I think this is an absolutely brilliant appointment at every level...

* has worked at the club before and so has history from a successful period
* did well as coach at Salford and got them to playoffs which no other Salford coach has done even with Koucash's millions
* has extensive experience in the Championship and knows the players there very well
* has actually coached two of the teams we will play next season

It's hard to think that we could have done better than this appointment

On the slightly wider canvas, I think Marc Green deserves massive kudos for investing in the staff. As well as a top line Assistant (which we haven't had for donkey's years), we have Diskin eager to make an impact with the Under 19s, the very highly regarded John Bastian as Head of Youth and the England Physio as our Conditioner.

Looks like a really solid team to me!

It's a frustrating experience trying to maintain a cup half empty attitude at the moment.

I'm sure some could manage it...

It's OK folks - Harrison can't coach, litterich on the other thread has confirmed it. Phew! Almost felt a twinge of optimism for a fleeting moment, glad that's sorted now.

So instead of being the best, young, blah blah coach etc, he is in fact renowned as a p1$$ poor, old coach.

Why am I profoundly reassured by this?

Bulk of squad new, coaching team new, conditioner new, commercial team new, directors new, league new for the Bulls, commercial approach - refreshingly new

An awful lot of work to do in the off-season but for me this is a completely new start - so rather then base any opinions on what the "newbulls" have or haven't done in the past I am happy to wait till the season starts and the new team gets on the pitch, but I must admit the ingredients already in place are better than seemed possible not long ago.

Anticipation building

We certainly seem to have put the instability of the past 3 years behind us. We seem to have a solid back office staff, a coaching team with a combination of experience and freshness and a squad that looks more than capable of getting into the top 4 of the championship.

Whether it will be enough to get into the top four of the middle 8 remains to be seen but our squad is stronger than last year in terms of numbers. There are a lot of unknown quantities in the squad and I don’t expect them all to be successful. In some ways it reminds me of 95/96 when the whole club got overhauled.

Well I would be happy if we get a similar outcome

What is all this talk of "getting into top 4" of the championship. If we can't finish top of the pile in the championship then we don't deserve to go up. As far as finishing in the top 4 of the play-off eight, all we need to do is finish above Wakey as - yes - I do expect them to be one of the four to drop down.

I actually think Wakey have more to fear of this new system than us. We are a bigger club - granted in championship at moment. We can and will survive our drop down. It would hurt Wakey much more if they are the one to drop permanently with their gate capacity. Would they survive championship rugby? We will survive because we WILL get decent average gates and we are a large area and our directors should get more sponsorship than some of the smaller town clubs.

I am not saying this to wind some up. I do think we are in a better position to survive and come again whereas other smaller clubs it could be terrible to drop down as they are on the edge e.g. Cas being within a week of going bust and had to sell their hooker. What if Koucash leaves Salford with their gates survival would be tough.

I also believe the SL will want us back once we prove we are on a sound footing again. I don't believe conspiracy theories that they don't want us back. They might want to see us punished but a strong Bradford again will strengthen SL - and they know it.

I’m just cautious of dismissing opponents like Leigh and Fev too quickly. I can see some potential banana skins if we go into next season thinking that many games will be a formality. We have a lot of new players, many of which are unproven. It looks good on paper and we look more sorted off field than we have in years so it all bodes very well I just aren’t into counting my chickens just yet.

As far as potential teams we’ll meet in the middle 8 from SL are concerned I can see us meeting any of Wakefield, Hull KR, Salford, Hull, Widnes and Castleford. At the moment I think Wakefield and HKR are most likely candidates but you never know. It’s all a long way off.

In the longer term I think 2015 is a crucial year for us. If we don’t go straight back up it’ll get harder and harder to attract the sort of player that will get us there and the longer it takes the more likely the crowds will drop off as people become disillusioned. Just because we’re a big city club with a relatively recent history of big crowds doesn’t mean that we’ll always draw a crowd. It wasn’t that long ago that Halifax got higher crowds than us.

It’s going to be a very important year.

Spot on Bullseye.

To quote the old poker player's maxim, 'don't count your chips when the cards are on the table' there'll be plenty time for that when the dealings done'. For sure, no one is going to roll over for us just 'cos we won three world championships...in fact, the opposite.

I would go so far as to say that a strong Bradford is good for Rugby League.

I think it's a FACT [capitals, so [imust[/i be true..] that the RFL would much rather attract [ifurther[/i big city sides to SL than lose any of them.

Two things for certain next season:-
1. Bulls will end the season top of the Championship
2. Bulls will be playing the Rhinos in the playoffs

You've gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold'em.