Thought id swapped the centres.

I would understand that logic if Walshaw and Ryan had looked frail in defence, but I don't think this is the case to be honest - at Oldham on Wednesday they didn't let anything through, and Ryan also played at Workington and I felt that he was generally quite solid. In fact, I have been impressed with Ryan's contributions this season and especially pleased that he is pushing Williams and Caro for a place.

I reckon Walshaw in the centres over Oakes - the young lad has done ok without being spectacular and I think that Walshaw offers us more at centre in defense, in height for the bomb, and driving the ball out from the back. The final spot is anyone's guess.

No, they don't look frail in defence. However, Kear will look at the line up and target the perceived weakness of having two young lads on one side and would mean that both would be put through a lot more work than if they were lined up on either wing.

thats exactly what i was trying to say. seems better to have one on each side alongside a more experienced player.

I think looking at Smith's tactics in previous games (particularly against Leigh) I think he might be tempted to go big to start with and look to bring replacements on regularly. I can see Addy starting at hooker for that reason (he said he thought we needed size against Leigh and if he's looked back at Batley game from earlier in season he might think the same).

I'm surprised he's dropped Johnny Campbell as I thought he did ok when he came in at Oldham and I'd have given him a run against a team he knows well.

Ethan as good as he's been playing has only started three games this year (two of which have been in last 7days)... which surprises me even more to drop Campbell as I was sure he wouldn't play Ryan in this.

1. Kieren Moss
2. Ethan Ryan
3. Lucas Walshaw
4. Kris Welham
5. James Clare
6. Oscar Thomas
7. Lewis Charnock
8. Mitch Clark
9. Danny Addy
10. Steve Crossley
11. Jay Pitts
12. Kurt Haggerty
13. Alex Mellor

Sub. Adam O’Brien
Sub. Paul Clough
Sub. Adam Sidlow
Sub. Epalahame Lauaki

Joe Lumb and Ross Oakes to miss out.

Hasn't Campbell played same number of games?. Would have thought his familiarity with batley counts both ways, so maybe reason he misses
out. Ie batley know how he plays and how to counter him.

Bradford probably have a slightly better team on paper but Batley have a better team on the pitch. Im expecting Batley just to sneak this one.

I we have got to the point of only having a better team than Batley on paper then we can forget about promotion. We need to be a lot better than other championship teams apart from Leigh if we have any chance of beating SL teams.

Cool trolling

I'd say we have a much better team on paper but it's on the field that counts and Batley have been better than us on the field. Hoping we've turned a corner and our fragile confidence has been given a boost after the last 2 wins. But I thought that after our decent showing at the bash.

They won't be much in this.

No comparison. We've now played 2 games with the unusual tactic of having 2 halfbacks at halfback. Won them both.
We dropped points against the likes of Batley & Fax when we played 2nd row men at halfback.

Massive game today. Third game in 7 days which will be a big ask for the squad. Rohan appears to have managed the rotation well this week and I'm expecting another strong performance as we build towards the Middle 8's. Hopefully our game management will be drastically improved when compared to the last time we met the Bulldogs.

I'm also hoping Dewsbury and Whitehaven will do us a favour and beat Halifax and Fev to make a bit of space underneath the top 4.

Rohan is a genius!