Excellent post.

If you do a google search for "youtube bradford v leeds 1996" on the Duckman 01274 channel you'll find highlights of that magical day....you might even see yourself hugging a stranger!

It's unfortunate that our last period of success just (and only just) pre-dated Youtube. There are many great moments missing that, a year or two later, would be preserved for public posterity.

There are quite a few on youtube if you look about, and that 1996 semi was from my own video recording, which I've transfered to digital/dvd so I don't lose it. I intended to put lots of these moments on one youtube channel for just that purpose....only done one so far...if we go under and reform I might have to take it a bit more seriously and get some sort of online repository sorted properly of clips for people to view.

There are a lot, yes. Yours stands out, as does the Middlesex 7's final.

Can't find any Grand Final clips, and the only WCC game I can find (against Wests) is several videos of a few seconds each shot from a mobile phone in the stands. In fact the only final that's a quality recording I can see is the 2003 cup final.

Well I have "video" footage of all the bulls finals at home, inc the WCC's. If I ever get the time I'll convert, edit and post them on the same channel, hopefully it won't be all thats left soon!

That Middlesex 7's final vid is brilliant to watch back.

Often I want to turn the sound down and just watch when it comes to sport. With that I want to to turn the picture down and just listen to Guscott.

The first game I ever went to was the 1997 challenge cup final. I had played a bit of rugby at school and kept pestering my dad to take me to see a live game. We had a family friend who supported Bradford and said we could go to a game with him, but my dad said we'd be better off going to a union game and promised to take me one day. The family friend said he had two spare tickets to this final and would we please take them. My dad agreed, partly because it was at Wembley and thought it would be a good experience.

I remember arriving and my dad offered to buy me a scarf from a seller outside the ground. I sat down before the match, looking at the crowd, waiting. I remember thinking, should I shout? Should I cheer? It was the first game of sport I'd ever been to and didn't really know what to expect, and the only connection I had to Bradford as a place was that I had an unofficial scarf round my neck that said Bradford Bulls on it. Then the teams came out and the game kicked off...

We bought 2 season tickets the next day and aside from a spell down south for university, we've had them ever since.

As it has been something that all members of my family have been going to since the 1950's.
Bradford would be at a loss if the Bulls disappeared, there is the history and the pride that the Bulls bring to Bradford, what can replace that?

I'll add one as a Leeds fan.

My first game of RL was at home to Northern (a 13-6 Leeds win in 1989/90 - give or take a year, my memory isn't what it was). I also went to my first ever away match at Odsal a year or so later. So they're a part of my personal RL history, much as they are part of RLs overall history.

More recently, when the RL world changed in the mid-late 90s and I was still bemoaning the selling out and the switch to summer rugby, the Bulls were reinventing the matchday experience. They embraced the change and thrived on it. I hated it at the time, but it would change the sport. In the end, even I've had to admit that change has been for the better, however nostalgic I may be for the old days. I find it hard to believe that the club that did that could now be in danger of folding.

I hope these events lead to you recapturing that spirit and getting back to the top (well, ideally second-from-top....).

All t'best.

So you weren't around a few short years ago when Bramley rlfc played at McLarenfield and the Jug and Barrel was the Huddersfield arms?Looks like you were like a few more on here who were poached

Alas folk have been watching teams outside their local area since year dot.

I'll willingly add one as a Cougars supporter for over 50 years ...

THEY'RE NOT!

El Diablo, noticed you mentioned that "the Bulls were reinventing the matchday experience". To what are you referring? You may infact find some if not all of the innovations were part of "Cougarmania" which I see are often misrepresented as being innovations by Bradford.

As another Cougar supporter, I believe Bradford Bulls are worth saving because they are part of the Rugby League experience and the more strong teams in the sport the better. That said, I don't think the Bulls management are worthy of being in charge of a serious sports club any longer.

Which is indeed absolutely correct.

I think a sponsored fight between mad Mike O'Neil & Steve 'The Fonz' Long would draw a decent paying crowd. The winner could claim the invention of modern SL.