: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:02 pm  

Bullseye wrote:

It remains to be seen if that really is the case. I guess we'll wait and see if anyone decent becomes available and we make a bid.

Isn't Talau available? Am I alone in thinking he's a better centre than anyone currently at the club?

Maybe he's already signed for someone else, to be revealed after the GF?

: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:04 pm  

mat wrote:

they havent said there isnt money available. On the contrary they've stated we have the cap space for further recruitment. The key bit is that theres no one available in position we need who'd be an improvement on what we have. Rather then sign a poorer player to act as backup to our weak position we're keeping the cap space free in case a better player becomes available later.

From what I heard on Sat at Odsal, there is no Cap space left, if they want to sign another player someone will have to leave.

: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:04 pm  

rugbyreddog wrote:

Can't help but feel we are the Tottenham of SL. "Never mind winning anything, look at the balance sheet".

In 2003 we won the f...ing lot. The next year, crowds went down. Clearly, winning isn't everything.

I see two routes back to title contention for Bradford:

1) An annus miribalis of consistent good form from the likes of Jeffries, Nero and Platt and good health for Deacon, Morrison, Burgess etc. Unlikely to occur to the extent it brings silverware but far from impossible.

2) A bit of the above, combined with another JP-SF-LP-PD standard batch of youngsters coming through and the OSV lifting morale and income - the earliest this will happen is in a couple of years time.

Clearly some posters do not consider these routes acceptable. The question is, what others are there that are available? Because all I have seen so far is "Step 1: Sack Mac. Step 2: Er..." If a legitimate third way doesn't exist, how can you advocate taking it? Would you rather see the club tumble to oblivion rather than risk a few years knocking around outside the top four? Or are you just having a moan because seven consecutive seasons of trophies have been followed by two without (for those keeping count, Wigan just clocked up their sixth fallow year).

Oh, there is another way - "Buy someone - anyone". If they are not available, and two well-regarded centres turned out not to be, we should panic and splurge. Bide our time and see what occurs. Good players have become available outside the traditional horse market period before now. After all, maybe this means Hape is coming back.

: Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:35 pm  

There is also another problem that would face Macca or a.n. other coach coming to Bradford. Each season the quota for non home federation trained players is reduced whilst most of the quality UK trained players have been signed up for the next 3 seasons . Are the doom mongers on here advocating a return to transfer fees to get some home talent to fill those gaps ?

: Mon Sep 29, 2008 6:38 pm  

Mystic Leper wrote:

With the current squad Mid table may be the most we can hope for im not convinced our signings are strong enough to even guarantee that, the bulk of our new recruits over the past 2 seasons have come from mediocre clubs if Maccas statement is correct i dotn hold out much hope for next year or the clubs future, sherrife hardly gonna draw the crowds in is he...

downward spiral continues...
Menzies good tutor for the kids to learn from but IMO wont play enough due to age
Scuton--only positive signing
Sherriffe and Worrincy--average at best, but lets not forget the old "their young and they have potential" funny that as quins were happy to release both....bet Saints and Leeds are papping themselves at our back line....sorry i mean laughing their socks off

they rejected quins offer they wernt just released too many touch line coaches on here do we know what talent is waiting in the ranks, tony smith is a very good coach his success at leeds and his early days as england coach show this, is he the only guy who thinks macca is up to the job or does he not know what hes on about either, maybe you should all start posting negative comments about the so called fans who chose to stay away now the trophey cabinet lay dormant for the last few seasons, instead of slating the team, bunch of muppets get off ya soap boxes. given the injuries we had this gone season we did ok

: Mon Sep 29, 2008 6:46 pm  

Brett stewart for Michael Platt

1 centre for 09 = Joke : Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:00 pm  

Paul Sykes will be the only first team centre next season. Matt Cook, Chris Nero and Steve Menzies are all backrowers. How can you go into a season with 1 centre. I now firmly belive it is time for McNamara to move on, our backs are a joke for next season.

: Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:20 pm  

Personally I am glad that we are not changing too many players. IMO we need some stability after large personnel changes.

Our squad does have some weaknesses but surely we are better to keep some cap in hand rather than panic buying players because deals have fallen through.

: Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:33 pm  

Pretty disappointing to hear we have no other deals ready to announce.. especially for the backline.

I think however the club and McNamara are right not to panic buy and spend the cap just for the sake of it though. However as Bullseye commented.. the proof will be if a quality player becomes available in an area we're short. I expect Talau is already tied up for next year.. but not totally convinced he is what we need anyway.

One thing is for sure.. unless one or two such as Koppy and Crookes improve massively we're pretty weak in certain area's. I am glad the club have made this public though.. we're not 'expecting an imminent arrival' but we know we have money to spend if a quality player becomes availble.

Israel Folau to be sacked for misconduct before his Brisbane career begins!!

: Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:35 pm  

re-reading the t&a article it does appear that dave craven has put his own spin on it (he's well known to be a rhinos fan btw. Although the headline is macca "happy" with signings, notice the quotation marks around happy. Further down the article it gives the full quote from mcnamara which reads “We’re happy with what we’ve got now but if something does come up then we will try and make a move,”. It further goes on to state that we do have cap space available for a further signing but we're not rushing into a panic buy. Think a lot of people have just read the first paragraph and gone off deep end. If you read the actual quotes from mcnamara and ignore the spin then the article reads differently.