Seem to remember Leeds being keen. Difference then was Adam wanted to remain at club and club wanted to keep him, so he signed a new deal. Think there be takers if he was available and he may want out if he sees his potential gametime being limited under smith.

He has been our best and most consistent player for two years now. What team leaves out their best player/first choice hooker, regardless of the game? Roby is a small player but would Saints leave him out? So what if he's not a massive bloke, he tackles four times his weight anyway. Yes we might still have lost but he would've put up more of a fight then a)an out of position Addy who has signed for Hull KR and has been poor for weeks and B)a stop-gap loanee snail from Warrington who was brought in to cover an injury.

Howarth is from Wakefield. But the point remains, as well as adding that Howarth seems so slow that the referee may as well not bother taking the defence back 10, as they make it up again by the time the ball hits the receiver anyway.

I said it at the time, he would have ended up at Fax if they could have sorted the contract out but struggled to offload players to free up money. I know most Bulls fans probably are struggling to face facts and I too wouldnt believe a player you think is good enough for SL could be lost to a rival but thats just an indication of where the Bulls are at the minute.

No he wasn't.

And the responses you got then, i.e he's a full time player with intentions of staying full time, hold true now. That's not about Bradford or Halifax, that's about him and his conception of his own career.

Do try harder.

Sorry, but if Gaskell and Addy can get SL contracts I would find it hard to believe OB couldn't.

And the responses are going to be just as funny this time around. Never ceases to amaze me just how out of touch with reality some Bulls fans still are.

With the specifics of the player's already stated goals? At the risk of encouraging you into making a lie of your previous claims that you're not on the wind up, which bit did I get wrong?

The conversation probably went something like:

Halifax - "Adam, are you available"
Adam - "I dunno, what can you offer? I need full time as a minimum and a raise would be good?"
Halifax - "We'll get back to you"
Halifax - "Sorry Adam, we've tried, computer says no."

If full time could have been offered then it would have been interesting to see the outcome (especially OBs take on our future) but it's kind of a moot point now isn't it?

Well I know nothing was ever mentioned about us going full time. The only thing that cost Fax was hesitation in having to release players to free up space on the cap.

I think that their fragile confidence just wasn't up to it. And when no-one took charge it was a downward spiral to another clueless, passionless defeat.

Despite easily beating the lower teams, when it actually comes to picking up their game against a confident and well drilled unit its seen that there's no real leader out there, no tactics (apart from drive it up the middle against a huge Fev pack. Its like General Melchett "...And that is what is so brilliant about it. It will catch the watchful Hun totally off guard. Doing exactly what we've done eighteen times before will be the last thing they expect us to do this time...."icon_wink.gif, sloth like PTB and line speed, and a complete lack of using the winger. Those wingers that got us closest to scoring in the game in the first 10 minutes; then what? Don't pass to them again. That Caro who is on a rich vein of form? Don't pass to him. Keep it driving up the middle and bouncing off fev players.

I know he has his fans but I just don't see what respective coaches see in Danny Addy. Apart from being a jack-of-all-positions, he excels in none. His passing is pedestrian, his tackling appalling, his tactical vision is awful. Hell, he is only kicking as he is the best of a very bad bunch of kickers!. Playing him at hooker was an enormous mistake.

Or maybe they really couldn't be d. I'm sure many players are off at the end of the season and really don't care about some grueling matches in the middle 8's. They get paid anyway, and if Bradford aren't anywhere at the end of the season they will be at Hudderfield or Hull KR or Toronto anyway next year.

The quality on paper is so much more than it is on the pitch, and I can't wait to get rid of these big-time-charlies to develop players who actually seem to show a pride in the shirt, and show the passion which has been lacking so much so often this season. At least until we have to sell them.

Hope this is a blessing in disguise and we can have a large clear out, the majority of the team are what where relegated and haven't had a winning mentality for a few years now, and clearing out the deadwood (including players who are contracted else where is a start), i echo those who have said to only play the players we have next season, i dont see a problem with this hardly worth bothering with guys who are off stick em in the stand and keep em away from the team.

The air of " we are bradford and we can beat who we want, when we want" is smashed and broken and good riddance to it, the false belief that we just need to turn up and win needed to go and we have seen it most of last year and pretty much all of this, we ran Leigh very close in game where players actually bothered to turn up and have a go but for the rest a poor, poor showing from professional players, think this does stem from the Lowes mindset that its a long pre-season, that may be but the fans have paid alot of money to watch this shower and no longer may it continue.

28-30 players with a loanee here or there is there are injuries is more than enough to at least finish in the top 3, being out enthused is a huge issue and we need some real beef up front to sort this, 5 props i think is our minimum Crossley + Lauaki id probably try and keep hold of especially if clough and clarke are on the way out, then 2 others from lower teams int he league or even if Hudds are relegated we might have the change to cherry pick some of theirs.

We have a strong spine with Moss, Chilsolm, Pryce? Charnock?, AOB, Lumb, Clare, Caro, Welham and Ryan we should have a decent platform to build around, our forwards need to shape up and know what is needed from them.

AOB? You're joking, aren't you? I was just astonished to read that there was absolutely no reason at all for AOB not playing in our biggest game of the year, except the seemingly mad whimsy that if Addy played instead then his "extra size" would somehow be better for us than AOB's brain, pace and SL ability.

I frankly can't believe it. AOB has been for me our leading light in a poor year, and I had assumed that there was some good reason why he wasn't selected. To have been told that he didn't have enough assets to prevent him being totally dropped in favour of 'a bloke that's a bit chunkier than you' is a bit like Lowes at his worst. Not only that, a guy who is reportedly leaving, as opposed to one who's committed himself to the club.

Oh dear. Well, sadly for me while Smith can clearly coach, that has to be one of the most ridiculous decisions of the last few seasons, and that's saying something as we have seen plenty.

What must AOB have thought, and be thinking now? Am I good enough to play in the Coconut Cup?

The ramifications of Sunday may have led to the leading lights of AOB & Co. departing anyway, but now I wouldn't blame AOB one bit if he wanted out. Smith apologising and saying he knows now it was a big mistake is not really worth even stating.