Re: Whitehaven (H) : Mon Feb 23, 2015 2:53 pm  

miketaurus wrote:

Its good to see players going at it with the weather as it was. I am already a bit nervous that if we do not make it into SL at the first opportunity. I have a feeling Adam O'Brian and lee Gaskill will be hot property for pickings come the end of the season. They really are showing their quality.

I would be amazed if you weren't 100% accurate there. The guys clearly want to be at Bradford as evidenced by them staying, but I can't think that will continue for too long if we don't start getting back into Super League and climbing the table. They're too good to be playing at lower end teams IMO, as much as I'm happy they have chosen to stay with us for now.

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:50 pm  

miketaurus wrote:

Its good to see players going at it with the weather as it was. I am already a bit nervous that if we do not make it into SL at the first opportunity. I have a feeling Adam O'Brian and lee Gaskill will be hot property for pickings come the end of the season. They really are showing their quality.

The longer we stay in the championship, the worse our squad will get and the harder it will be to get back up. Honestly I think if we don't get promoted in the next two seasons, we're down here for good until the league structure is changed (again).
The only thing we may have in our favour is our academy setup, and the current rules surrounding home grown players and cap exemptions they get. We should (in theory) be able to offer players like Adam O Brien, Tom Olbison and Adam Brook decent salaries that our rivals cannot afford to match, because we are given cap exemptions on talent we produce ourselves. Whether that actually makes a difference in reality, only time will tell.

[Bulliac]

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:12 pm  

I'd forgotten about that exemption, but yeah, it's a great incentive to produce your own and one where we may have an advantage, since our academy are still playing SL opposition - and beating them last weekend!

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:21 pm  

A great turnout despite the terrible conditions. Can't have been easy playing in those conditions. The atmosphere was almost as if everyone (including players) just wanted to get it over and go home.

Think its been said, but Whitehaven players were a credit to their club and the league. Despite everything they are going through and against a full time team they kept going and actually put a bit of pressure on us in first half.

It looked to me like we have the makings of a good side but one or two do worry me. Samir looks like he cannot bend his back and is a bit flat footed in defence. The better teams might start playing towards that. However in attack he seems to be what i'd refer to as a plodder (does the hard yards and is consistent).

Harry looks like a man who has lost all his confidence. At Leigh there was times where he started running at the defence and looked quite spritely. After the niggle started he's lost that and looked like he didn't know what to do at times. Thank god we have Gaskell in there as we'd have probably gone nowhere. Not great when your home fans sarcastically cheer you kicking a goal... no wonder he gave up the kicking duties mid game!!!

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:16 pm  

I thought Samir seemed to get through a lot of defence yesterday

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:42 pm  

Bets'y Bulls wrote:

I thought Samir seemed to get through a lot of defence yesterday

He was also quite guilty of flailing about a bit when someone tried to go around him. A few times I thought he was lucky to have someone backing him up or he'd have lost the man. I think he needs a little work on his tackling personally, but as I said previously, it could have just been fatigue given he played quite a bit.

Re: Whitehaven (H) : Mon Feb 23, 2015 9:07 pm  

Being positive the Academy is doing well and hopes are there. I hope we really fight and get our deserves from where we are at. The problem I see is that the SL is getting like the Premiership, with only Wigan, St Helens, Warrington and Leeds actually being SL. Bearing in mind Leeds need rebuilding. O'Brian and Gaskill would be perfect right now for them. I have hope and faith in the club.

To add a resounding YES Whitehaven did themselves great credit on Sunday.