Looking back through the fixtures list, we have had nine games in which our performance has been between OK and excellent, and nine where our performance has been between sub-par and awful. I guess the worry comes from the bulk of those first nine coming at the start of the season and five out of the last six games being of the second category.

We are currently sat on a point per game played which is generally the tally needed for the play-offs. But we will need an uptick in form to maintain that to 27. There are somewhere between 12 and 16 gettable points in the remaining 11 games. Starting with next week at HKR we need to start picking them up consistently.


Sun 2nd Jun
KO: 15:00 Hull Kingston Rovers vs. Bradford Bulls Must Win
Sun 9th Jun
KO: 15:00 St. Helens vs. Bradford Bulls Bonus
Sun 23rd Jun
KO: 15:00 Bradford Bulls vs. Widnes Vikings Must Win
Sun 30th Jun
KO: 15:00 Bradford Bulls vs. Warrington Wolves Bonus
July '13
Fri 5th Jul
KO: 20:00 Wigan Warriors vs. Bradford Bulls Bonus
Sun 21st Jul
KO: 15:00 Bradford Bulls vs. Hull FC Must win
August '13
Sun 4th Aug
KO: 15:30 Wakefield Wildcats vs. Bradford Bulls Must win
Sun 11th Aug
KO: 15:00 Bradford Bulls vs. Catalan Dragons ?
Sun 18th Aug
KO: 15:30 Castleford Tigers vs. Bradford Bulls Must win
September '13
Sun 1st Sep
KO: 15:00 Bradford Bulls vs. London Broncos Must win
Sun 8th Sep
KO: 15:00 Bradford Bulls vs. Huddersfield Giants Bonus

To make the playoffs we need to start being a bit more consistent though. At this point we've still had more good games than poor, but if we don't start improving this is going to change and we are going to plummet out of the top 8.

I agree 7th is a great place for us to be at this stage, but on current form I wouldn't back us to stay there. It's going to be hard work over the coming weeks, and I think we will see who is up to the task.

Oh, and have to agree with Tigs on whitehead at the moment. He's gone backwards this season and he's not doing much lately other than missing tackles.

You're not being negative. It's a fair analysis of a squad that is four to five players and two years away from the sides you mention. That is still significantly better than we were for the last two years of SM and the first year of MP.

On the tackling issue, two of the three you mention with regards to missed tackles are in the Bulls top 3 tacklers and in the top 30 in SL. One of them Addy has played in the halves. The problem is they're defending TOO much.

Well I tried to analyse it fairly. I'd say 4 or 5 players and two to three years short of those teams too. If we had kept Wardle it would be about 3-4. And yes I see your point but having 2 players miss 51 tackles EACH and another at 49 is disgusting tbh. The majority of those missed tackles there is barely an attempt either.

As I said on another thread, basics not being done properly.

Given that we played this game with only one bona fide prop the result was unfortunately very predictable.

Hudders reminded me of a Bulls side of old. Lots of big lads running over the top of smaller lads. Fact is with the likes of Sidlow and Manoakafoa out we were bound to struggle. When we were on attack we rarely got the kind of momentum needed to give space to our backs, that led to panic passing and mistakes.

Our backrow is seriously missing Elima and Langley. Whitehead, Walker and Olbison are out of form and are struggling in defence. Only a couple of weeks ago Cummins said there were players struggling for form but the squad isn't big enough to drop them. That's why they keep getting picked.

I thought there was a lot of effort out there but fatigue took its toll on us. We didn't have the tools up front to apply pressure so we made more errors. Being on the back foot led to daft penalties being given away so we lost the energy battle.

On the positive side I though Elliot Kear had a great game. We're not likely to come up against a forward pack like that again versus HKR either.

The sooner Batemen is back the better as the backrow needs stiffening up. Evans and Fairbank are some way short of SL standard as is Olbison at the moment. Foster didn't look anywhere near match fit and it stood out a mile. That said his last ditch attempted tackles were laughable. I could do as well as that myself!

Anyway, I just hope we get some bodies back soon. It's been a very tough 5 weeks and we've played all the top teams lately (bar Salford). We are obviously some years off competing for honours but at least we're in the main beating all the teams we need to beat.