Bit early yet. Shouldn't be conceding that many points, but you have still only lost one game.

It really is a marathon and not a sprint this season for us. The aim is a top two finish and if we continue to get the win, whatever the margin then we will achieve that. Lowes will be judged on our form and results in July/Aug/Sept. Racking up big margins will count for little if that form isn't maintained when it really matters.

That being said, I would expect better than the defensive effort today judging by the final score. Even below our best we shouldn't be shipping 38 points against PT opposition. So whilst a little concerning, we still managed the ultimate aim which is another 2 competition points.

We will need to be massively improved to get a result against a good Sheffield side next week though. That really could be a crucial match for us in our quest for a top two finish. Lose that match at home and we have suddenly put ourselves under all sorts of pressure for the 2nd half of the regular season.

Any whispers on where we're exploring options Bullseye? I did wonder if the club would enquire again about O'Brien but I see little value in a short term loan unless we lost another option to injury for 6/7.

The "defence" today was absolutely criminal, and the whole look and feel of the team was that of a testimonial game, or where we knew we could easily outscore them so why should we bother making a defensive effort?

It's a terrible attitude that can bite you on the bum, and at a couple of points in the game it actually could've - had we not managed to crash tackle their winger into the corner flag it could have been game on for the last 10 minutes and at that stage we were defending like a box of wet tissue paper.

The attitude was all wrong today, and whilst we may have scored a few, this is neither what the fans want to watch nor, more importantly, was it of any use, 2 points apart. In fact we have even dropped a point there, in effect, as we clearly could score almost at will, and had we bothered in defence and kept Dons to a low score, we could have made big inroads into our points difference, instead we have the most embarrassing scoreline (so far) of the season.

They want to take a good long hard look at themselves. Whoever it is who is in charge of defence should be on a written final warning and a number of players should be in the beak's office for a severe rollocking in the morning.

Absolutely shameful, disrespectful display.

Yes i've also heard we've been talking to two SL players. An ex Bradford player is one of those.

Absolutely right FA.
I came away thinking that our biggest danger reared it head today. The danger of starting to play to a championship level. We will not be able to snap our fingers in the play-off's and play to SL standard. It is a very dangerous trap to fall into playing just good enough to win.
Today I had my first doubts about the coaching - but then snapped out if it as it is far too soon to be having those thoughts.
Having said that, Jimmy and Karl do need to get them playing like a SL team soon. They have just 15 games to get it right or we could find ourselves in big trouble when we play 4 desperate SL clubs.

And don't give me any of this "no disrespect to Doncaster" crap; it is not being disrespectful to them to point out that they are by a distance the worst team in the division. To concede 36 points against them is simply unacceptable. It was one of those days when one of your targets should be to concede nil.

I agree that the defence today was very poor. I think there were a few reasons, complacency being the first. Secondly the team we faced was not only motivated by playing "their cup final". (as some have commented ) but also a significantly different team to that which has been hammered in past weeks. The Hull players made a big difference ( especially Abdull) and the introduction of Groat seemed to give them heart. Certainly the Dons fans I spoke to noticed a massive improvement but at the same time commented that we were the best team they had seen. I'm not sure what injuries we had but to me Baille Walker and Pitts were either crocked and off for the duration or playing on with an injury.
I stayed to watch the Sheffield game and I hope nobody in our squad or among our fans are complacent about next weeks game. Aston has them playing an open but relatively error- free style of rugby which utilises a quick mobile pack and fast running backs. In defence Their forwards compensate for their lack of size by slowing down the play the ball . It's not as blatant as some other teams but done pretty cleverly and on the margin of legality.Their halves support and scheme well.
If we defend as poorly next week we will come a cropper.
However if pack plays as it can we should be much stronger up front .Ferguson Clough Pitts and Sidlow should put us on the front foot and O'Brien can take advantage around the ruck.
I'd hope all or some of Blythe Purtell Williams and Mullaney are playing next week.

It wasn't all bad. The Chicken Balti Pukka Pies were top class.

Was not at the game yesterday, but looking forward to the Sheffield game. The worry is analysing some simple stats, that looking at the score against us yesterday. The score Sheffield put on fax and factoring in Leighs win over us, plus scoring differential (Noun) and a poor showing against Batley is uncomfortable and concerning. The reasons given are over training. We have a fitness and conditioning coach, why was that the case then? Also a hard game against KR last week, so what!! So we could not play SL teams week in week out? Best look out next week.

Jimmy is slipping a bit I think. Last season he came in on short notice and made a huge impact.

I wonder if Karl is a bad influence and steering Jimmy away from his own ideas and development. Nothing against Mr Harrison, the Fax supporters were not unhappy to see him leave.

Some of them were pretty chuffed that not only had he buggered off but that he'd come to Bradford. As they saw it he'd damage us by his presence.

I think Harrison had probably been there too long and gone stale.

They hardly seem to be doing much better without him though.

Defences definitely weren't on top. We were very poor in defence and I'm not really sure Jimmy's mea culpa about 'flogging' the team through the week fully holds water - we didn't seem to look too tired on attack did we?

That said, it's a long season and nothing is decided in this early portion other than 'pecking order' for the eights, and even that doesn't actually seem to give any discernible advantage to the highest placed club. I though Donny were definitely up for the game, so well played to them [except their defence...] for standing up, as for us, well let's just say there are bigger fish to fry and more important games to be 'up for' when the real season starts.

We have GPS this year, for the first time, during preseason training & matches. A little bit of the blurb - ". GPS is used specifically for analyzing physiological demands on players, fatigue during game, and is used for rehabilitation and injury prevention."

This is the sort of thing that the coaches should be aware of & the analyst needs to be telling them. A bit of a disconnect between the new technology & the coaches perhaps?

That's really interesting

To go with a theme of modern sport. The player focus in psychology, using things like Johari Window and S.W.O.T analysis perhaps. We have to move into areas untapped to be the best at what the player can be.

For anyone interested, the FULL MATCH from yesterday is currently up on youtube. Easy enough to find, no idea how long it will stay up for though. Not linking directly for obvious reasons.