j.c wrote:
I think London and hkr will likely take points off you so Unfortunately for you lot I think a 12 point deduction would be a killer when trying to make the top 4
Well we lost 8 games last year:
Halifax - 14-10 (A)
Sheffield - 28-46 (H)
London - 30-16 (A)
Leigh - 24-20 (A)
Dewsbury - 14-16 (H)
Halifax - 24-32 (H)
Leigh - 22-20 (A)
Featherstone - 20-0 (A)
And 2 draws:
Leigh 32-32 (H)
Batley 24-24 (A)
So of those losses, 6 were by 5 points or less. The game against Sheffield was the basic "players have had enough of the coach and want him gone" performance. Unsurprisingly that was Lowes last game. Add to that that we played a great deal of those games with no recognised halfback and a demoralised or otherwise mentally unprepared squad. The team repeatedly failed to show up and were often out enthused by their part-time rivals who were out to get a big club scalp (and despite the crowing regarding our demise from some quarters, Bradford Bulls is STILL a big club). The draw at Batley is a great example of this and shows what a good motivator can do for a club. The draw against Leigh should have been a win, but for the poor tactics employed by Bradford. There was talk from Leigh fans in the build up to that game where they didn't think they'd get a win because their wings were not so great under high balls. But rather than exploiting this all game Bradford just went for trying to bang it up the middle of the pitch. It didn't work, then for the last 10 minutes we just bombed the hell out of Leigh's right wing and managed to grind out a draw from what was looking like being a very heavy loss.
If Rohan Smith can get just two things right in this offseason (namely defensive structures and getting rid of the Lowes attitude of 'it doesn't matter if we don't win every game') then I think there's a chance we could overcome a 12 point deduction. The large clear out of players at the end of 2016 will hopefully help clear some of the poor attitude from the side though it's really a question of who is going to take over the club as to how well off-field morale holds up.
Still, it's been reported that 3 of the bids have rugby backgrounds and are wanting to hear from Smith as to what he thinks is achievable, where he thinks this team is going and how it's going to get there. Hopefully, dependant on who takes over, we might even see one or two additional signings to get the enthusiasm back into what is a demoralised fanbase.