Quote: Exeter Rhino "Broader issues of the game aside, I reckon you are approaching the second significant milestone for assessing Cummins (not making a bad start was hurdle one). Under McNamara, Bradford often made solid starts to the campaign in the more wintry weather and tighter conditions, but when the sun came out and the pitches started to harden Bradford would often be blown away by the better sides. Are we starting to see this happen already? I'm not sure.
Potter managed to halt the summer slump last year (the points deduction masked his good work to many looking in from the outside), and hopefully Cummins can benefit from being part of that. Obviously the squad isn't as deep, but it strikes me that you still have more quality in the backline than the latter-day McNamara squads, so maybe you can hold onto a top 8 finish this year.'"
The falling away had little, if anything, to do with harder and drier pitches apart from any element they might have had in causing injuries. We never had the biggest of squads after Nobby left since we didn't [and still don't] have the money to throw at them and to get quality we maybe had some older guys who were, to put it gently, a bit more likely to succumb to injuries than the younger ones.
I think the age range is a bit better balanced this time but, sadly for us the injuries just keep coming and without the luxury of a big squad [we were unable to recruit right up to the season's start so were unable to replace the players who left at the end of last season, remember] so it's difficult to bring in appropriate players to cover sometimes. I've every faith in FC though.
