Thanks for everything Mick.

You have shown yourself to be an outstanding coach, and a top bloke. We will never forget the efforts you have put in this year and I'm sure you have the best wishes of every Bulls fan going forward.

In the t&a article khan and sutcliffe say they hope to announce a new coach early next week. I would think they and any coach first need to know the comp we'll be in before any offers can be made or signed, but it reads like they already have someone lined up.

To be honest at this moment I'd be happy with either Noble or FC for different reasons, but if it was my choice I'd go with FC. Khan might have said we'll have full cap available (I'l wait to see on that) but the player pool available to us is tiny and shrinking day by day. So a fair proportion of our 2013 team will be youngsters out of neccessity I'd guess, whichever league we're in, so FC already being in our system with a lot of these youngsters could be a big plus.

Often when a coach leaves the number two would leave or make a statement pretty quickly, I'd guess if we don't hear from FC then he's the one lined up, but nothing can be announced or agreed until we see the white smoke from red hall.

I liked & admired MP before his tenure at Bradford, that has grown immeasurably these last few years. There are certain players who strike you as good coaching material during their playing careers & those that don't. Cummins is in the latter. He wasn't mentally strong enough as a player IMO & that will transmit to the older players. He hasn't the international reputation to attract top talent either or young guns, if there are alternatives. apaprt from Noble there are very few examples of promotion from within being successful.

Exactly. Potter would have had to dismantle the squad of players contracted for 2013/14. I have heard the spend would be the lowest in SL. We will only 'know' for sure if the Bulls are in SL and we see the squad put together.

All the best Mick, you've gone the extra mile for the club and you'll be sadly missed by all connected with the Bulls. Thank you very much RFL, now we've lost our Coach, have we had enough punishment yet or do you think we need a bit more?

I wonder when Noble will be announced as successor?

Really sorry to read this news, however I wish Mick the very best as he returns back to Australia.

Gained a lot of respect across the rugby circles for how he stayed with the Bulls on no pay reportedly(and all the staff) while you had the troubles, not many coaches would have I suspect.

I think the difficulty with 'promotion from within' is far more pronounced when it's a former player of a club who takes over as coach; the transition from mate to boss isn't easy to cross and many don't manage it. Cummins though was never a player at Bradford so I'm not really sure it applies quite as much, though there is also the point that a managing duo may use the 'good cop - bad cop' approach, with the second in command being usually 'good cop', if he then assumes to top role he may find it hard to take on the mantle of 'bad cop' and the obvious changes in relationships involved.

The flaw in that is that I can't imagine MP ever being the 'bad cop', it seems out of character, to be honest. Alsdo at the end of the day Franny came with a good reputation and chances are he is looking for a head coach job, so if he doesn't get the job at Odsal he may well be off to pastures new. Do we want to lose both coaches? Maybe the new guy will come with a ready made no.2? Maybe.....

I noticed that bit as well. Maybe an indication that a decision re: SL status is imminent if their talking about announcing coach next week?

Thank you Mick. A remarkable job under unbelievable conditions. Absolute respect for what you have done for the Bulls.

I think some of the player's he's dropped recently might disagree.

Its almost impossible for fans to gauge how good an assistant coach is. Really you're just going on comments made by their ex boss or a few players. Everyone thought MacNamara would make a great Head Coach.

Having said what I did, Andy Hay has got 2 gigs as no.2 & I am not sure he can even speak, so WTF do I know?

Andy Hay was a decent second row, but as is often said, being a good player is no guide to being a good manager/coach.