from a SL side or a half decent championship side.

As Nothus says, a lot have been proven to not be up to it. However some might be given a proper pre season and some older heads to bring them on.

I expect in C1 next season starting all over again but perhaps not as chaotic as this season. Whatever the plan I hope we're not relying so much on loan and dual reg. We can't have players training with their parent clubs all week then coming into our first team for the weekend game, we've all seen the result of that policy.

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:07 am  

Agree with above. Chisholm, Roche, Bentley, Ryan are just too good to sign with us. For me its about getting a young squad we can build on, and gel with. We've had wholesale changes every season and every single one of those seasons we finished worse than the year before.

Sign players like Pickersgill, Butterworth, Kirk, Wilkinson, Ricketts. Bring a few of the promising U19s through throughout the season. They can develop and get away with making mistakes in L1.

Playing in L1 will be rubbish and i won't be going to places like Hemel. But for the last 10 seasons its felt like fire fighting instead of building anything. We get a load of promising academy prospects, then go into administration. Give the club stability and improve a little bit each season, bringing the conveyor belt of academy products through, and in a few years we will have earned the right to fight for a place back in SL.

BTW just to give some a lift, our U16s narrowly lost to Leeds U16s last night. Looking on the Rhinos board many think that crop is a special bunch. Looking at Leeds's results (82-0 V newcastle, 52-0 & 60-0 against Huddersfield x2,and 42-28 V London) it shows how good a crop we have of our own, i believe we signed most, if not all the ones we wanted. Uf we get a stable club and allow these players to devop and come through instead of losing them because we're in admin, we'll be OK. I cam get behind a young HG team i can see a future with.

[Bulliac]

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 10:12 am  

Nothus wrote:

Being brutally honest I'd say there are quite a few of our current crop of players that I wouldn't lose any sleep over them leaving. The problem is who to replace them with.

..and that is the crux of it, imo. To be right, I'd fully agree with all of that, if we were remaining in our current division, but we won't be, so we need a solid side to play in the lower division and I can't see any of our current crop as not being good enough to be in a top champ1 side and a few who should be stars in it. However we'll see who leaves and arrives, well if they deign to let us know, we will.

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:00 am  

Bull Mania wrote:

Agree with above. Chisholm, Roche, Bentley, Ryan are just too good to sign with us. For me its about getting a young squad we can build on, and gel with. We've had wholesale changes every season and every single one of those seasons we finished worse than the year before.

Sign players like Pickersgill, Butterworth, Kirk, Wilkinson, Ricketts. Bring a few of the promising U19s through throughout the season. They can develop and get away with making mistakes in L1.

Playing in L1 will be rubbish and i won't be going to places like Hemel. But for the last 10 seasons its felt like fire fighting instead of building anything. We get a load of promising academy prospects, then go into administration. Give the club stability and improve a little bit each season, bringing the conveyor belt of academy products through, and in a few years we will have earned the right to fight for a place back in SL.

BTW just to give some a lift, our U16s narrowly lost to Leeds U16s last night. Looking on the Rhinos board many think that crop is a special bunch. Looking at Leeds's results (82-0 V newcastle, 52-0 & 60-0 against Huddersfield x2,and 42-28 V London) it shows how good a crop we have of our own, i believe we signed most, if not all the ones we wanted. Uf we get a stable club and allow these players to devop and come through instead of losing them because we're in admin, we'll be OK. I cam get behind a young HG team i can see a future with.

Did you go to the game? My mates lad made his debut last night interesting to hear how he got on

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:40 am  

The Chisholms of this world might stay a year if a) paid enough and b) we are more towards the Toronto end of the spectrum and less towards the Del Boy. Toronto were easily able to sell a season in the stiffs to many half decent players and it isn't just money though that helps, a feeling that you could be part of something going places would be a big factor. A feeling that we have no players, no mabition, and no money would be a big factor in the oposite direction.

[Bullseye]

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:46 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

The Chisholms of this world might stay a year if a) paid enough and b) we are more towards the Toronto end of the spectrum and less towards the Del Boy. Toronto were easily able to sell a season in the stiffs to many half decent players and it isn't just money though that helps, a feeling that you could be part of something going places would be a big factor. A feeling that we have no players, no mabition, and no money would be a big factor in the oposite direction.

Exactly what I was thinking. We'll be able to see what ambition there is from the club owners once we see the 2018 squad take shape.

Re: 2018 Bradford Bulls : Fri Aug 04, 2017 11:46 am  

Bull Mania wrote:

Sign players like Pickersgill, Butterworth, Kirk, Wilkinson, Ricketts. Bring a few of the promising U19s through throughout the season. They can develop and get away with making mistakes in L1.

Playing in L1 will be rubbish...

I agree with signing who we can from the young talent (although some will obviously get better offers). But we need to get away from the notion that playing in League 1 will be a breeze and they players can just get away with their mistakes.

League 1 is actually two leagues in one. The bottom half are basically development teams - a mix of DR and local players, and the standard is barely better (or perhaps lower) than National Conference. But the top half will be similar to what we have been used to with the Championship teams - lots of big ugly forwards who've been around for years, lots of grubby tactics, lots of physical encounters that won't be for the faint hearted. We need some tough forwards who will fight fire with fire!

Bear in mind that we'll have the other relegated team (Oldham, Swinton or whoever), together with the team that doesn't get promoted along with Toronto. So there might be Whitehaven, Keighley, York, Hunslet, Workington, Barrow... teams that aren't just going to roll over to a bunch of kids just because it's Bradford Bulls. Then there's the whole 'it's our Cup Final' thing that you get whenever lower teams play us.

It won't be easy by any means...