Re: Bulls v Rams : Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:03 pm  

We consistently find that Championship refs. do not seem to protect players like they should>
The fact that a perpertrator of a serious offence is allowed to carry on playing and wont have a match review decision judged for a couple of weeks seem unfair when Gaskell who was deliberatedly elbowed by the Donny prop. is out for this week and he is still playing?
Today Sidlow was the subject of a high tackle, that left him struggling for a while on his knees. No penalty and even when the ref stopped the game, no touch judge intervention however the same touch judge had managed to spot a Forward pass, probably the only one!
Makes you wonder doesn't it!

Re: Bulls v Rams : Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:22 pm  

woolly07 wrote:

We are all relieved to win this game but I am starting to feel a bit concerned that we are still "scraping" past teams. We are consistently poor in one of the halves.
We only have 6 weeks (7 games) to get it right and get up to SL standard. We have a big squad but only seem to be using about 20 of them regularly which makes me think Jimmy won't be throwing many of them in for that first play off game. Yes there are a few that will come back in but not that many so what we are seeing now other than the two halves today is what we may be going with against the SL teams. You can add Seijka and Gaskil to today's team, move Blythe and Shaw to one wing and that looks like a possible play off team. Other players in the squad are fit but not getting a game so why would they all of a sudden get picked. It is starting to get close to the point when we should be starting to peak but we look to be miles off that. My hope is that Jimmy is planning pick a play off team that all have SL experience and they will all lift their game from memory and start to play to SL standard. Fingers crossed as a team that thinks Dewsbury at home is a banana skin has not much chance of beating SL teams. We should be dominating championship teams by now and definitely in the next 7 games or we are in trouble.

I think you're being a bit naive if you think we should be dominating teams every week. I think this is first game in a while we have "scraped" passed a team. The conditions were a leveler and Dewsbury are a good team. We didn't play great and were lucky to win. But lets not press the panic button. We've only lost against Leigh and KR this season. It wasn't a good performance, it happens.

We were missing Gaskell who is essential to us going up. But the teams that will be in the middle 8's all have key men who are essential to their teams success. Kevin Brown for Widnes, Terry Campese for KR, Tim Smith for Wakefield. Take them out and all of them don't look as good a side.

I do agree about rotation and i think some changes should be made for next week. But if we get get Mullaney and Gaskell playing together over next few games, we will look a lot more dangerous. Those two are out most creative players.

Re: Bulls v Rams : Sun Jun 14, 2015 8:48 pm  

Bull Mania wrote:

I think you're being a bit naive if you think we should be dominating teams every week. I think this is first game in a while we have "scraped" passed a team. The conditions were a leveler and Dewsbury are a good team. We didn't play great and were lucky to win. But lets not press the panic button. We've only lost against Leigh and KR this season. It wasn't a good performance, it happens.

We were missing Gaskell who is essential to us going up. But the teams that will be in the middle 8's all have key men who are essential to their teams success. Kevin Brown for Widnes, Terry Campese for KR, Tim Smith for Wakefield. Take them out and all of them don't look as good a side.

I do agree about rotation and i think some changes should be made for next week. But if we get get Mullaney and Gaskell playing together over next few games, we will look a lot more dangerous. Those two are out most creative players.

As I've said before, I'm not sure rotation for the sake of it is a good idea. Yes, we have players in the squad who've not made a first team appearance yet. But those same players play in positions where we either have a strong depth of players or where the players in those positions are currently in good form. Any player who wants to break into the Bradford team will need to show that he deserves to be there and not just stand around expecting to get a place in the 17. That's either by performing well if sent out on loan/dual-reg or by putting in a harder shift in training that the other players in his position.

Re: Bulls v Rams : Mon Jun 15, 2015 12:54 am  

Jimmy knows how to win. Some may think it's a bit rich for fans of a perennially-drubbed club that has suddenly gone to winning 15 or whatever on the bounce to be casting aspersions and doom-mongering. We wouldn't get any extra benefit from murdering Dewsbury today, we just had to win- again - and we won - again. All this "we would get flogged by a SL team if we play like that" is just nonsense. You play the team on the day, and I have seen worse performances from SL teams on Sky this season than Dewsbury.

Re: Bulls v Rams : Mon Jun 15, 2015 5:23 am  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Jimmy knows how to win. Some may think it's a bit rich for fans of a perennially-drubbed club that has suddenly gone to winning 15 or whatever on the bounce to be casting aspersions and doom-mongering. We wouldn't get any extra benefit from murdering Dewsbury today, we just had to win- again - and we won - again. All this "we would get flogged by a SL team if we play like that" is just nonsense. You play the team on the day, and I have seen worse performances from SL teams on Sky this season than Dewsbury.

I'm not so sure. We look well drilled, good defensive structure, strength in depth all across the park except in the most crucial area. Our playmaking/game management looks hugely over dependent on Gaskell and O'brien. Part of this is because Gaskell is the best player in the comp, part of it is injuries which happens to all teams, but a part of it is decision making. If OB gets injured, Halafifi will have barely played all season???? When considering our prospects for promotion all we have to go on is what's in front of us. I grant you, there's lots of positives, BUT this is a major concern.

Re: Bulls v Rams : Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:01 am  

Just win the next 5 games however scrappy, step up a level for the last two regular season games, peak for the Middle 8s.

[Bulliac]

Re: Bulls v Rams : Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:46 am  

No regular halves, players returning after lengthy injury absences and the wet weather being a 'leveller' may be amongst the reasons but it still didn't disguise the fact that we were very poor and Dews really deserved the spoils more than we did.

Plus points are we won whilst not playing well....soz, can't think of any more.

Re: Bulls v Rams : Mon Jun 15, 2015 8:49 am  

M@islebugs wrote:

I'm not so sure. We look well drilled, good defensive structure, strength in depth all across the park except in the most crucial area. Our playmaking/game management looks hugely over dependent on Gaskell and O'brien. Part of this is because Gaskell is the best player in the comp, part of it is injuries which happens to all teams, but a part of it is decision making. If OB gets injured, Halafifi will have barely played all season???? When considering our prospects for promotion all we have to go on is what's in front of us. I grant you, there's lots of positives, BUT this is a major concern.

Take two play makers out of any of the middle 8 teams and they have zero creativity.

Although i did notice that Adam Brook scored another couple for Keighley today. I would love to see him get a shot as Addy at HB just doesn't work.

Re: Bulls v Rams : Mon Jun 15, 2015 11:30 am  

I suspect we'll see a halfback pairing of Mullaney and Siejka this weekend. Addy back at loose where he belongs.

[Bullseye]

Re: Bulls v Rams : Mon Jun 15, 2015 11:46 am  

Given Workington's result vs Fev I'd say it would be a good game to try a different combination.

I'm still not sure about Lauaki's contribution either but both he and Crossley were below par yesterday.