Bradford Bulls (a)

I feel sorry for the Bulls Fans who clearly feel that they are being short changed by their set of current owners.

Looking at their comments, they have been completely underwhelmed by the appointment this week of Dunning as their new coach. It has taken the club 10 weeks to appoint a man to the coaching position who was already there at the club when they sacked Kear. That timescale for that appointment simply beggars belief.

The owners have palpably lied to their fans by indicating that they had interest from high level overseas candidates and that in appointing Dunning, he was the standout candidate. What utter tosh. Clearly, they have struggled to get a 'big' name replacement and have fallen back on Dunning because he was the only available option whom the club could afford to appointment and who was still interested in the position. Good luck to him because he has picked-up the proverbial poisoned chalice. Last night's walloping away at Newcastle has not helped and I see (from the Bulls' forum) that the knives are out for him already, one game in to his appointment..

Nobby Noble should know better than making comments like that and he should be sensitive to the offence he causes to fans of so called 'smaller' teams like Leigh, Fev, Halifax, Batley, York who are all better run than Bradford and who have much better teams and who are being far more successful on and off the pitch. His one-eyed Bradford centric comments mirror those of Jamie Peacock from a few years ago when he moved to his director of rugby position at Hull KR when they were in the Championship at the time when we had one our temporary forays into Super League. It went along the lines of, we (Hull KR on this occasion) are a bigger team than Leigh and we should be automatically in Super League and we should automatically be getting the money that Leigh are getting this year. Great player, halfwit comments. Nothing is as of right in this game or in life. Get real Peacock and Noble.

What exactly gives Bradford the God given right to remain at the top table of the game when they are run so badly. SS, I agree with everything that you have said on this point. No team has an automatic right by way of 'history' in the game to guarantee being able to permanently trough their snouts at the top table of the sport..

Bradford, just like the rest of us, now have to earn their place in the top tier. As Widnes fans are also beginning to realise, a team with a great recent history means absolute zip when the owners have no money, you are not propped up financially by getting SL/Sky funding and the playing staff is of average standard and are also part-time. Welcome to reality. Club history means nowt and guarantees you nothing.

Anyway, back to us and on to Workington on Sunday. I cannot see anything other than a walk over. Due respect to Workington but this Leigh team is one of the best I have seen at this level. They are monsters and they will steam roller our Cumbrian cousins on Sunday. Unlike most years this will not be a tricky away trip to sunny Cumbria where a defeat is always on the cards.