I'm happy with what I saw today, despite the first 40 minutes being somewhat lethargic with both sides showing no real respect for the ball, with far too many errors and silly needless penalties given away.

I was impressed with Matt Diskin who I thought wasn't afraid to take control with the ball and direct play when inside the Dewsbury 20m and scored a Jimmy Lowes special that was well thought out, considering Kopczak still had four Dewsbury defenders within tackle range.

Kyle Briggs was my MOM as he just never stopped out there, directing and trying to involve everyone with his drop and go style of play. Those two 40/20's in the first half we're well taken I thought considering the Dewsbury number four Scott Turner had dropped back to stop them, but the sheer pin point accuracy of his kicking game was a joy to watch and one which should give us added options in Super League this coming season.

Not only for those two 40/20's but his general kicking game and those moster meter finding kicks to touch from the penalty award (He made over 40m+ twice).

Southernwood was more of the same and got the Dewsbury BOD man of the match. His kick to set up Finnigan's first try was sublime and again as above with Briggs both of them really showed signs of class in the running, passing and kicking department.

I'll say it again but these two will go on to do better than what Rob Burrow and Danny McGuire have done for Leeds, providing both stay fit and healthy then the Rugby League world is there oyster.

Vinny Finnigan scored two wonder tries all made possible due to the Southernwood/Briggs partnership and that devastating right hand side attack which tore Dewsbury apart in the second half.

Platt has improved ten fold and looks the player we signed back at the start of the 2007 season when he scored those three tries at Warrington during the 36-20 victory.

He had a hand in three of the tries, making the break and then finding the supporting player at the right time and what can I say about Patrick Ah Van?

After the game I was up on the gantry area with Stuart Duffy and we we're talking about how he just shows up all over the field and is there to support the break or take the ball forward making Dewsbury commit three defenders to bring him down, before Diskin then goes from dummy half and makes the break.

I'll also add that at long last we have found are goal kicking genius with impressive stats of 6/7 (vs Halifax) and todays 7/8 (which included one of the touchline and two or three that Orford/Sykes etc would have missed).

Elima, Kopczak and Whitehead all did well and made the hard yards forward, Elima more so for his efforts in the defensive line with some massive hits put on the Dewsbury players, including a ball and all tackle on Dominic Brambani and at one point in the first half he made three consecutive tackles as Dewsbury came to as halt.

Burgess, Bateman, Reed and Crossley all looked good with the ball in hand, espcially Tom who looks massive out on the field and could surpass anything that Sam did over here (IMO we did right in letting George go).

All in all a very good day at the office despite the slow start.

He is a monster isn't he? The bloke behind me made me laugh by commenting on how big the Burgesses all were and how they would have needed a lock on the fridge over night or it would have been empty in the morning!

To be honest mate and I think in my commentary I said the same thing, the referee was very fussy today about holding down and head high tackles and perhaps he could have resisted the urge to blow up for a few of those early holding down calls at it didn't help the flow of the game.

But one thing he couldn't control was the silly forced forward passes that both sides tried to get away with (Bradford more so than Dewsbury).

Dewsbury gave a good account of themselves and as I mentioned when summarising the game at the end, no Dewsbury supporter should be too disheartened by what they saw today, because for 60 minutes this was a real arm wrestle.

Warren Jowitt should be proud of that effort mate.

Cain was really impressive this afternoon, hope to see more of him this season.

You know, its not impossible I am starting to get slightly excited about the coming season. First stirrings, but there is a feeling there I've not had for a while now. =#FFFFFF(Go on, you'll not get a better chance that this to have some fun on my account!!)
I need to go lie down someplace (If I wasn't so damn busy) - this will never do.

I really can't be bothered reading everything as I'm shattered for some reason. I'll try to read others' comments tomorrow, but for now I'll give my own thoughts. Apologies if already mentioned.

Ah Van - Not a fullback IMO. Looks good in attack but shaky when fielding kicks (either bombs or grubbers). I also don't think his passing ability is quite up to Stand Off as he doesn't look comfortable. Strong runner though and always wanted to be involved. Would rather see him in the centres I think.

Finigan - My Man of the Match. I thought he was excellent all round. Dealt with everything thrown his way and took his tries well.

Sykes - Absolute garbage. Back in his favoured position and he fluffed pretty much everything that went near him. I hope that was down to a lack of fitness because if he's going to play like that in a proper game, I don't want him anywhere near the 17.

Briggs - Excellent kicking game and took on the line very well for Finigan's second try.

Southernwood - Thought he struggled in the first half. Plenty of effort and involvement, but looked a bit nervous to take people on himself and was just looking for the pass immediately every time. Second half came into his own a bit though. Looks very much a confidence player to me. Keep his confidence up and he could be a belter.

Elima - Machine in defence.

Bateman - Impressive again. Can't believe how at ease he looks when alongside senior players.

Burgess - Really needs to work on his discipline. Came off the bench in the first half and immediately fluffed a PTB. Then gave a stupid penalty away a little after that. Should have been penalised for another incorrect PTB in second half too. When his discipline is under control, he looks so much better. Made some bloody good yards.

Some of our forward passes were embarrassing. One in particular (which we were rightly penalised for) was unbelievable. That needs sorting out.

I have to agree mate, that pass to Finnigan with the line open in the first half was a awful.

Sykes is terrible. How he was given a 3 year deal is beyond me

Cover.

Well that has to be it. Cant see him getting many games

That's exactly what i'd say for each of those players.



Totally agree about Sykes - he won't be playing in Cardiff unless he really plays a blinder vs Wakey.



We've seen Ah Van at centre, stand-off & full-back now. I agree, he's not a natural full-back but he'd do a job. Atm i'd like to see him in the centres most, but i'd also like to see how he does on the wing.

As for how many Bulls supporters we're at the Tetley's stadium, I would say around 500. Good turnout.

I'd agree with Dilli's analysis. Argh Van is better in the centres. Glad we've some competition there this year.

I think it's more probable to see Sykes against Keighley, seen as though we're sending a fringe team to Cougar Park.

The thing about Sykes is that you would have expected that he'd have come out today all guns blazing, given that there are now multiple options for each position that he could play

But he just didn't seem interested, frankly

My thoughts on today.

We carried on the 'feel good' factor and it was nice to see a lot of Bulls fans still upbeat about the 2011 season. Yet again we scored a lot of points (40 unanswered points I think?) which will give us a shed load of confidence going into the opening 2 games against Wigan and Leeds. I'm also really happy with our defence, conceeding only 20 points in 2 games (albeit against lower league opposition) is pretty decent. I hope we can follow this form going into next weeks game against Wakefield.

As for the players, Elima was a tackling machine. Don't think he missed anything he went for during his spell today. Southerwood and Briggs worked well together in the second half and ran the show for us. Diskin seemed fairly settled in the team and took his try well.

Briggs for me was our MOM (closely followed by Southernwood). His kicking game was pin-point and he tore the right side of Dewsbury's defence apart time after time. Vinnigan also looked really good and worked well with Briggs. His finishing was clinical and he also put in a decent shift in defence.

I also agree with some peoples opinions on Ah Van. He does look very handy going forward but he does look a little nervous when defending our line. Maybe it's just a bit of pre-season cobwebs that will hopefully be gone come the start of the season.

Considering who wasn't playing (Lynch, Langley, L'Estrange, Herbet, Raynor, Walker, Ainscough, Donaldson, Halley, Kearney, Royston & Sibbit) we've got some serious competition for places. It didn't really sink in until I checked the line up again to see who we rested. Next week I assume we will field our probable starting 13 and cannot wait for the next game to come.

Overall another good pre-season performance.

It was Dewsbury 6-40 Bradford in the second half.

Maybe we'll reverse the trend of past Bradford sides and put the points on the board at the death instead of early on?

Just to put that into a bit of context, you might not have noticed but by around the 55 minute mark all of our players that played the first half had been substituted and we played the second half, from when it was 12-10, with a completely different team.

So did we.

No you didn't. I mean it literally, every player was changed.

You still got smashed DanielleRams. Dont cry

You're missing the point!

You shouldn't judge your performance on the last 30 minutes of the game, as you were playing most of our reserve team. Judge it on the first 50 when our first team was out there, otherwise you're just kidding yourselves.

I wasnt at the game so i cant really say. Sounds like first half was competative though

Your point is taken. But after half time, only 4 players were out there that have a realistic chance of being in our 17 come the first game of the season.

Both teams had reserves out there. In fact, we left out most of our first teamers, and the likes of Scruton & Diskin only played for about 20 minutes. To sum up, the result means jack sh*t really, as did the 6-6 and 12-6 scorelines.

Yeah it was. First half was really good and entertaining, and to be honest you couldn't tell which team was in Super League, 6-6 at half time was a good reflection of the first half. Second half started evenly with a try from each team and then, like I said before, all 13 players came off and a totally different team played the rest of the match that couldn't handle the speed and strength of the Bulls.