Michael Potter is the Canterbury Bulldogs Interim Coach till the end of the season & has been in charge for the last 4 Games

Potter was the best coach we've had since Nobby IMO. Shame it ended how it did because he'd recruited well and we were becoming a top 8 team again.

It wasn't that long ago that we were a top 2 side in the championship. I'd like to see us aim to be one again. Finishing 7th or 8th isn't good enough by a long way. As has been said before we should aim to be the "best of the rest". The downward spiral since the away game at York last season needs to be stopped. Dunning's done ok so far. The win versus Sheffield shows we're making progress but I want to see consistency before I'd give him the job.

Would fans come back if we played better rugby and were a top 4 side? Some would I reckon but the longer it takes the fewer would return as people develop other habits. What we need to do is attract new supporters.

I don't think it's getting hung up.

Rugby League is a small world - anyone remotely qualified would have known the vacancy had occurred within 24 hours of Kear leaving. One week would be ample time for people to submit CVs with another couple of weeks to shortlist and interview.

It could easily have been done within a month with no 'rush'

If the candidate is not available until the end of the season then make an announcement to that effect and appoint Dunning until then.

It's not rocket science

Instead we get poor quality announcements from the club, when we hear anything at all. Then they wonder why crowds are falling?

GC stating interviews next week with 7 candidates. Not sure if they’ve allowed 1 per day or it’s just coincidence!! Perhaps we might hear something in the next few weeks then!! Unless it’s a 2 stage interview process!

I think if we end up with a top end coach people won't care how long it's taken. If we end up with Dunning, and I've been pleasantly surprised how well we've been playing under him, it does smack a little of us stalling to hope he came through to give him the job. It shouldn't have taken 6 weeks to keep the application process open, as PaulWalker said, RL is a very small world, should have been 10 days tops before interviews. I'm not against Dunning getting the job as I've liked how we've played under him. But when Wood talked about keeping the application process open as some high level candidates from abroad are applying, it just places mistrust in the club. If it really is the case some hifh calibre coaches have applied, then my preference would be appoint them and Dunning continue his apprenticeship under them with a promise of being given the gig next.

Couldnt have written my own thoughts any better than this.


The club as a whole is a laughing stock. The owner is a laughing stock and things like this just add to it.

I think the big concern for me about the length of time this is taking to appoint a coach is that we are supposedly heading into the most crucial season the club have had (arguably ever), and we are missing the boat on potential recruitment opportunities.

Any new coach is surely going to want to have a say in the squad for next year, yet here we are with deals that can be done and yet we are still sat around wondering who that is going to be.

MD seems to have a good reputation within the club and the squad but I don't honestly think even he thinks he is in with a shot of being given the role FT. So the question mark is do the club genuinely have high calibre candidates interested as they have stated, who are capable of coaching in the championship with a limited budget?

I personally can't see it.

Two months post kear leaving and we still haven’t interviewed yet… I don’t think anyone can really say that getting hung up or rushing it.

The impact has been reduced by Dunning racking up 4 wins from 6 but can you imagine if that hadn’t happened. We would be so relaxed?

I don’t expect to be the first to know but as season ticket holders and expected to pay into bull builder, friends of the young bulls, squad builder etc you would hope the club would try a bit harder and not just write off the season.

If so, I wish they would have told us and we could have kept our money in our pockets

No one is expected to pay in to Bullbuilder. We are completely independent to the club and were set up so people could volutarily donate to us with all proceeds going towards funding and supporting youth development.

I cant speak for the other organisations but certainly no one associated with Bullbuilder places any expectation on anyone to sign up to be a member or donate.

If the interviews are next Tuesday it will be exactly NINE WEEKS to the day since Kear left.

Yet people keep telling us how we shouldn't "rush things"

I assume we paid Kear's contract up. So in effect, we are still paying for him.

So I can understand Nigel's desire to take the cheap option which is to let the guy already on the payroll do the job.

I'm expecting Dunning until the end of the season, then a new coach for 2022. The problem with that scenario, as has been noted, is the 2022 recruitment.

Powell had total run of recruitment for Warrington whilst still at Cas last year. Radford recruited for Cas despite Powell still been in charge

Leigh & Fev are top of the Champ. They have traded victories in their two league meetings. Leigh have won every other league game, Fev too bar a draw at Batley. In the light of this Bongser will discount any matches involving those two teams in the following ramble. nB He is bored as he has a week off and can’t go anywhere because of the train strike!

Since Dunning took over (iterate Fev game ignored) Bradford’s record is:

Played (P hereafter) 5
Won (W) 4
Points for (F) 137
Points against (Ag) 88
Points difference (D) +49
Average (league position) points per game (Av) 1.60

Bongser has, in his idleness, been drinking and takes no responsibility for the accuracy of his beer mat calcs (cig packets are useless now unless you have a white marker!)

It is to be hoped that the Leigh team does a job for you on Friday so that you can ignore anything in the rear view mirror. Play off places, after the seemingly nailed on twosome, look like a battle to find four out of five. Let’s (with the same criteria as above) look at the other 4 teams.

York: P 6, W 5, F 160, Ag 126, D +34, Av 1.67
Halifax: P 5, W 5, F 198, Ag 60, D +138, Av 2.00
Batley: P 5, W 5. F 194, Ag 46, D +148, Av 2.00
Barrow: P 5, W 4, F 166, Ag 64, D +102, Av 1.60

Not encouraging as such but let’s now discount games against the bottom three clubs (and London were unlucky away at York).

Bulls: P 5, W 4, F 137, Ag 88, D +49, Av 1.6
York: P 5, W 4, F 124, Ag 92, D +32, Av 1.6
Halifax P 4, W 4, F 132, Ag 60, D +72, Av 2.0
Batley: P 2, W 2, F 104, Ag 24, D +80, Av 2.0
Barrow P 2, W 1, F 62, Ag 34 D +20, Av 1.0

That makes better reading in a “Well Baby this ain’t over ‘til it’s over” sort of way. It should also be noted that Batley’s two above mentioned wins were against strugglers Haven & Thunder, and that Barrow’s win was at home against freefallers Widnes.

It is therefore the games between these five that will see who gets a top six slot. Since Kear went York have beaten The Bulls & Barrow but lost to Fax. There have been no other meetings between the aspiring five. But there is one next Monday when Barrow host Fax - tie of the weekend and therefore selected by Prem Sports.

Earlier: points for The Bulls, Batley to get neauwt in their reverse fixture at PO Rd, York likely to pick up two at Haven.

Keep the faith, reinforce Dunning’s authority by appointing him until the end of the season, see you early next month and hopefully in the play-offs.

The club are making a complete @r5e of this by dragging it out IMO.

All this noise about going through a thorough process and now releasing statements that interviews have concluded making an announcement soon when we all know it's going to be Dunning.

It's just going to alienate people further building hype to announce the interim coach is getting the job. I have no problem with him getting the job but this makes me feel like we're being used again. Just be straight with us.

If they were going to announce Dunning it would've been best to do it before the Dewsbury game when we were favourites to get a good win. The longer they leave it the danger is that Dunning's honeymoon period will be over and the team will slip back into bad habits.

I cant seem to find anything relating to a statement saying interviews have been concluded.

Would u be able to post the link?