He’s a young British coach. He knows Bradford inside and out and should know what changes are needed short, medium and long term.
He should be able to integrate and promote youth into the first team better than Kear could. And keep them as well. His results have been as expected. We’ve lost to the top 2 and beaten the ones below us. Our results against the teams in 3-6 are what will define his ability. I’m ok with this.

I’m sort of looking at it as the club are doubling down on the academy. We’ve kept the academy going without central funding. Kear didn’t really use it properly. So we’ve appointed a coach who the club are certain will. Dunning will use the academy players when he thinks they’re ready, regardless of age.

3 season tickets from my group also not being renewed.

I’ve emailed the club / CEO / Wood with a very lengthy summary of my feelings. It won’t make any difference but resignation letters are in fashion!

I might go to the odd game on the gate, but I don’t see the club surviving much longer. Crowds are at 1k at the moment and the vol of non renewals will see us at 500 for some games next year.

All the people threatening they arent going to renew their season tickets.... absolute clowns. Its the beginning if July for gods sake. By the end of the season we could have had 10 weeks of great rugby and a decent run in the playoffs.

But if course you wont be getting season tickets.

Very underwhelmed by this appointment. Considering we ‘apparently’ had coaches of better calibre applying. I’ll see how the rest of the season goes. But I can’t see us getting better, and I’m bot sure what player will look at the Bulls for 2023 and say, I’d love to play under Dunning.

Having met Mark Dunning via work for BullBuilder a few years back I found him to be a decent guy who obviously knows his stuff. He's done pretty well since he took over and I wish him all the luck in the world for the future. Obviously competing with the likes of Leigh and Fev is out of the question but aspiring and looking like we can be the best of the rest is what we need to do now.

The way this appointment was dragged out for 10 weeks has been a big mistake. The sense of anticlimax is palpable. The club needs a big reset on and off the field to address the decline we've seen over the past season and a half and this appointment now looks like "more of the same" which may be unfair to Dunning but it's how it's going to be perceived by the majority of supporters.

Brian Noble coming back on board temporarily in some sort of vague consultancy doesn't really enthuse me either. He's been out of the game at the sharp end for years and I can't see him having any influence over first team selection or tactics. So what does he bring? He was never a great advocate of the academy and Jamie Peacock said he found Noble was more comfortable dealing with seasoned pros than he was with young players (and that was 16 - 17 years ago!). Dunning is an inexperienced head coach so is Noble there to provide a sounding board? Given Noble's lack of up to date experience is that wise? It feels like the Noble news is a sop to supporters.

So what next? We need a strong end to the season to try to tempt some supporters back. Then some decent recruitment in the close season, get rid of the wasters and fatties and be ready for 2023 with a much fitter and motivated side that's going to be in with a shot of 3rd or 4th place in the championship.

Anything less and we're on borrowed time again.

I think there's a lot of knee jerk reactions in here. I'm keeping my powder dry until I see how our 2023 squad shapes up.

Appointing from within is not necessarily a disaster. I remember seeing plenty of Wigan fans fearing the worst when they went with Matty Peet as their head coach and look how that turned out. Conversely, appointing a big name head coach doesn't always mean success either. There are plenty of examples of this, including several at Bradford!

I think he meant that you are clowns in a Stephen King sense. Brooding and cool...

Well said Northus. Finally someone with some sense!

Depends what you mean by knee jerk.

I’ve suspected for weeks that the reason for the prolonged process was in the hope that results justify a cheap appointment.

That’s my view, it hasn’t changed following the announcement and this combined with the amateur way the club is run shows a complete lack of ambition.

It’s not just the lack of ambition, it’s the dishonesty that goes along with it. They’re talking about competing at the top end of the sport - they’re deluded or dishonest (probably both).

It is incredibly underwhelming, especially after the carrot of "big name interest from around the world". Why even suggest that? Some more amateur RL-ing from our utterly inept marketing department.

I mean Dunning has done okay-ish, but I can't see this bringing anyone lost to the Bulls back. It's the opposite of when we signed Kear.

It screams "we're skint, we're mid-table and we'll make do. Now pay to come and watch an average team".

Also, to clarify, I'm a 'Definitive Clown'. Can I still be grouped as an 'Absolute Clown' for census purposes?

By knee jerk I mean immediately saying you're done as a ST holder. Mark has won 5 from 8 games and I think everyone can agree that we're playing a much better style of rugby now than we were under Kear. Why not just wait and see how we look going in to next season before making a decision?

I will say that I'm a bit disappointed in us bringing Noble back in. He won't be cheap and I really don't see what he can offer. If Mark really needs help that much then why offer him the head coach position?