I've hear Big Nige's only realy criteria is the calorific value of the nose-bag he gets served up after the game. 5000 calories topped off with treacle sponge and custard and it's criteria met.

But also seriously, I was told (yes I know I hate that phrase too) by a person involved in a previous admin/bidding that the RFL told Cha-low long before Christmas that they would have to wait and play the long game before getting their paws on the club. And this was before Cha-low were announced.

I can only pray that there is a plan with this because I don't think I can stomach dropping down another league and losing all the kids we have. That would be one kick in the balls too many for me and I'd be cashing in my chips.

Leon's inevitably going to be the scapegoat. For me he's done his job in what we have brought him in for which is guide the young team around. He did his job superbly in our great wins over Batley, Sheffield, Toulouse etc. At the moment the team's confidence is shot and while Leon can guide the team around, he can't help it when Joe Keyes decides to float a kick nicely for the Sheffield player to run onto to run full length.

Like any halfback he’s not going to be doing as well behind a pack that’s beaten. When we were going forward he looked decent enough.

I suspect Leon played more than a part in keeping what was left of our squad together over the off season. Had he not been here, then I bet our squad would be even more threadbare than it is now, by more than just one body.

He is still a good player and can't be used as a scapegoat, like it says above if he was behind a pack alongside Chissy or Lilley he would go ok, its just his old bones are a bit achy... I know mine are..

I think it's already been mentioned that the team we had when we originally signed Leon is a completely different animal to what we have now. I don't think it was ever intended that he should have to do the amount of work he now finds himself involved in.

Not scapegoating, I just don't think his performances so far this season have been good enough. He's probably our highest earner so I'm expecting more from him than what we've got so far.
Throughout his whole career Leon has had the habit of going missing from games when his side weren't on top, and we're still seeing it happen now. He's lost all agility and pace that he used to have to the point where he can't even make a clean break in this division.

It's funny you bagging Keyes for that kick. The Sheffield player didn't go the full length, he was caught. Sheffield did score on that same set of six though - by beating Leon on the outside without getting a finger laid on them.

question for you Nothus, as you seem pretty observant. How does Keyes rate behind a beaten Bulls pack compared to Luke Gale, what seems a lifetime ago?

I rate Keyes, and he's still only young (21 I think?) which some people might forget. Halfbacks are in short measure these days so hopefully we can keep hold of him.

Difficult to make a comparison like you suggest. The pack Gale played behind was nowhere near as bad a state as the club is in right now.

I wish there was somewhere keeping decent statistics of players in this division so that we could analyse performances in more detail, it frustrates me constantly that nobody seems to give a sh*t about RL outside of SL.
But I'm fairly certain that Keyes currently has more tries and try assists for Bradford than Pryce and Lilley combined.

I'd use the Halifax game as an example. As bad as things were, literally every positive piece of play that we did came from Keyes in some form or other.

I rate Keyes too.

I expect the coaching staff at the club keep stats on other players in the division. The academy do it for all youth players and all the players in the Bradford service area at different community clubs.

Yeah I'm sure they do. It would be nice if the rfl could bother doing something similar to the stats they keep on SL players though.

I do like Keyes, just needs to work on his kicking game, especially his kick offs. But still, a good little player we've got.

So, lets assume for a moment that ChaLo do actually half an idea about what they're doing, remembering that Lowe is the only ever non-aussie to coach an origin side, and has probably forgotten more about rugby league than I'll ever know - he's also now 70 years old, so could probably be do something else in his dotage....

Now if you'd just taken on a club that was on -12 points and almost certain to be relegated and lose half of its hard core support if you don't spend some money on experience in the pack in particular (Lowe and Toovey must surely have some idea what a good rugby league side looks like), then faced with relegation as a very serious threat - why would you 'choose' to continue spending money on a youth set up you're not obliged to run?

Surely you'd promote the young players who looked like making it to the 1st team, scrap the academy and spend what money you saved, have to invest and/or can generate off the field in the short term on a team, decent enough to keep you up for a season or two at least and until some stability returns to the whole organisation and slowly reintroduce the off field structures you'd sacrificed with future investment?

Or you know there's no danger of relegation and you slowly invest in the off-field structures and youth set up as they're the foundations for the longer term and a first team that's in a different competition that generates more income.....

The optimist in me has to believe there's more at play here and the lack of transparency is for a very good reason.

If there isn't then the behaviour of our new ownership is at worst disgraceful and disingenuous and at best just downright incompetent. Surely even they don't think it's right to watch boys get smashed by men every week.

Here's hoping the optimist in me is right