Been lurking on here for ages and never posted but after 12 straight defeats I couldn't hold back any longer. Just to say first up that I don't attend Bulls games and have only ever seen the team twice, once at Workington and the other a loss to London Broncos in Edinburgh. However, I have been watching on TV since the Northern days and keep up as best I can via forums like this and local Bradford sports reports. Well, having got that out of the way the question I want answered is "Are we really that bad a team ?", should the players we have be losing 12 straight games ? Looking at last nights 17:

Dave Halley
Rikki Sheriffe
Michael Platt
Steve Menzies
Jason Crookes
Brett Kearney
Paul Sykes
Craig Kopczak
Heath L'Estrange
Andy Lynch
Elliott Whitehead
Michael Worrincy
Jamie Langley
---------
Nick Scruton
Wayne Godwin
Tom Olbison
Vinny Finigan

...no, it's not the greatest Bradford team of all time but seriously, for me there is no way that group of players should be losing every week for 3 months. If those exact same 17 players were playing for Salford, Wakefield, Harlequins etc and getting the same results, then I think we'd all be watching on in disbelief as a team with proven internationals and overseas talent kept on losing. For me the only reasons for this frankly ridiculous and embarrassing run of results can be:

The team has given up
The team is so badly coached it simply can't stop making mistakes
Losing is a habit we can't get out of...we now expect to lose and even if winning (ie v Catalans) find a way to lose

The players we have should be capable of top 8. There is simply no excuse for what we've seen over the last few months. None.

PaulC.

ps that's my rant over. Back to lurking

This is from an Aussie's perspective

Brett Kearney to fullback
Steve Menzies to the forwards

Another thing is Matt Orford I know Bradford would be playing better if he was in the line up for more then half a season

the team on paper doesnt look bad but think its players not being in there natural postions ie a fullback at standoff
a centre at scrum half,2nd rower playing centre and a centre playing wing

Spot on there cant understand why he didnt play kearney at fullback and brought in danny addy at standoff with halley on wing

It has just proved to me that LSH is not up to it, in any way shape or form.

Although I tend to agree, it wasn't LSH dropping the ball on the first tackle over and over and over again.

Doesn't matter how good or bad the coach is if players are doing that so often.

I think u hit the nail on the head with loosing is a habit. after 3 months of loosing it would be impossible for any of the players to belive 100% that we cud have beat saints and those doubts surfice as knock ons silly penalties etc. as the players try too hard to force a try out of evry set. we defenatly don't have anywere near the best team in the superleague - money has ment we havn't replaced players with the same quality - but to answer your question no i don't think this team is that bad, there just stuck in a loosing routine.

If players can't do the fundamentals i.e. hold on to the ball, complete sets, then surely this is coaching. If not the only implication can be that the players are not trying or in some cases not good enough for professional RL. However, the players are better than what they've been showing. This to me means they have given up and aren't focused.

How can a coach teach senior players how to catch the ball?

Shouldn't senior players already be able to catch the ball ? If so why aren't they ?

A proffesional RL player should not need to be coached how to catch the ball



One of our players, IMO, is not good enough for professional RL, others are not good enough for Super League.

Crap, nothing else to be said. Steve Mac should be ashamed of the team he has left compared to what he was left.