Firstly, it is obvious many of the Bradford squad have been subject to a pre-season bulking programme, prime example being Platt. This additional weight must take some time to get used to, especially at match speed. Whether this is necessary for the likes of Briggs in his position is purely a coaches decision. I would argue it isn't when making comparison to other players throughout the superleague.

At the risk of going over old ground regarding the half backs I wanted to ad a different view and whilst I accept it wont be popular and I don't watch every game I thought I'd seek opinion from yourselves.

Heath L'Estrange is a decent player, shows passion, determination and more often than not is the cause of decent Bradford attacks. But does he make the wrong decisions and starve the half backs of ball?. I noticed several occasions during this cup game when Herbert and Briggs would call a play, set the attacking line and Heath would scoot in the opposite direction with nothing on. Now I know I leave myself open to the possibility that this could be some form of decoy but it just happened too many times.

On a more positive note, in that game I thought Briggs' defense had improved massively, considering, for Bradford, he has been playing on the opposite side of the field to what he ever did for Featherstone. I also think the kicking game of Herbert and Briggs looked more accurate than ever before.

Then of course you had your image rights....

Shad was part-time at Halifax. Think his age put SL clubs off signing him earlier as he was 24 when Fax got him from Donny. he looked good in a poor Donny side but only started to really started to stand out when he joined Fax and was a stand out performer in a top championship side.

I think the advantage he's got over Briggs is the fact he featured briefly for Cronulla before coming to England so already has experience of the full time set up and the standards required making it easier for him to adjust than it is for Briggs.

I guess that must have been the same for me. It didn't apply at my level, of course, though I did know a bloke who got a contract.............

No idea - I guess earnings will depend on wins and appearances - but in Superleague playing and training is your main source of income. Briggs was a plasterer as well as earning money from playing.

The Salary cap has been reduced in the Championships over the last couple of years so there won't be the same sort of money available.