Fev were soundly beaten at Fax last week so will be looking to make amends against us.    POR is not a happy hunting ground for us.  Hopefully we'll get back to what were doing in pre season and the in the first half versus Cas and Hunslet.    We need to get some momentum back up after the poor performances in Toulouse the debacle last Friday.


As things stand our gameplan is very simple with "Kear-ball" tactics of 5 drives and a kick to the wing.   If we don't get any go-forward then we turn the ball over too easily with an ineffective kick.  I'd like us to try and play a bit more rugby and ask a few more questions.    After the Hunslet game I can't remember his exact words but in effect he said we don't play very much football and he's right.    Take our Scurr and to a lesser effect Pele and our middles aren't anywhere near as effective - we can also see how much we relied on Doro now.    

Well, i finally had chance to watch the Barrow game and Bullseye has summarised our tactics nicely. like the Toulouse match in many ways with an inability to string even a few passes together. I'll be off to post office road with more hope than expectation. Our attack just has no spark/ threat, we are easily shutdown because we appear devoid of ideas. It's frustrating (might as well mention it again) but we looked quality in that first half v Cas and gave Salford a real scare... Will the real Bradford Bulls please stand up 

It's odd - if a team feels they can take us on with pace, handling, quality rugby - they do that and we can match it to a certain extent - Cas, London, Toulouse, Salford are examples. 


If a team don't feel they can take us on that way, they keep it tight, slow the play, disrupt and frustrate and let our ill-discipline beat ourselves - Hunslet, batley, Barrow are examples. A reasonable way to play RL to win, of course. 

I don't think you have a must win this early in the season, but I certainly think it's a dare not lose game. 3 defeats from 5 would take all the feel good factor out  of the club


 Fev are hit hard by Injuries at the moment. They're having to play Addy & Aekins in the halves at the moment. Tuimavave sounds like he has a serious Injury too. Reading their fans forum sounds like they're getting bullied in the pack. However I expect a response from them, especially at home. 


We really need Ebon back but I'd be trying to make things as simple as possible. I don't think throwing the ball about when out confidence has taken a hit and out half backs look disorganised and not geing. Our pack should dominate theirs. Go back to basics of keeping things simple. I'd drop Meadows and put Lilley with Keyes and try simplify things for them too as we've looked very disorganised. 


Big 3 games coming up against Fev, Eagles in the cup, and then fax. 

I agree with keeping it simple when confidence is low but I don't think our gameplan could be any simpler.     That's why we struggle when we don't dominate up front.   I know winning up the middle is a fundamental of the game and you don't win unless you do that but we're soooo predictable at times.  


The kicking game was spot on in the early part of the season, more mixed.   You have to vary the kicks.   Otherwise the opposition gets too comfortable.   I know in goal areas are tiny but we don't try and put the ball there enough IMO.   We need to be better at building pressure.    

The feel good factor was indeed sky high and is now very much on the wane.... It is early in the season but we need to be thinking long term consistency and how we achieve that...(Well the coaching staff do). I keep having the same thought of replacing Meadows with Lilley (But ultimately I've found Lilley's attacking prowess frustrating) so I'm not sure that really is the answer....  I like that fact Nobby has put a squad together with a bit of size yet we aren't dominating down the middle and i don't really know why that is.... Hopefully on Monday we can all wax lyrical about our pack's dominance and the deft handling by our halves to release our pacy backs out wide! 

Other than Scurr and Pele none of the props really break tackles.  We have some big lads but they're lacking the speed and footwork to be a real threat.   Bayliss occasionally looks that part and so he should given he's enormous

Think we're really missing dorro and also appo. The replacements lui and waine we haven't really seen but maybe it's time to freshen things up and give them a go. 

It did cross my mind whether Waine was here because of Appo and losing him unexpectedly has unsettled him. I was expecting him to be a real handful but so far he has been pretty ineffective.


Key for this week is attitude, are the players prepared to try and win every little battle and 1% effort areas? 

Waine certainly doesn't run the ball in as hard as Appo.  Liu looked OK when versus Hunslet before he had to defend at centre.  He runs good lines so I agree,  maybe he's worth a shot.  Do you drop Fulton or Gee?

Bulls 21 man squad:


Guy Armitage
Logan Bayliss
Waqa Blake
James Donaldson
Zac Fulton
Matty Gee
Kieran Gill
Sam Hallas
Luke Hooley
Joe Keyes 
Michael Lawrence 
Jordan Lilley 
Bayley Liu 
Nathan Mason
James Meadows 
Ronan Michael
Jayden Okunbor 
Franklin Pele 
Ebon Scurr
Mitch Souter 
Emmanuel Waine 

Still looks a good team on paper, just translate that to the pitch and we'll do alright.