Accepting everything you and Pumps say as based in fact and that there has indeed been some form of conspiracy that has not been in the club's, or its supporters' (and In OK's case owner's) interests, why is Wood involved if he doesn't have any plan/investment for the club's advancement? Unless the Chinese guy's turned up.

Why indeed? I'd love to know. I'd be all ears! Unfortunately he won't even confirm he's in charge when it's obvious he is.

Has there been any sign of advancement at all anywhere?

On field side seems to be well managed TBF. Off field social media side seems a lot more professional now and first time in years we have had shirts and merchandise available before xmas in years and haven't seen any complaints about quality. I suppose you could say club have had plenty of time last year to sort out the merchandise and its in their interests to get it right as its first source of income they could tap into with late release of season tickets. And I'd expect season ticket sales to be significantly down this year with uncertainty around fans being allowed back in. Superleague bid documents that were released seem quite well thought out too.

Areas where there needs to be better communication are long term plans, ownership and investment. Also some clarity around Odsal. Other than in season ticket marketing material I don't think its been officially announced that we are moving back and whether its a short term measure or longer term. Also what terms are we coming back on? Is rent split between us and Stock cars, is their a stadium management company now. I noticed on one of stock car releases their actively marketing upper level of Southbank for corporate events mid week ( something we should have done more with TBF). does that mean their senior stadium lease holder and were just taking it for matchdays?.

He is very cagey about being the visible face of the club, but every interview with Mark Sawyer now has him specifically saying that he's urged Nigel Wood to come forward and take a bigger role. Sawyer wasn't really on my radar before our latest melt-down but I have a huge amount of respect for how he's had to juggle his primary role at Dewsbury with being caretaker of our club. Understandably he wants someone else to step up so he can get back to his first love.

So perhaps there's a steady pair of hands behind the scenes which fits with what Sawyer says about capable Nigel Wood being involved. But did Nigel ever strike you as the shy retiring type? I'm not sure why he isn't becoming the face of the club, unless the minority stake his family have bought is literally the extent of his interest?

His handling of Thrum Hall put a stand sized hole in the side of the good ship Halifax which they have never recovered from...the more he hides the more worried I get.

I wonder if there's anther silent partner involved. Don't think Nigel Wood is that wealthy per se. Generally people who get involved in ownership of rugby clubs are wealthy local businessmen with an attachment to the club wanting to give something back/ have a hobby. Nigel Wood doesn't seem to fit into that category.

At the time I thought the RFL had a cunning plan for the lease which involved redeveloping the site, having a primary tenant (Bulls) being big enough for CC Semifinals & internationals (money stays within RFL rather than going to a stadium management company), moving Red Hall to the site (central, M62 access saves on rent) and moving the RL museum to the site.

As time has gone by, it is obvious it was just short term, emergency action to gain an asset for their unsecured loans which has caused more trouble for the RFL and the wider game because no-one actually had time to think about it. They just wanted to cover their backsides for when the likes of Lenaghan and Moran started asking questions about the loans. Because of Odsal & the RFL - it's caused governance issues with Sport England (who give £millions annually to RL), it's caused conflict of interest with how they related to other clubs and it's messed up the administrators attempts to gain value for creditors and stable owners for the Bulls.

All of this - off field and on field I would put down to Sawyer & Kear. Sawyer has just transferred over all his experience of running a club sustainably to Bradford. Kear knows how to maximise a playing budget.



These are the areas that Sawyer thinks are for Wood to own, not him. Which is what the recent interviews have been about.

So if what people are saying is right the day to day is being run ok but the bigger issues are still a total mystery. If we do move back to Odsal in its current state I do fear it will lead to oblivion again unless running costs are being borne somewhere else – a bit of clarity on this front would help.

Highlander’s summary of the way Odsal ended up in the hands of the RFL seems to fit with my interpretation and hardly paints Nigel in a good light.

with relation to running costs, the rent wasn't the issue and its broadly comparable to what we're paying at Dewsbury from memory. Its the maintenance and business rates bills which were the killer. Presumably these are now split between us and the stock cars. whether that brings them down to manageable level or not I guess only time will tell.

At the minute the hope has to be that we have found someone in Sawyer who has the brains to run the business and to be fair he isn’t doing bad and has a proven track record with Dewsbury