“Unpopular opinion” not sure if it would have made a difference to the score line but I do think Wallace not in at SR made us weaker. He may not be the explosive runner like Appo but his work rate, play the ball, winning the ruck and scrambling defence is much higher. Patton and Gill definitely benefit him being there. Apart from the Keighley 70% of the opposition tries seem to come from the other side and the times when Wallace has been Hitman of the week has purely been because of his work rate. I believe that side is stronger when it’s Patton, wallace, gill and tindle (when he’s available)

Agree about Dunning.

I've said the jury's still out on him. He deserves credit for some of the changes he's brought in as we were completely rotten last year. He's coached us to some great victories this year, which he deserves credit for. The Fev defeat I thought we were turning a corner in our consistency. As even though we lost, we played well over a number of weeks.

But these type of performances where the games over by HT are becoming too common. Especially against our rivals. Just not acceptable. I thought Fax would win yesterday, they're a decent team, at home and would have been hurting from us beating them two weeks ago. But a game of that magnitude, where i thought the winner would go on to lift the trophy, for it to be over by HT is in excusable.

Our next 4 of our next 5 games are against teams towards the bottom of the table, plus Keighley. So if we win all 5 things may look a little better at the half way point of the season. But do I trust Dunning to get us all 5 victories? More likely we'll beat Barrow, Swinton get a good win against Keighley and then lose to London at home.

Not good enough.

As a neutral i thought Bradford were pretty poor.
I keep upto date with what's going on through the internet, league Express etc.
Firstly i thought the BBC coverage was amateur at best. I'm sure a fan could have done as well with a mobile phone.
2 options close up at the play the ball and then zoom out as far as possible so you can't even see who has the ball.
This was a game of how loan players disrupt teams. You have a spine of players who are pretty much in the team week in week out and then players who come in for the odd game then go back to there club and then expect a player to come in and play out of his skin only to be told he's not playing the week after.
From what i can see you have ascholarship, reserves etc. Surly reserves are where your players come from or is that too old fashioned these days.
Leigh and Keighley showed how it was done last season. Put the money in and keep putting money in so you get where you want to be.
I know all teams don't have bottomless pockets but I would rather watch my team lose with local lads that have come through the system than a make shift team turning out week after week.
Img will ruin the game. Americans don't understand rugby league end of.
Our country has it's own identity on promotion and relegation and that's the way it should stay.

Spot on!

All banter and joking aside, well most of it, these last two games have really highlighted in a nutshell the disgrace that is dual reg. Shame on those who use it and who allow it to be used. I include Fax in that as well obviously.

Bradford in meltdown turning comments off on Facebook and Twitter. Wouldn’t surprise me if dunning is gone .

Can only hope.

I pretty much expected this result. When the pressure is on, and the game is being televised you can guarantee the Bulls will thoroughly bottle it and play like a load of blokes who just met 10 minutes beforehand in a pub.

Just awful.

This coach is way out of his depth. Being a nice bloke and having a copy of the 'Steve NcNamara big book of excuses' isn't enough. And he was the best option. Wow.

Im not trying to rub it in when I say this but I really didn't think much of Bradford when we played a couple of weeks back, I'm not saying they are bad, I just thought they were pretty average but we were really, really bad and still ended up in with a shout at the end of the game. I still think that when we get ideal conditions pretty much like last night there is still a bit of a gulf between the two teams and there isn't many Bradford players that I would take at Fax.

I fully agree with the thrust of your post, but I have to pick you up on this bit.

Leigh has been loaning players left right and centre for years, and doesn't have an Academy (because they aren't allowed one, but still). In fact, they've had loan players THIS season in SL - Joe Shorrocks, who is now in the Wigan first team, was on loan at Leigh earlier in the season.

Most clubs utilise the loan system at one time or another - including Halifax and York, whose fans were bagging the Bulls for it.

That said, I think we are leaning FAR too much on loans and DR this season.

As above, I don't think you were anywhere near as bad as we were two weeks ago and if you had completed at less than 30% in either half last week like we did then the score would have been a lot worse. It does show though when we can be that bad and still end up in the game near the end but Bradford play pretty bad and we blow them off the park.

The Bulls need to move on from Dunning now, if we're to rescue the season. This squad is badly underperforming and if he's as vanilla and cliched in the dressing room as he is in his interviews, the lack of motivation seems pretty obvious. If we're serious about going up this is the season to do it, before the IMG franchise model kicks in and the door is closed for a very, very long time.

Probably fair, the scoreline definitely flattered Halifax two weeks ago. Bradford kept Halifax in with a shout because of inability to stick to a game plan and grind a game out. Widnes walloped Halifax not so long since, but they have been pretty average and inconsistent as well - I guess it is an issue at Championship level.

I’m not sure I agree about a ‘gulf’ in quality we are 9 games in on equal points and 1-1 in games against and you’re signing journeyman like Dan Fleming, so you’ve definitely got a few players I wouldn’t take either!!

I do think this squad is underperforming though and could be a lot better side with a higher calibre coach.

from a fax fan i thought both those lads had a good go for you and should get more of a run in your team going forward.

There is massive underinvestment to the extent that I don't think we can afford to pay Dunning off (if that is the answer). We are now just a mediocre team in a run down town.