Cobb is competent enough and is improving. There is no way the ball had been grounded for our try, I was sat on top of the incident in the Coral and had a fine view of it, but even if replays showed the decision was incorrect, it's hardly a question of "seething", FFS, it was one instant, we pay refs to judge the instant, he did, and Kear should suck it up and shut the fsck up.

If we did for once have a bit of luck with decision, were still approx 50 behind, so if life is fair we should get an unbroken run of several seasons more of em.

It took about five viewings and frame by frame viewing but Brambani does ground the ball in-goal before spilling forward into the path of Jay Pitts.

Had the game today had in-goal officials and that try would almost certainly have been wiped out.

Lady luck shining down on the Bradford Bulls.

The issue with Cobb is his reputation. Most clubs, regardless of league, Super League or Champsionship, have all shared the same view that he's massively out of his depth. I'll never forget his performance against Leigh in round 1 last season.

Makes a change from what she usually does to us, I suppose

I could've sworn that we grounded the ball in our goal area in the lead up to Batleys last try?

I said when I was at the ground that it would have been disallowed if we had a big screeen etc.
But yeah, I think we're due some good luck tbh.

I also thought Clare was offside for our first!

Thought we started out well enough, but when there was that whole bungle leading up to Batley's first try we totally forgot how to play. Not pretty but I'll take it. Hope Batley make the top 4 (unless it's at our expense of course!).

Completely agree regarding Clough. For much of the game I thought their pack was dominant giving Brambani plenty of time and space to direct play. The only forward to consistently run hard at their defence was Clough ... and he was just as aggressive in defence.
Impressed with both recent signings. I hope we can extend Charnock's loan and sign him when out of contract.

You could spend all evening looking back on decisions, Cobb certainly got some wrong that went against us during the match that may well have resulted in points for. I thought it was a bit of an odd call to go for 2 points when we were leading by 2 in that 2nd half. I took that as a bit of a lack of confidence as it didn't really improve our position, in fact it ended up handing control back to Batley who then went on to score. We'd have been better served playing some sets out and trying to earn a repeat. Having some patience and really applying pressure through repeat sets is an area we need to massively improve on. We still seem to be in this mindset of overplaying and looking for miracle balls or taking options that just aren't on.

Pleased with the result though, a loss today would of left us with a huge amount of pressure on us in these final few matches. We now have a small amount of breathing space but still will plenty to do. We can now afford a slip up at Leigh as long as we continue to pick it points against the teams below.

What tosh, if it took 5 viewings, I'll take the 4 viewings which apparently didn't show any such thing.

Plus, ref blunders are one thing, but a marginal decision that needs 5 viewings is, at best, highly debatable and nobody can say the ref was wrong.

Agree with all of that.

I'm no fan of Joe Cobb, who definitely has some way to go before becoming the finished article, but any [and every] referee makes bad calls in every game, you just hope they even out - over a season, if not actually over a game.

I definitely think this was one game we would have lost a month or so back so to get the win was brilliant, imo.

John Kear not a big fan.

rlhttps://audioboom.com/boos/4720497-john-kear-on-batley-bulldogs-17-16-loss-to-bradford-bulls/embed/v4?image_option

Boo hoo John Kear!!! Now you know how it feels to be on the end of a result which isn't fair!!!

Yes, I would agree that the ball was grounded, but I won't forget the way you celebrated your draw earlier in the season off some equally very poor decisions and a blatantly missed kick at goal in the final moments.

We didn't deserve the 2pts but I'll give credit to those that stuck at it and take them all day long!!!

By all accounts, Batley's last try wasn't a try either. Chev seemed pretty certain and he was closer than anyone. Even if Batley's try was legitimate, as bullinenemyland said, Batley benefited from two awful calls at their place (the non-penalty that was awarded, and then the kick missing)

Anyway there were still 12 mins left and Batley would have had at least a point had Keegan Hirst not tried conning the ref by letting go of the ball in front of the sticks to earn a penalty. Well done to Cobb as i honestly thought he was going to be fooled and award the penalty to cost us the game.