My thoughts on the game today are that while it is disappointing in terms of the overall performance from Bradford, it's not the end of the world.

We were playing a settled side that is physical, strong and cohesive as a unit, a side that finished five places higher in the table than us last year and a side that is certainly past the intergrating stage with new players (just Louis Anderson the new face in the 17 today).

This was Sammut's and Gale's first game starting together and we need to accept that this new partnership won't just suddenly become effective over night. Let's see how the partnership is working in three games time after they have settled in at 6&7 together.

Plus we played 70 minutes of the game with only three players on the Interchange bench after young John Bateman went off with a suspected arm injury.

I won't lie in that it's going to be a tough road ahead but we must aim to be in the top eight and a win at Castleford on Sunday could just provide the tonic and confidence lift we need.

New season and nothing has changed! What are we doing in training? I can't say I was disappointed as I didn't really expect that much! Set the bar low and you won't be disappointed!

Anyway does anybody know what the problem is with Bateman? It looked bad from where we were sat!

I thought we were dreadful today, but take nothing away from Catalan - they moved the ball much quicker than we did, had lots more urgency and looked a team that had prepared to a higher level.

I'll be VERY annoyed to see Potters comments if he comes out with any of the following:

"I thought we were a little undercooked and really needed an extra friendly"- you should have bloody organised one then and surely expected the odd one to be called off due to the weather.

"We need a little more time to gel" - How long do you want Mick - August ok for the lads?

"We've had a lot of lads coming back from injuries who need more game time" - see my comment above re organising another bleeding friendly....

"Injuries disrupted the side" - We lost a second rower and brought on another one....

"Our fringe defence needs to be better" - it was garbage last season, what the hell have we worked on in training since we went out of the comp early last year?

It's pretty clear to see that our last two games - the Hull friendly and Catalan at home that our defence still needs a lot of work - hopefully Lulia, Elima, Manu and Whitehead will help when they are back, but highly doubt it as it's regularly one on one tackles we seem to miss at key times and hardly ever the same individual. Langers (and Diskin) I think missed Scott Durea for the second Catalan try somehow - and generally they two of our better defenders.

Another weekend ruined - same garbage different year so far.....hope we improve. Can't see it for a while yet personally...long way off where we need to be.

I actually think the Bulls played well today. They had nice movement off the ball and attacked from deep. Their sliding defence looks to have improved out of sight compared to last year and the goal line D was solid. Catalan though would have beaten any team in Super League today and beaten them well. Their defence was as good as any I have seen in a round 1 game. Added to that the way they managed to move the ball around with pretty much a whole back line missing and you know they are going to be a force to reckon with this year. Lopini Paea was brilliant taking the ball forward and really got them on the front foot every time he had ball in hand. Scott Dureau controlled everything and his cut back inside and kick off the outside of the boot on the 5th tackle for Millard's try was the moment of the game.

As for the Bulls, Kopczak was immense for them and Gale ran every thing. There were a few lapses in concentration that cost the Bulls and that needs to be worked on, especially around marker defence, but I thought it was a positive loss today for the Bulls against a team who will definitely be pushing for the top 4 if not higher this season.

More movement off the ball today, and a couple of early passes to the wings at least suggest we will have a little more attack to cheer.

The biggest problem was up the middle, where they simply strolled through at times. it think cats will have one of the strongest packs in the competition this year but we still need improvement quickly. Elima and whitehead should help up the middle, but to blame injuries is a joke when you look at who catalan were missing.

Hopefully this gives a kick up the for cas, or we are going to be getting a score shoved up it instread.

I agree with Harrigan. Had Sammut grounded, shirley valentine been able to hold on to the ball and Purtell been able to get the ball down the whole tone on this board would be completely different.

The worrying thing was the way Catalans scored at will almost straight down the middle some real problems there but they've a week to work on it. I can remember a bloke pretending to tear up his season ticket book in front of Noble half way through the season in 2005 so i'm not going to cry like a baby after 1 match.

Get a grip and get behind the team. The atmosphere today was pathetic. Menzies (an ex player who turned his back on the club) got a bigger cheer when his name was read out by Steve Bailey than the team when they came out. We really need to buck our ideas up and create an intimidating atmosphere at Odsal!

Well on the Super League Fulltime show tonight Bill Arthur couldnt state enough how understrength Catalan were due to injuries and not once mentioning ours !!!

Also basically all potter said was we lost because they beat us and were betterin the middle of the pack

What was obvious from the highlights was the tragically weak defence from Diskin and Langley among others.

Potter came across as utterly bemused and a bit clueless to be honest. To say that 'the other side were better' was hardly an in-depth analysis, albeit true as all of us could see from the stands!

Be nice to see Elima and Whitehead back in the squad ASAP just for their defensive efforts - when is Manuokafoa due back ?

I thought Whitehead was very poor defensively last year but I agree about Elima. He is one of the better back rowers in the comp and the sooner Sibbit is out of the team, the better.

Now you see last year Sibbit started off absolute gash and was a penalty machine, as the year went on to be fair he did get better week after week,

And he isnt afraid to get stuck in like most players in the squad

Sibbit is an honest trier, but sadly out of his depth when it comes to the rigours of Super League.

That appears the case for most of the squad at the moment doesnt it ??

And if we hadn't have missed any tackles we'd have nilled them..

Potter thought we got beat up the middle - hardly surprising. Scruton is not big enough to be a prop (a couple of big hits two seasons ago doesn't compensate for his nervousness now after a couple of injuries) and he offers nothing in go forward, Hargreaves is no different, spends half his time stepping and running laterally. Koppy brilliant, come on loads and I'm hoping for the same from Burgess, but leWe're consistently poor at tackling around the ruck and didn't move up to meet the offense once today. Harrigan thinks our goal line defense was good, but that's not what you see from the highlights, you see poor tackling - using arms only and not bending the back - that's why Cats were able to break tackles and offload at will, our technique was appalling.

Other players - well Donaldson isn't big enough to play in the pack either and isn't elusive enough to compensate for his lack of size, his tackling is also suspect. Beaver was beating up Sibbit for fun and leaving him flat footed everytime he got one on one. Chev Walker - anonymous and slow. Elliot Kear and Crookes have pace, but when I watch Elliot today, I'm reminded of Halley or Ainscough, both fast, can be elusive but are unlikely to break a tackle and offer little in terms of return from defense. Gale and Sammut, well Gale hardly ran everything, got beat with Langley to the tackle to give up a try and apart from a couple of set patterns where he consistently passed high he didn't look any better than Briggs etc. Sammut is an individual, with lots of energy and invention, but his defense is pretty awful, as we saw when the Cats walked through him on the line for a try.

Whitehead, Elima and Manu will bolster the pack, but I fear for this team - what Hull and now Cats have done to us is no accident and I have no idea what Potter has being doing in terms of our defense.

Apologies if that sounds pretty negative, I can see us getting better but feel that the quality of our squad isn't good enough and we've got players like Walker, Sibbit, Langley, Hargreaves and Scruton who won't get any better and are probably not good enough to get us in to the top 8.