Yes he was awful, literally for one of their tries while they attacked his side he was stood 10 yards behind the rest of our defense with his hands on his knees.

There was one particular phase of play where we put an attacking kick through on his side and he literally couldn't even be bothered to chase it. Unbelievable!

That is the downside of DR, maybe one way to do it would be put an age limit on players that can DR?, we get a player coming to the end of his career with little incentive to put effort in and is just playing to collect his wage and then you compare that to getting a young hungry player in who may be on the fringes of first team opportunities and you are going to see a lot more effort most of the time.

Previous part quote from GFB regarding the same player from the same game.

“I don't think that Fonua was anywhere near as bad as some people have made out.”

So you think he was awful and also think he wasn’t.

Cannot remember any DR players being a success for Fax over the years. They've all seemed to take the p*ss. I remember Evalds from Salford just stood on the wing all match.

But for other teams it seems to have worked far better. Sam Walters won the match for Bradford at the Shay this season, we just couldn't handle him, and Batley have really benefited with Luke Hooley and I wouldn't be surprised if they now fail to make the play offs now he's gone. Just like us losing our own wonder full back "Smoking" Joe Kilroy in the 80s, massive difference.

Evalds was a bit of a strange one, now I need faxcar to fact check this for me but I seem to remember he came to us as an up and coming fullback and then Marshall decided he would play him on the wing. He probably wondered what the hell was going on. I thought Dan Murray and Ryan Lannon did well for us on DR though but I would agree there has not been too many.

And now your memory has almost gone completely blank.
Definitely an improvement.

But I might have to quote the “.” Somewhere down the line.

Does anyone know if we are going down the DR route next season and who with? Ta.

I heard it was with Leeds

https://x.com/rugbyleagueliv2/status/17 ... KKcNIJrHDA

https://x.com/rugbyleagueliv2/status/17 ... KKcNIJrHDA

DR with Leeds was largely unsuccessful for Bradford last year. Many of the players sent didn't look interested when we needed them to pull their sleeves up and get stuck in. When the coaching setup changed, we barely used it.

Bulls have decided to decline a DR partner for 2024 and I can't say I'm disappointed. The game against Fax we were massively down on numbers due to injuries/suspension, so I guess it proved useful that day but the general feeling amongst Bradford fans was that we did alot better once we ditched it.

Looking at the Leeds forum wouldn't be surprised to see Olpherts heading our way on loan/DR as it doesn't seem he'll get a look in at Leeds. In view of our lack of numbers in the backs on the face of it might be OK although Leeds fans not exactly complimentary.

He was offered the chance to leave by all accounts and said no so my guess is Leeds won't really play him unless things are desperate. So he might become a fixture in the Fax team.
You never know he might come over, find his feet and his form and be amazing. There must have been something in him that won him a decent contract at Leeds in the first place, although I'm ****ed if I know what it was.