Discuss the Summer Bash game against Leigh Centurions here...

We've sold over 1,800 tickets for this game which is more than any other club.

Factor in the walk up support on the day and we could have over 3,000 supporters at Blackpool again, especially with Bradford City missing out on a trip to Wembley.

My personal thoughts are that this game is about a month too early for Rohan Smith and the club.

Potentially no Gaskell and Welham to add to the list of Kavanagh and Purtell.

Big ask, tough assignment, I know we have a performance in us to do the job.

It'll need a fair improvement on recent showings to get a result in this match. Struggling to muster much enthusiasm for these phoney matches and their place within a regular league format. This will however be the first Magic/Bash I've ever attended..but only because I've got free weekend tickets.

I think a lot of Bradford fans on social media are looking forward to the impending game in the qualifying 8s with Leeds.

This is going to be a very tough game for us. Missing Gaskell and possibly Welham will certainly damage our ability to attack. Hopefully a second week under Smith will see a continuation of an improvements that he's bringing to the side

Leigh by plenty, but thankfully these games mean very little as long as we end up in the top 4.

Martyn Ridyard and Willie Tonga could be missing for Leigh.

I can see us getting tonked by a lot. Hope I am wrong but I also think it's too early for Rohan. Looking forward to the end of season clash against them though!

No chance, both sets of players will be up for a game like this and I think it will be close, Both Leigh & Bradford are big game teams and need this kind of test more regularly.

I fancy us to edge it...
I could see Leigh falling in to a similar trap as last year - they've been winning games comfortably and havent been tested in quite some time. When a team of similar quality turns up and has a go; i could see them getting rattled at least for parts of the game. Just look at how they fell apart in the last 20 at Odsal when we finally turned up.
I fully expect us to be fired up for a big 80minutes, and i think after the sheffield game Smith will ring a couple of changes. Should Gaskell be out he'll have to bring Haggerty back in (by no means a bad thing, he's unlucky to be behind Ferg, Olbison & Pitts in the pecking order), moving Addy to the halves.
I'd like to see him ditch Blythe though, thats two shockers he's had in consecutive weeks since coming back in to the team.

Hope he sticks with Joe Lumb - lad hasnt put a foot wrong so far, and this will be his first runout infront of a decent crowd; will be interesting to see how he handles the big occasion.

We had Leigh sussed last year - mark Ridyard out of the game and the rest of them soon start to look a little bit more average!

Plenty of room for optimism though, it seems one of the key things RS has quickly addressed is the lack of aggression in the camp, particularly in the pack. For the first 10mins of the first half and most of the 2nd half on friday our pack looked a totally different bunch from what they were 6weeks ago; running their weight and not holding back in defence. Really positive to see that.

Here's to a good weekend, and hopefully more news on signings and contracts through the week (Y)

Hock will be clear to play despite his red card yesterday, he'll be up before the RFL wc. 29/5 rather than this coming week.

I read that this was because of a delay in retrieving video evidence. Who's responsibility is it to provide video evidence?
I'm not in any way suggesting that this has been done on purpose, but I did hear a tale of Leigh sending a copy of the fight in Round 1 last year from the most ridiculous camera angle where you couldn't even see the incident. IIRC the RFL ended up using footage available online rather than the evidence that Leigh sent!

I'm not being funny but this issue has led to Leigh keeping a key player available for a big game... oh well we will still beat them

I don't think we have anything to fear. Reading the Leigh board, they haven't been firing on all cylinders. I think the scratchy performances from both the Bulls and Leigh, are in part that the players know these fixtures don't really matter. So i think both will put in their best performances for a while.

Leigh have a formidable pack, but as Ecclesbulls says, our pack seems a different animal to 6 weeks ago. Running and tackling with intent and aggression. Still think Leigh come out on top in that department.

I think we are much better in the backs (apart from Blythe) and need to get the ball out wide as much as possible. Play through the middle and there will be only one winner.

Think Leigh win it in the halves, particularly if Ridyard plays.

Thinkit will be a close, but high scoring game.

With you on that one, certainly cant see it being one for the defensive purists!

They'll have the run on us outwide; our defence on the flanks has been very poor... If he (hopefully) drops Blythe, i'd almost be tempted to run Olbison or Haggerty in the centre presuming Purtell is still out... I know that sounds like a bizarre call from the Jimmy Lowes coaching manual, but my logic there is that we're particularly weak defeniding out wide and Leigh arent exactly shabby there in attack - sticking another strong defender there certainly wouldnt be a bad thing. Kurt would be my call, he's effective going forward and can last 80minutes.
Back line of:
Clare
Caro
Welham
Haggerty
Williams