Well there's the long running rumour that we've signed an injury prone fullback who missed the whole of this season with an injury.

Doesn't that make you feel more optimistic? Me neither

I think now it would be crazy to consider Platt at fullback and Halley on the wing unless it was absolutely necessary.

After last season, I think it would be best considering Platt to be a centre who can cover fullback, rather than the other way around. Halley has also just won the Player Of The Year at fullback, so moving him to the wing is not only a little odd, but won't do much for sending the right message to the squad (i.e. "it doesn't matter how well you play in a position, I may relegate you anyway", which IMO a move from fullback to the wing, is a relegation, much like moving someone from the halves to the wing).

While anything is possible, I fail to see why you would suspect this. Leaving Crookes out of the equation, there were plenty of opportunities to play Platt at full back and Halley on the wing in the latter part of the season. Rightly, they were not taken, and Platt did not start at FB even when Halley was injured.


I really dislike the tendency of Bradford supporters to assume that because something hasn't happened, it never will. If the coaches thought Crossley and Hyde were not ready this season, I see no reason to assume that they won't be ready next season. We had this with Horton, too, and Medley explicitly said he didn't think his defence was good enough yet. You may agree or disagree with the coaches' assessments of specific young players, but juniors by definition need to reach a point when they are ready, the coaches are in the best position to assess this, and if they are not deemed to have done so yet, there's no reason simply to assume that they don't want to play them.

Specifically re Hyde, don't forget that he was injured for a lengthy spell, which may have stymied a chance or two, or at least delayed this readiness.

IMO Crossley and Hyde weren't ready for SL last year.

If Crossley's lost some lard and put on some muscle by 2010 then he he'll have more of a chance.

There is a lot of work to do rebuilding next years squad as we all know. Some of this work will be either well underway or even complete, and just awaiting finalising and announcing. My take on this is that looking at how we and McNamara have put squads together over recent years we tend to have two players for each position (with the exception of half back where we generally have 3 to cover 2 places with the third being able to play elsewhere too, and 2nd row where we employ as many as we can )

This usually gives us our first team squad of 25 plus a couple. With this thinking my reckoning on how it looks so far is below, taken from last years players with first team numbers plus our 2 confirmed signings, and we will be recruiting internally or externally where there is a ?....IMHO and working with the assumptin that Semi is off;

FB - Halley - Hyde
W - Sheriffe - ?
C - Nero - (Straugheir?)
C - Platt - Crookes
W - ? - ?
SO - Sykes - ?
SH - Deacon
P - Lynch - Scrutton
H - Le'strange - Godwin
P - Kopzcak - Crossley
SR - Menzies - Whitehead - Olibson
SR - Hall - Worrincy - Tate
LF - Langley - Donaldson


So, just another way of showing we are short of numbers - we can't name a 25 man first team squad yet, but I fully expect the club to announce at least 4 new signings, with 3 being backs (including a winger if Semi is off) and maybe one prop or 2nd row, and I suspect I'll be able to put a name in place of each ? sooner rather than later.

The problem is the waiting for the positive news...

Macca tends to get the balance extremley wrong. I was excited and looking forward to next season, not so much now.

Id agree with that, esp the bits in bold. If we go back and dig up some of the rumours we have the likes of Walker, Kearney, Reardon, Westwood, Moi Moi. I have no personal knowledge of how likely any of these rumours are but I'd say the Kearney one is the most likely from what I've read and heard. If we got, for the sake of argument, those 5 and [iif [/ithey stayed fit and [iif [/ithey played to their potential then we would have every chance of improving on this years efforts.

But we'll have to wait and see, and from my point of view whilst we're all disappointed with sam leaving and we can all see the holes in the squad from the departures and our underperformance last year, it serves no purpose whatsoever to go too negative over the squad and the recruitment (in and out) until we see the finished picture.....which is easier typed than done.

I would have thought we'd have been able to announce Reardon and Westwood if that was the case, but maybe we're hanging on for one big announcement of all the new additions. Out of the ones you've named only Westwood and Moi Moi would strike me as strong additions, and Westwood will hardly set the world on fire. I'm hoping we're in for someone like Watmough or Matt Orford given the Manly connections and the obvious strategy of Macca's to gradually recruit the whole of the 2008 NRL GF winning team.

I didn't say I thought it was a good idea, just that I suspected it is something that might happen! I do take the point that he didn't move Platt from centre, even when he could have done - but, of course, he did play Sykes there - which then begs other questions about who to play at 6...

The core point is still valid - we desperately need lots more bodies to bolster up the squad



...except that I distinctly remember that it was stated at the beginning of the season that Crossley would be in contention and was likely to get some game time. Those who have seen the Reserves mention that he appears to have gone backwards this year, as well as putting some excess midriff - so clearly something, somewhere isn't progressing as was hoped.

Crossley and Hyde are now 20 - they aren't exactly fresh-faced Academy prospects anymore. If they haven't played a single minute in SL yet - even despite all our injuries and woes last season, you have to wonder if and when they ever will....

We all hope for signings like that, but in reality, it's not going to happen, R Kid.

I never for a minute believed that you thought it was a good idea. It was the suspicion that it might happen that I couldn't understand. I hold no brief for defending MacNamara, but I also hold no brief for attacking him gratuitously, and I can't see how he could have handled our Full Back, Wing and Stand Off resources better (or even differently) towards the end of the season.


Again, pretty much my point. There were good reasons why they didn't play - not just coaching prejudice.

Perhaps some of the players we are targetting are still involved in the play offs? Me the eternal optimist!