Good point woolly. Would you sign to stay at Bradford under Lowes at this moment in time if your deal was up at the end of the season?

Unless Lowes works some magic soon I can see players losing faith and looking elsewhere. If we turn it around and look like we have a chance of going up or even just get back to playing with a few smiles that will help.

The players look pi55ed off at the moment. You can see the frustration on their faces with each forward pass or ball thrown into touch.

I'm still happy with Green. I think he is doing a cracking job running us day to day. Weve really made some progress in terms of stability it seems. And for that I am happy. Sometimes it takes a number of successive coaches to get things right and I think it's going to be the case with us. I think Lowes was a good appointment by Green and he has done what is needed whilst we steadied the ship. He isn't the guy to take us forward imo though and we need to be looking at somebody else I think. Noble or Potter would be my call from the experienced coaches available. I would even like to see Cummins have another go, I don't think he was to bad given the circumstances he found himself in. However, it seemed he fell with the playing staff but I don't know if that was true or not. Also I wouldn't mind Richard Marshall, his Fax side always seem well motivated and tough. Think Green probably needs a CEO to turn to to help run the club though because he isn't a rugby man, however he may feel he has the team in place and the experience needed now to take it on himself.

Defo not losing faith with Green.

I agree about Jimmy being the man for the job 18 months ago when Mr Green took over. I am also very happy he bought the club and think he is doing the job that needed to be done to get our reputation up again.
I do feel though that Jimmy will not make a top coach due to his temperament. He probably has taken the team as far as he can.
If he has offered to resign I believe it offers the Bulls a good chance to do it properly.
I waould also turn him down - but, explain to him he will not be offered a new contract. We would then advertise and this would give us a good chance of attracting the right coach to take us on to a new level.
If worded correctly, it would also give Jimmy the chance to show himself in a good light to prospective new clubs if he could get the Bulls up. It could all be done very ammicably and in the interest of both sides.
I can't imagine the Bulls offering him a new deal so why not bring it into the open and start the ball rolling now.
I would jump at the likes of Elliot or Potter saying they would love another crack at the job.
Last thing we need is a knee jerk reaction and appointing another poor coach.

But this is all speculation as there is no evidence of a change at the moment. The low gates will help make up Mr Greens mind.

I must say I feel sorry in a way for Lowes.

Whatever anyone says, and despite the cruel loss of Gaskell for half the season, he got us to the MPG, peaking with a devastating performance against Salford, and despite anything else, we were one touchline conversion away from SL. Had Addy's kick gone over we'd have been in SL now and so I have to make allowances for that fickle finger of fate.

Had Addy's kick gone over then Lowes would have been feted as a hero and rightly so.

But, this season we are playing so poorly it looks like several of the wheels have fallen off and many more are loose or seizing up. We know we have't signed a scrum half. Is that Lowes' fault? We don't know. We know we have made a raft of eclectic and frankly sometimes bemusing signings and don't look to have a plan. Is Lowes to blame for our signing debacles? We don't know.

Something is definitely wrong, but the buck that does stop at Lowes' door is the level and standard of performances against Batley, Dewsbury and Halifax. Whatever else, the personnel he had available to him should have been good enough, and they weren't.

Interestingly, I was told a few weeks ago that Pita Godinet was all set to sign for the Bulls for this season but Lowes didn't want him. So, to answer that question, perhaps it is.

Scandalous if true. Pretty big 'if' though I reckon.

Ross Heppenstall ‏@rosshtanda 5m5 minutes ago
Writing an interesting story for tomorrow's paper about a head coach's job for 2017. #rugbyleague

Read into that what you will!!!!

Probably Batley's. Even Ross is trolling us now

I wonder how much of this is down to Ferres. He after all does the deals. Do he and Lowes work well together?

I do understand that we got into the £1m play off game but it was because we finished above the other three championship teams. Leigh fell off a cliff. We effectively finished above Sheff and Fax who weren't great.
It consisted of two leagues. The SL teams and the Championship teams. We finished below all SL teams. We won 3 games - one was Salford and lost against a Championship team. We won our championship league.
I don't see finishing 5th out of 8 as a magnificent achievement when two of them were below us in the championship. Someone had to do it in the championship. Leigh were favourites but their demise let us in and we were better than the other 3 - but not by a mile. It was either us or Leigh which is why I don't see it as a big deal really.
It will hopefully be Leigh or us again this year - so no big surprise if it happens again.

What an odd post! What do you mean "but" it was because we finished above the other Championship teams? It wasn't a "but"! It was exactly what we had to do FFS!!

And nobody "let us in". It is ridiculous to say that. We got to the playoffs ready to play, Leigh didn't. Had they also been ready, who is to say it would have been any different? But regardless, that is and was the "sharp end" of the season and Leigh bottled it, we were far better at the playoffs than they were.

What I find most interesting about the playoffs is that Wakefield's meltdown did give us a one-off realistic chance, but it also skewed the playoff league. What would be interesting this year, if we managed to finish top, is to see whether we could get the automatic promotion 3rd place. That should be at least a bit more realistic in a sense this year if the 4 SL clubs are fairly evenly matched, and start taking points off each other. That 3rd place could be at least more than academic.

I still wouldn't put a penny on it, mind, but at least it isn't totally impossible, whereas winning the MPG will be.

Not sure how you can say the MPG game is impossible. Anything can happen, red cards, injuries refereeing decisions etc. For me i think it's more difficult to finish 3rd as we would have to win all our championship games and sneak a victory over an SL side and hope that SL side implodes. I think it's important to get a the MPG at home. But tell that to James "Im not bothered where we play" Lowes. If were were more consistent in those middle 8 games, we should have got Wakey at home and i would have fancied us to win that.

I think Lowes's attitude of these games don't matter are having an effect on the players. (same reason it was no coincidence that Lowes and Smith both moaned about Easter, and both Wire and Bulls lost Monday) Yes these games won't decide if we get promoted, but it will make the games that DO matter easier.

I've already talked about us getting to the MPG last year on another thread. We weren't that good in the play-offs. We took some right tonkings and Jimmys inspirational selections such as Walker and Mendieka at Hull KR and the french hooking legend JPB in the MPG cost us.

I am speaking from the viewpoint that if we end up in the MPG then it will be a SL club and I've not seen any that we might remotely hope to beat.

Whereas to finish 3rd well, of course it goes without saying that WE first and foremost would need to do our bit, but the thing is, it doesn't just depend on us, it depends on the results of the other clubs too, and they can't all win all their games.

For devilment, and for those who say it "doesn't matter" where you finish in the "pre-season" - if we called a halt in the league today, here are the Super 8 fixtures. Would it matter that we had our fixtures and not Leigh's, anyone think?

What I meant there FA (probably not written very well) was that all we or Leigh had to do to get into the £1m game was to finish at the top of our championship league of 4 teams assuming the 4 SL teams will take positions 1-4 which they did and probably should do if all went to plan.
It turned out like two competitions with the top of CH. playing the bottom of the SL.

This year will probably be the same to get that 5th place. Be the top CH club. Once Leigh had imploded we would have had to have been poor not to get into the £1m game.
That is why I don't see it as a massive achievement to get there. Just be better than Leigh. I don't mean to talk down the other two clubs but in reality it should be us or Leigh again. Beat Leigh and the other two and we are there.

That is how I see it. I do agree with your point above about finishing top in the championship as any advantage over Leigh and the bottom SL club is vital and could just be the difference.

Correct.