Bulls Squad Rumours

: Thu Jul 31, 2008 4:12 pm

Rooney may be being envisaged as the replacement for Harris. Whilst this may represent an improvement in some respects it's hardly going to sell many season tickets and has been said already his defence isn't the best. If we do sign him we'll have the old Wakey pairing which hardly set many hearts racing did it?

Having said that any cash that is available should be used to sign some exciting backs as we are very much lacking in this area. Gawd knows who is available but if Evans goes to Cas as rumoured we will have Sykes, Nero and Crookes as centres next year with part timer Johnson filling in. That's not going to frigthen many teams.

While I would welcome the signings of Scruton or Burgess (especially with Vagana nearing retirement and Feather being unlucky with injury) the backs are the main area of weakness in the team.

On the injury front I'm not sure what the club can do what it isn't already doing. It's easy to point the finger and be critical of training methods but I'd suggest that most of us on here have very little knowledge of how injuries have been sustained.

On the fitness front it is obvious that our squad is less dynamic and athletic than the teams above us. McNamara often goes on about his players as being "great athletes" but they are often shown to be inferior in crucial areas. This is most noticeable in our inability to slow down the PTB without giving a penalty away against better sides in defence and in attack we struggle to get a quick PTB because our attacking players are dominated in the collision. While these failings are less obvious when we play mid table or lower sides they are glaringly obvious against the likes of Leeds and Saints.

Alas I don't see great changes to the present circumstances until we start bringing better players through and manage to recruit some decent ones. Let's hope we do sign some quality before the start of 2009 or I can see attendances dropping off even more.