On the other hand,and to play Devils Advocate, Noble was fired after our best win of the season and the jury will be forever out on whether he would have moulded this team into a winning unit.

Smith was mainly a CEO while he was with the Bulls in 95/96. Elliott was the man that coached the team most of the time. He also brought through Fielden, Peacock, Pryce etc but Noble was academy coach for those kids.

I don't think Noble gets the credit he deserves for his time at Bradford. He was the most successful coach in our history. Sure he inherited a great squad but he helped bring them through. It took 6 years for us to win a gf. It'll take at least as long for Salford.

First things first and it doesn't matter who is the coach, the players need to cut out the stupid individual errors;

1. Rapira ripping out when they were on our line. Penalty.
2. Meli and Eden miscommunicating and failing to deal with a kick. Widnes try.
3. Eden crossing after picking ball up in our 20. Penalty.
4. Martin Gleeson knocking off after a daft "flat" Tim Smith ball that he favours.

There just a few examples of the stupid errors, there was more.

Coach killers.

He did get the Freedom of Bradford !
I must express my surprise that Ferres can make his statement about the players,and Duffy about the supporters,but the rugby league family don't seem to have seized on their comments in the same 'vulgar' way that they interpret anything attributed to Dr Koukash.Seems the rugby league family are prejudicial,in my view.

Although the recruitment is seen to be poor, Noble had a style of play to suit the players he had bought in, which brought 4 wins from 8 including the cup game.

Now we have Harris trying to change the style of play, yet if it doesn't suit the players he has at his disposal there is unlikely to be any major improvement. As much as we would like to see expansive rugby, regularly throwing the ball out wide in your own half will have little or no effect if the players brought in don't have the pace to capitalise.

Spot on.
Whatever you feel about the recruitment or ,indeed ,Noble there needs to be an acceptance that he bought players that could play his way.
As I said earlier, we will never know whether he could have been successful with those players.
But we are where we are and I have to say Lee at 13 and Platt on the wing are decisions for which Noble would have been crucified !

Lee didn't out of place at 13 for me but Platt on the wing was the stuff of nightmares, at times he look like he had custard filled wellies on he was that slow.

It seems the fixture list was almost as kind to Noble as Dr K was.
Noble also had the players,in 2013,left at the club by his previous assistant Phil Veivers,on the limited funds.Not much improvement yet there was over at Castleford when Powell too over.Powell has also 'gelled' a host of new players for 2014;including 1 from London Broncos,Marc Sneyd from the Wooden Spoonists,and Liam Finn who was not wanted by Championship club Featherstone.
I have seen more style of play from part time Championship players coached by their part time coaches - none of whom have been indulged to the extent Noble has.
Posters on this forum wanted Howarth dropped - he was - no change
Posters on this forum wanted Smith dropped - he was - no change.

We need to keep faith with Iestyn Harris and with Sean Long and the rest.
Last season it was a beaten pack - now it is no pace.I think the coaches have a hard job on their hands while it seems failure is being rewarded.

Piggin' hell -

I agree fully

Good post RDP. However, last years Cas side had a lot more potential than the rabble Noble took over.

Onto this year, I am supportive of Harris however my main point was the sacking of Noble has set us back another 4-6 weeks, as Harris now has to attempt to improve the style of play with a squad set up to play the Noble way.

There would/will be little or no difference in results this year under Harris or Noble IMO.

I sense you are sympathetic to Noble.
Taking your first point allows me the opportunity to question the retention by Noble.
Jordan James - Released for the 2nd time by Noble.At Easter featured against St Helens.His current side higher in Super League - still in the Tetleys CC
Ashley Gibson - Featured for Cas on Easter Monday - beating last years Grand Finalists - Higher in Super League - still in the Tetleys CC
Lee Gaskell - Featured in Bulls coming back from 16 points down to beat Catalan Dragons in Tetleys CC ( This after Steve Ferres stated the previous performance by Bradford was the worst seen in Super League.Is that not putting pressure on players?
Marc Sneyd - Playing for Cas - Higher in Super League - still in Tetleys CC

Under Noble I cannot recall any fightback apart from the CC game at Hull FC earlier this month - not a great advert for the team bonding gained at South Africa.Not a great legacy after 12 months in charge.

I think it unfair to judge Iestyn Harris as he arrived just as the exhausting Easter schedule arrived and had us playing last years league leaders still smarting from a referee influenced CC defeat,and then a game at Leeds.
Even though I want the 3 Saturday fixtures coming up to be SRD victories it may be difficult - [iChris Brookes, the experienced and respected Wigan doctor, said on the BBC 5 Live Sports Extra podcast at Langtree Park on Friday that it is not the Easter Monday games, or even next weekend's cup fixtures, that offer the greatest physiological challenge, but the Super League programme the weekend after that.[/i

Going into June/July I would hope to see a difference in results/performances that we did not see under Noble.

If I told you the team did little to no ball work in South Africa what would you say?