Incredulous was my first feelings on hearing Stevo on backchat this morning?
He attacked the Bulls big style for the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Francis and Lee. Citing the disgraceful way it was done by the Management, after FC and Hillaire had been totally loyal to the club and had single handedly kept us afloat when the chips were down...True to a large extent?
But did he fully appreciate the circumstances surrounding this obviously very difficult situation we as a club were faced with.
Firstly we have shipped approx. 40 points against us in every game we have played recently, also 4 games in 16 is still the worst result in the league barring the bottom club, London. Irrespective of the 6 points deduction.

Tell me Stevo if these results had happened with, say Leeds, would you have been surprised if GH had have made this decision? Would you maybe have said, "I don't know what else they could have done?"

What you forget is that the Bulls supporter base is dropping drastically, because they deserve consideration also.
Most supporters don't care what happens behind the scenes, they support for the reasons of entertainment, and to see their team,who they identify with, perform well on the field of play> they don't expect them to win every game, but what they do expect is to go away from the ground after the game with an element of pride, that their team have done the best they could, and have attempted to always salvage a result with pride and commitment.

They haven't seen anything like this for months, effort yes. But it has never looked like the things they expect, which is why season ticket holders and long term supporters are voting with their feet.

Not only that my erstwhile impartial friend. ( or supposed to be impartial) what about all the hospitality and matchday staff who have been laid off since the debacle with our team? And office and lottery staff, plus Marketing and others, why didn't you show any empathy for all who have given, and worked for nothing over the last two years. Don't you realise that the BAROMETER of a club's success is mostly on the field of play for most fans. If those results are as appalling as ours have been, something has to change, unfortunately collateral damage always takes place. WE did not need Matt Diskin's comments, and we certainly didn't need your outburst either. Most of us a deeply saddened by what had to happen.

Change was inevitable, it's just a shame we have had to suffer "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune " once again.

If Stevo, Irvine et al. are moaning, you can pretty much be sure that we've done the right thing.

Thing I find with SKY pundits (and Gary Schofield made this point the other week) they aren't really critical enough of anyone. You watch other sports program's and they slate teams if they have performed poorly. RL just seem to say "he'll be disappointed with that effort"

I'm sure they will quote the line of Walker playing at prop and asking what else he could do, but he didn't have to play Walker at prop. Also we won't losing games in the last 20 minutes which you could put down to not having a big squad and us tiring. But oppositions HALF BACKS were running straight through us I'm the first 20 minutes when we should have been ripping in to them.

What I find incredulous is that anyone thinks Stevo's opinions are worth 20 minutes typing a message in response.

This.

With respect I would rather hear Stevo`s comments - having had the audacity to actually score a try against Australia for his Country - than most people on these Forums.

OTOH somebody's got to get the message out, say come on.

Your time here might then be less profitably spent than you would like, since he does not frequent these Forums.

What he said..

Stevo has become a caricature of himself and acts more like a 'shock jock', just out to create the headline. I wouldn't ever knock Stevo for what he's achieved in the game because he was superb, but just like Gary Schofield, he's taken up trying to be the story instead of reporting it.

Sad really, Stevo knows as well as anyone how it rolls in pro sport, and RL is no different from all the others.

I agree with that completely

Also while we are on about Back Chat,Rod Studd is the most annoying tool in the Sky Sports box.

I would say he is a whisker behind Paul Cullen...

Agree don't think he comes across well on backchat. Also agree with above its a toss up between him and Cullen

I don't mind Cullen purely for the fact he's one of the few pundits not constantly up leeds' . He's probably one of the most unbiased.
Stevo is a complete prat who is completely out of touch with the modern game and is indeed a caricature, which I think is completely deliberate. He has no experience of the superleague system from within BUT he certainly knows how to play up for the cameras. I went to his book launch a few years ago - my lad was still quite small -about 3 - and was trying to get the attention of stevo-stevo pointedly ignored him until suddenly -without my permission! He scooped him up off the floor walked away and started chatting away to him all friendly like- I then realised a sky camera had just arrived! I had my youngest in a pushchair and couldn't follow as there were too many people milling round. The minute the camera turned away he put my son down alone in the middle of the floor and walked away without a backward glance!

Stevo isn't the only one ranting about this. There's an article on the sky sports website today where John Kear and Paul Cullen are having a pop. The best bit though is something the person writing the article says:

"Cummins had steered Bradford to four Super League wins this season and, but for a six point deduction for going into administration, the club would be one point away from escaping the relegation zone. However, just hours after Sunday’s 48-16 thrashing at Salford, Cummins was sacked by the Bulls."

For a start, we would be TWO points adrift if we had the points back! But also, how can you make out that 4 wins from 16 is anything to shout about? We have been beaten 12 times this season, conceding a massive 610 points! Don't make out like we would be doing really well but for the point deduction. The players have put in some really poor performances recently and the coach has got to take some responsibility for that. If you ask me, Cummins should have been sacked a long time ago, when it became apparent he wasn't getting on with a lot of the players.