Smaller and less physically mature men fatigue quicker when tackling bigger and more physically mature men - not just during a game but cumulatively over a season in my view. Walker, Whitehead and Olbison started the season well but are now playing poorly as our front row is consistently unable to match their opponents. I don't think this is anyone's fault, rather a consequence of the administration/budget situ. The 4 props we played yesterday aren't a Super League standard unit.

I would agree with that. The other thing that a lot of the people posting on this thread seem to overlook is that, after playing over half the games this season, we are in seventh place and in a playoff spot. Over half the games. Played everybody at least once (and Huddersfield twice, including beating them at theirs). That is not a fluke. Yes it was a bad day at the office but this group and this coach have got us up to that league position and if we finished 7th then I would class that, given our season starting point, as an astonishing achievement.

It wasn't just a bad day at the office though we have been poor against Leeds, Wigan, Huddersfield, London, Saints and Catalan.

Granted the majority of them are top 6 material but if you are saying that yesterday was a bad day at the office then how do you explain the poor defending and lackluster attack in the games I have mentioned?

It's no fluke that 3-4 of our players are in the top 10 for missed tackles and it's no fluke that we are slipping down the league. Yes we may be 7th (which is an outstanding achievement) but apart from beating Huddersfield (which WAS a bad day at the office for them) and nicking a draw at Leeds we are simply not good enough to compete.

I am not one to lose faith but at the moment our defence is so poor I can't see us beating Hull KR or Hull FC and in my opinion these are must win games to secure a playoff spot. Sorry to be negative but that's just the way it is. Yes we have got a lot of injuries too but that doesn't excuse missing 1 on 1 tackles or dropping the ball on the first tackle.

Addy, who I admit to have never rated in the slightest, showed he is developing the ability to control a game & has a great future; Kear tried his socks off; that's about it. Foster might be a modern day full back but when you are in a team facing a hammering & are the last line of defence you have to put your body on the line, some of his attempts were not worthy of schoolboy RL, absolutely disgraceful. Whitehead seems to have gone backwards from the player who seemed to be pushing for an international place. Evans looks like a flabby pudding who is defensive liability after 10 minutes effort. At the moment Bulls are lacking the mental strength needed to make up for their squad deficiencies; whether Cummins can instill that time will tell.

Was it just me, actually the gf pointed it out that no bulls players where warming up they came of the bench and sat in the technical area whereas the hudds players where out stretching and so where the other teams, and the only sub i saw with 30mims to go was Donaldson where did the other players go?

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

Had other plans yesterday so didn't see the game, it's on the planner but would I be best to save myself the misery?

I'd like to point out that you did not produce the worst team performance

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.