So London, Dewsbury, Batley and Oldham are the 4 teams we only play once. Although Toulouse depends on factors outwith the control of the sport. Are we ok with that? The highest ranked of those 4 is London and it's the away game we need to play so I think some clubs will have been slightly advantaged by this "random" fixture list and others disadvantaged.

Always going to be the case with an uneven fixture list. Not having to go to Batley is a plus though, despite it being my favourite away day, it's a tough place to go. And get two points.

Widnes only have to play Toulouse AND Fev once so they've certainly benefitted from the uneven fixture list.

Those first 6 fixtures are all winnable, with Halifax at home looking like the toughest one. We could conceivably go into that London away game with a 6/6 win rate. Less than a 4/6 win rate I think I would be a little disappointed.

Someone’s worked out the reason for Widnes having a lower seeding and slightly easier draw. It’s based on the 2019 season finish and Widnes of course had their 12 point penalty so were artificially low. It is what it is I suppose

Agreed. Also it's a top 6 play off this year so if we start well, it puts us in a very strong position to be in the play-offs. If we get in the play-offs then it's game on. As Fev proved 2 years a go. Get in the play-offs ahead of us by a single point. Were 10 mins away from getting into SL.

I'll be honest If we fail to make the top 6 I think we've done very poorly.

Streaming details https://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article ... -confirmed

Streaming details https://www.bradfordbulls.co.uk/article ... -confirmed

£4.95 good price to watch games

I dunno about anyone else but I'm really struggling to care about how we do this season. I've been a season ticket holder for over 25 years and I can't remember ever feeling more apathetic as I do right now. I admit some of that is probably due to the situation re the pandemic, but not all of it.
We're not promotion contenders in my opinion. Not even close. It already feels like all our hopes are resting on Brough and when he inevitably gets injured, we'll be screwed.

Yes, but I think a lot is due to the current situation (grateful to have my health but for me each day/week just melts into another) and the fact that the team have not played for nearly a year.

With some luck on injuries top 6 is achievable and yes Toulouse & Fev squads look particularly strong but there are 6 - 7 teams with little to choose between and thus I am expecting close, hard fought, entertaining games won/lost in the last 10 minutes. A couple of games under our belts and I think enthusiasm will return.

Mid table sounds about right.

Nah I disagree mate.

Fev, Toulouse and York have some big signings and have the strongest squad on paper.

Then who else is THAT much better than us?

London - aren't the same team they were a couple of seasons a go IMHO that team that earned promotion and nearly avoided a miracle relegation From SL has completely changed. That said I still expect Sammut to tear us a new one like he does everytime we play him

Halifax - Robinson/Harris are decent signings. But I don't look at their squad and think "wow they're much stronger than us" whoever performs best on the day will come out on top.

Widnes - very strong 17, but after that they've literally got kids.

Last season I thought we'd get mid table at best, but was pleasantly surprised by the performances. We've made some smart recruits (though still missing one more big prop) and have a good good balanced squad. If injuries and covid bite we're struggling but that goes for all the teams who have lighter squads than pervious seasons. I think we have slightly more depth than a lot of others. Widnes look very thing on troops IMHO

To provide some context. After our first 17 squad numbers we only have 2 players over the age of 21.
DFJ and Brad England. Hardly packed full of experience our selves

This is all uncharted waters. No-one has played for a year basically.

I think the first 2-3games will be dependent on the preseason and the work that S&C have done with the players over the past12 months. Some clubs will be better than others over this with proportion of Fulltime/part-time players and training infrastructure playing a part. We're fairly welloff in this regard.

The other unknown is where Doyle, Scurr and Gallagher have got to in their development. Last year I was impressed, they were all comfortably mid to top level Championship standard and I felt they all had SL potential. If this last year has gone well, they've all filled out a bit, put a few more kg of power on and are starting to reach their SL potential then this season may go better than expected. It's such a leap into the unknown.

Kear's confirmed that the vacant numbers are for players that will join before the kick off, which is a relief because we're very light in the forwards. Having said that I think the league looks weaker than for a few years.
Toulouse are the strongest but have to travel.
Fev's squad is massive and workmanlike. Not sure about Webster
York have new halves and spent on a few quality (if 35 year old) SL players.
Fax look stronger.
Love to see Widnes up there but literally no depth.
Ward's a quality coach but lots of names I'm not that familiar with at London.

I think we've a bit of quality in the young players, a few 3/4th season pros who look ready to step up. There's a big opportunity here with the right signings.

Just throwing one out there.

Crowds allowed back in to games from Monday May 17.
We have a home game against the Geordies on Sunday the 16th.

If you were the club would you push it back 24 hours and play the game on the Monday night to allow for fans to be able to attend?

I think we are looking at around 4000 to 5000 fans allowed if the game was at odsal. It would definitely be a sell out. If i was in charge id be moving the game to Monday night.

Thoughts?