Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:25 pm  

senoj wrote:

Some do not get it. There is no money.

but we have money to tie up Gale whom I just don't rate at all.

I don't know the full facts,but if Gale knew Sammut was going and used that to leverage a deal for himself,fans should be more than a little miffed.

I've never seen him do anything out of the ordinary.

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:30 pm  

I can understand the frustrations and the worry must be that Cas weren't anywhere near their A game today - we were very poor and the scoreline flatters to deceive.

However, from a Cas perspective I thought Bulls played a near-perfect (in terms of errors and penalties) game. There was the odd one but I don't think it was anywhere near as significant as Cas in the first half.

And that's where the problem lies for me - you had most of the first half ball and failed to take any advantage and badly lack some creative spark and some pace. The spine of the team has been decimated with the loss of Langley, L'Estrange and Sammut and don't think replacements are of any near comparison in terms of quality.

Fitness took its toll in the final quarter and as the steam went, the ability to tackle also seemed to disappear. Whilst I can understand the panic button being pressed already, I don't think you are far off as a unit. You just need to find some zip, finesse and XFactor to replace Sammut and you'll do OK.

That's from my perspective anyway.

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:36 pm  

I really don't see any fitness issue.

If your pack weighs half a tanker less than the opposition, you have to do a ton more tackling.

If you keep on and on giving the opposition the ball, on your own 10, on the zero tackle, you wil not only have to do a shedload more tackling, you'll be doing it repeat set after repeat set.

If you keep conceding stupid penalties, you will yet again be doing extra tackling.

If you can't get a repeat set when attacking, you will have yet more tackling to do.

We did all that, and so it just stands to reason why we ended up running out of steam. We don't need to be fitter. We need to be smarter and rspect possession, so that we don't have to do an extra 50% of the normal workload. That's why we all looked buggered.

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 7:40 pm  

Fully wrote:

I can understand the frustrations and the worry must be that Cas weren't anywhere near their A game today - we were very poor and the scoreline flatters to deceive.

However, from a Cas perspective I thought Bulls played a near-perfect (in terms of errors and penalties) game. There was the odd one but I don't think it was anywhere near as significant as Cas in the first half.

And that's where the problem lies for me - you had most of the first half ball and failed to take any advantage and badly lack some creative spark and some pace. The spine of the team has been decimated with the loss of Langley, L'Estrange and Sammut and don't think replacements are of any near comparison in terms of quality.

Fitness took its toll in the final quarter and as the steam went, the ability to tackle also seemed to disappear. Whilst I can understand the panic button being pressed already, I don't think you are far off as a unit. You just need to find some zip, finesse and XFactor to replace Sammut and you'll do OK.

That's from my perspective anyway.

I thought as already mentioned, Bradford had the best of it in the first half and perhaps into the 15 min spell of the second half. Decimated? not at all. There are clearly a lot of positives for the Bulls. As for Cas. I think they played there strengths and won. I would not be unhappy as a supporter. The negative is I think, Cas coming up against a powerful pack they would look a very different team. Congrats to Cas though

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:08 pm  

I thought you could see from early doors that, whilst the Bulls were a fair bit more creative ball in hand (including the brain farts...I think some of our guys tried too hard to try and compensate for light pack?) they were getting slowly ground down by a stronger and pretty workmanlike pack. Doing too much tackling, not helped by the brain farts. And Cas were making more yards at each PTB and were taking more stopping each time. This got worse in the second half, when Cas clearly realised they just had to keep wearing the Bulls down to grind out a result.

I said at the ground that had we had Carvell we could well have won that. It was only in the final quarter that we looked too tired, and Cas took advantage. Earlier on, THEY looked tired too. There was one occasion when nearly all their guys had hands on hips. But I think pack weight and too much unforced defending told in the end, and they just had to stick to the basics - as they did - to gain the spoils.

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:12 pm  

Olbison/Addy/Donaldson as second rows will not strike fear into any team,we had no attacking threat out wide, not to mention defence

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:14 pm  

Looks like FC sees it the same way most of us perceived it:

"We gave a few yardage errors," he said.

"I thought there was a time when we were ready to go, but came up with those errors and they scored and that knocked us down a bit.

"We got fatigued because we gave the ball over too often on the first and second plays.

"But I'm proud because I felt that we were fully committed - you can't fault the effort and that's what you want.

"Cas can play good football, but we have to keep our concentration more. We gave it back to them too cheaply in the second half."

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:27 pm  

Thought we competed on level terms for an hour but then no gas left in the tank of our forwards. Positive displays from Purcell and Gaskell and kear always puts a shift in. Think nas maybe needed more minutes on the pitch today as Donaldson and addy looked exhausted in last twenty mins. Suppose playing so many minutes is a bit new to them both and week on week that should improve as long as they don't get smashed up too much.
Not too disappointed and looking forward to Thursday ..... I have my tickets ...Coyb

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:28 pm  

Not good enough IMO we need to beat teams like Castleford/Wakefield/Widnes/London especially at home if we are to stay up (and yes I do realise it is the first game)

Re: Bulls v Cas post game chat : Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:46 pm  

Adeybull wrote:

Looks like FC sees it the same way most of us perceived it:

"We gave a few yardage errors," he said.

"I thought there was a time when we were ready to go, but came up with those errors and they scored and that knocked us down a bit.

"We got fatigued because we gave the ball over too often on the first and second plays.

"But I'm proud because I felt that we were fully committed - you can't fault the effort and that's what you want.

"Cas can play good football, but we have to keep our concentration more. We gave it back to them too cheaply in the second half."

Of course they were committed. On the whole safe tackling.

They had to overcompensate because they (CAS) had a better pack on the day to deal with. I am not sure FC is seeing what I am.

Its ok having a will of the wisp in the team but I am rather a structure, discipline, ordered, calm and technique person. Plays and more plays over different areas of the field. Mistakes are made trying too hard.

Scruton, Diskin and Kearney players for me today.