Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 2:40 pm  

Pacific wrote:

As an outsider looking in it seems to me that although you ended last season very well you have managed to fall further behind Leigh this off-season.

Whilst they have strengthened with some impressive signings your club has attracted publicity for the wrong reasons with James Lowes rant at the end of the million pound game and now Marc Greens allegations about Salfords salary cap.

Wakefield do look weak but i cant realistically see any more than one team being promoted.

Comparing the team of Leigh to your Bradford team do the majority of you see promotion as unrealistic?

3 pages dedicated to this rubbish.

Facts are comparing the teams that are in place now is completely pointless exercise in terms of how things will go in the middle 8's.

Leigh will probably win the championship but nobody cares as long as you're in the top 4.

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 2:56 pm  

Bullseye wrote:

For me we're only weaker at fullback. Siejka was so bad we played better when he wasn't in the team.

Fair point. And I was forgetting about Oscar Thomas, who can't be any worse than Siejka, surely.

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 3:22 pm  

I think we'll see Thomas at 1 before we see him at 7.

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 4:12 pm  

I'm really interested to see how Oscar Thomas gets on, he's the new signing I'm most looking forward to seeing in action. He's taking Brook's place as the young half but is looking at Mullaney's birth of full-back/half-back. I just hope he gets a chance.

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:39 pm  

hindle xiii wrote:

I'm really interested to see how Oscar Thomas gets on, he's the new signing I'm most looking forward to seeing in action. He's taking Brook's place as the young half but is looking at Mullaney's birth of full-back/half-back. I just hope he gets a chance.

The one time I remember seeing him last year was London's Summer Bash game and he was superb. You just never know if it was a one game hero type of situation or if he's that good regularly.

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:43 pm  

HamsterChops wrote:

The one time I remember seeing him last year was London's Summer Bash game and he was superb. You just never know if it was a one game hero type of situation or if he's that good regularly.

I might know the answer to that one having seen him play a few times last season

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 5:46 pm  

Greg Florimos Boots wrote:

All this talk there is probably more chance of Fax catching Bradford than there is of Bradford catching Leigh.

g

Think Havalaf need to be catching Sheffield and London first.

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 6:02 pm  

HamsterChops wrote:

The one time I remember seeing him last year was London's Summer Bash game and he was superb. You just never know if it was a one game hero type of situation or if he's that good regularly.

The former

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 8:00 pm  

[quote="woolly07"]I think the most worrying part of the article is where he points out the low season ticket sales. Yes, some will be sold in the next 17 days but not thousands of them. I do think it is vital we go up this year or we may be stuck here for years - or until the RFL devise a new way to get some relegation and promotion actually working. What could do it with the RFL is if they see a few years where the same SL teams struggle and give nothing to their league and someone says "why not give Leigh and Bulls a go". Then, they may come up with a new plan. But until then we must show we are good enough for a return and not allow ourselves to dwindle into just another championship team.[/quote]

While I don't think we'll sell thousands in next fortnight, I do think there will be a last minute surge and we'll end up with roughly same number sold as last year ( 3-3.5k figure reported for last yr iirc). Not having an early bird scheme means there's no incentive for people to pay early and they might as well keep money in their own bank accounts earning interest and only pay in last week or two before season. I suspect issue with winding up order before xmas also meant a fair few hung onto there money whilst it was cleared up. I think they announced a 2.5k figure sold a week or two before season last year as well.

Re: Promotion? No chance! : Thu Jan 21, 2016 8:11 pm  

Bullseye wrote:

For me we're only weaker at fullback. Siejka was so bad we played better when he wasn't in the team.

Wakefield are going to be stronger under Smith. Leigh look stronger on paper but that means nothing. We did better than them when it matters last year.

Glass half full me.

This. People only moaned when sjielka played so its a bit rich claiming him as a big loss now. We've still got addy on board who covered for sjielka most of season and we've added thomas who can play in halves and are looking at Jacks whose an actual half, quality still to be seen.
And whilst I'd class mullaney as a big loss thats only for the 50% of games he featured in. We;ve still got the same cover for fullback as last year and have added thomas and campbell and from his interview caprice sees fullback as a likely position he could slot in if we take him on.

Think we've strengthened in forwards in general, maybe not in starting options but more in terms of bench options and squad players.

We look in decent enough shape for initial 23 fixtures. Gives us plenty of time to look at our options and then strengthen any areas that are found to be weak in time for middle eights same as we did last yr. Suspect we'll have more wiggle room on cap to make improvements later in season than leigh will who look to have brought pretty much all their recruits in already.


TBH whilst T&a article is maybe a touch heavy on negativity think we can use it in a positive way. Show it to all the players and pin it on dressing room wall. Tell them this is what people think of you, go out there and prove them wrong type of thing.