A Challenge Cup Journey - by Alan

So as the crowds drift away down Wembley way and the sun sets on the 2019 edition of the Challenge Cup it leaves me to reflect on my experience of the competition this year, as the dedicated SLP correspondent for the cup and as a fulfilment of my pledge to attend a game from every round, made in the dim and distant past of January.

The start of this year’s journey was actually the shortest distance I had to travel. The trip down to Lock Lane to see one of the best teams from the community game here in England match up against the best of Ireland, as the Longhorns came to a cold and very windy Castleford. I have to say this phase of the competition is probably my favourite. We see the well-known and established community clubs rubbing shoulders with the best teams from outside the traditional areas invited to take part. Whilst Red Star Belgrade might have taken up the vast majority of attention, column inches and commemorative t-shirts, I was looking forward to seeing how the Irish champions would do. This romance of the cup feeds my general enthusiasm for the game as the new year begins. When everything is exciting. When we read far too much into pre-season games. When we hold great hopes for our teams’ seasons to come. For the game itself, it was actually much closer than I thought it would be, with the Longhorns putting up a good fight before just falling short. Lock Lane 16 Longhorns 10.

A round two trip to another local club in East Leeds followed. East Leeds 16 Dewsbury Moor 20. Before a third round encounter at Cougar Park, which saw one of the surviving community sides in Distington take on the revived Keighley side, in some of the most changeable weather I have ever seen. The inevitable mud bath that followed played a part in keeping the game close, with Keighley coming out on top. Keighley 28 Distington 14.

The unavoidable trip to Fev’ followed (if a cup run doesn’t go through Featherstone has it even really happened?) to see the Lions comfortably beaten by Doncaster. Featherstone Lions 6 Doncaster 46.

Then, the greatest comeback since Lazarus was witnessed at Odsal. Bradford looked dead and buried with 10 minutes to go, before a blitz of effort and sheer good luck brought us level. We saw a touchline conversion in the last minute, before a 40 metre drop goal from ice cool Jordan Lilley to send the bulls to the next round. I happily admit I absolutely lost it, in what will be one of my all-time best memories of league, not just from this year’s cup run. Bradford 27 Featherstone 26.

Whilst the sixth round would see the Bulls back at Odsal with the mouth-watering tie against Leeds, I headed to Dewsbury on the Friday night to see Bradford’s eventual opponents in the quarter final. Halifax comfortably disposed of the Rams under the floodlights. Whilst attention might have been elsewhere for this round, the match was well supported. Especially by the ‘fax fans and one particularly vocal female Halifax fan - her opinion of the referee’s abilities will be another abiding memory of this year. Dewsbury 6 Halifax 34.

After the highs against Leeds, the low of the quarter final was a harsh bump back to reality, as Halifax made it through the all-Championship quarter final. Whilst an obvious disappointment on a personal note, the Leeds game did spark an interest back into my Dad to attend the quarter final after several years of disenfranchisement from his perspective following our financial issues. The magic of the cup can do wonderful things. Bradford 16 Halifax 20.

Whilst I think the event experience could be improved, and the damp weather certainly didn’t help, it was great to attend both semi finals to whet the appetite for the showdown at Wembley over the bank holiday weekend. Warrington 22 Hull FC 14, St Helens 26 Halifax 2.

You could hardly experience a greater weather contrast between the semis and few final. The sun shone, as it always seems to at Wembley, and we saw the form book turned on its head for Warrington’s third cup win in the past 10 years. Saints fans were left ruing yet another disappointing performance in a showpiece event. Yes the crowd number is a frustration, but I thought the atmosphere was good, and it was still an enjoyable experience for me in my ninth visit to the Challenge Cup final. St Helens 4 Warrington 18.

Overall, I would strongly recommend this type of challenge to anyone who is a fan of the game beyond a purely parochial support of their own team. I saw three new grounds, re-visited a few familiar ones and I really gained a flavour of the distinct nature of the Challenge Cup, a unique part of the sport in the northern hemisphere.

Alan
SLP

Season Preview: Predictions Results

We asked you what was going to happen in 2018, and here's what you thought!

Challenge Cup

Saints are well liked across the board this year and that starts with them being the most popular choice for the Challenge Cup. This is different to the bookies view, with Cup sponsors Ladbrokes having Castleford the 4/1 favourites at the time of writing, and St Helens joint second favourites at 5/1 alongside Hull FC, who you have 2nd, and Wigan, who you've voted 6th favourite. Toronto Wolfpack may be big outsiders but one of you lot picked the Championship outfit to upset the order of things.

Saints own fans are confident, with 73% of them who took part in our predictions backing their own side, although their with the majority of others too. Hull FC fans are pretty confident of going back-to-back-to-back at Wembley - over half of their own fans chose them to lift the cup, and that made up 65% of all the votes Hull got. The few votes that Huddersfield, Salford, Wakefield and Widnes got all came from the most optimistic amongst their own fan bases. 37% of voters chose their own team. 

Me, I'm with the bookies on this one. I fancy Castleford to win a final to fill that missing gap in Daryl Powell's legacy at the club. They have a first team line up that's as good as any one else on their day and they've had the experience of losing a couple of big occasions to draw character from now too.

Super League Grand Final

Saints came out as huge favourites to lift the trophy at Old Trafford this year, with 47% of you backing Justin Holbrook's men. Hull FC also proved a popular choice, thanks again to some optimistic homers, with Leeds and Wigan behind them as the sides with winning experience. Castleford are again the bookies favourites, 4/1 with sponsors Betfred at the time of writing but they're only 5th on our list, a list that saw everyone but Hull KR get a vote. Yes, Widnes got a vote.

Whilst nearly three-quarters of Saints fans went with their own side, they were only 13% of all the people that voted Saints, so it's hard to argue that they were being homers. More than half the Hull fans voted for themselves though, and made up 74% of all the votes for the black and whites.

For Wigan, just under half of their fans picked their own team to lift the Super League title, but made up 82% of votes for the cherry and whites, and I'm in that number. I've gone heart over head and hope for a bounce-back year for a talented squad with something to prove again.

Steve Prescott Man of Steel

Following the theme we've seen already, it's St Helens players that lead the way, with the top three vote getters all being Saints - Alex Walmsley leading the way with 17%, Ben Barba just a couple of votes behind on 16% and James Roby getting 12% of votes. Every Saints Fan chose a Saints player, but so did 45% of all voters.

Ben Barba is the clear favourite with Super League sponsors Betred at 8/1. Luke Gale is second favourite with them but only picked up a couple of votes from you lot. Walmsley is 5th favourite at 18/1, which represents good value based on those who voted in our poll.

The longer shots would be Julien Bousquet, Robert Lui, Mickey Paea and young Olly Ashall. All those outsiders were picked by fans of their respective clubs, so no huge shock there. It would be a huge shock if any of them scooped the award though. Of these four, I could only find odds for Lui, 100/1.

My vote goes to James Roby. He's not won it now for over 10 years, yet when he stays injury free he's consistently one of the best players in the league and the most important player in his side. If St Helens do as well as everyone expects, he'll be as important as anyone in that.
















Promotion from the Championship

Over half of you think the Toronto Wolfpack's rise to Super League will be a rapid one, having them being promoted through the Qualifiers. Leigh Centurions come in second despite being clear favourites to top the Championship ahead of Toronto with the bookies. Then comes the group that I've previously been in, those voting for no teams to get promoted. This year though I think that both Leigh and Toronto have strong enough sides to compete with at least a couple of the likely teams dropping in the Qualifiers from Super League.

Others expect Toulouse, London and Featherstone all have a chance of joining them going up. One person even thought Barrow will reach Super League, a proud Cumbrian I suspect! Half the teams have no chance according to our voters, but I do think it'll be a competitive league this year.

20% of us thought there would be more than one side going up. Two voters really think there will be a changing of the guard, picking three sides to get promoted through the Qualifiers. Of course, that may not matter at all, as we're yet to find out what the structure for 2019 and beyond will be or who will make up each division.

Relegation to League 1

Two votes were required for this question and our voters had a pretty strong feeling that it will be two of three sides that fall out of the second tier his season. Last year's financial struggle sees 55% of people tip Swinton for the drop. Newly promoted Barrow are next most fancied, being picked by 51% of voters to make an immediate League 1 return. Finally, the turbulent off-season has no doubt helped Rochdale get a vote from 50% of our voters.

The most notable thing from this category is that every club, even Leigh and Toronto, got votes to go down. I suspect some of those votes were made in spite more than genuine expectation.

Myself, I think it will be Barrow and Rochdale that make the fall. Barrow because I think this is a tougher division this year so for a promoted side to compete it takes the resources of a Toronto and not a Barrow. Rochdale because an unsettled preseason where you're losing all your best players isn't ideal off field preparation at all, and that after they had a rather poor back half of 2017 on the field.

Promotion to League 1

Bradford are short odds with Betfred to make an immediate return to the Championship and that's reflected with a huge 88% of you tipping them for promotion this year. With two going up, there was a little more competition between the next best sides, but in their 150th year almost a third of voters think it will be celebrated with promotion for York City Knights.

I'm in the Bradford and York camp myself. With John Kear leading a talented young Bulls side that's also added some Championship quality experience, they're nailed on if they avoid a further financial drama. York haven't just got a dual reg partnership with Hull KR, they seem to have taken some of their unwanted players too, players with good experience at a higher level. That partnership between those clubs, plus the special anniversary and feel good factor of a positive end to 2017 set them up well.

Both Cumbria clubs get decent support from our voters. It's not a great shock, and both have made some headline worthy moves in the off-season so they will be interesting to watch, but they lack depth out there to stay the course for me. 15% expect better from Keighley and 13% expect a bounce back from Oldham. Newcastle and Doncaster on the fringes of the heartlands get some support and non-heartland Coventry are probably a bit off challenging but at least one voter sees them up there this year.

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Hear talk about your predictions and more in our 2018 season preview and predictions show! You can get it HERE, or HERE if your an iTunes person, and you can also get it on the League Cast Android app or YouTube.

Keep your eyes on our Twitter feed and Facebook page for when you can get more from SLP.

Mark
SLP

How to kill a club in 10 years - the decline of the Bradford Bulls

Thursday 1 July 2004. The events of that day are cited by many as the starting point for the Bulls current troubles.

That day didn't signal the end of the glory times for the Bulls. They would go on to reach the next two Super League Grand Finals, collecting the top prize in 2005, and followed that with a World Club Challenge triumph over Wests Tigers in February 2006.

So what makes that date so important? What happened that day that can be traced through to what the most pessimistic fear may be the end for professional rugby league in Bradford? Iestyn Harris was presented as a Bradford Bulls player on a reported £1 million four-and-a-half year deal.

Harris left the Bulls at the end of the 2008 season, but some claim they are still counting the cost of that deal today as the club sits without an owner, on -2 points in the league table despite back to back February wins and losing players every time you visit the Telegraph & Argus website.

An out of court settlement between Bradford and the Leeds Rhinos over the breach of contract they induced Harris to make was finally agreed in 2008. Some estimates had the figure set in the millions of pounds, £3.2m being the claim raised.

Some clarity was given in 2012 after the compensation payment had been completed and the Bulls were in there first period of administration. It was announced by then director Stephen Coulby that the settlement was £550k, paid over three years after an increase in TV revenues afforded them the opportunity to still afford a competitive side as well...in theory. A total cost of the saga of £629k was given - this included the legal fees the club's books showed between the high court case in 2005 and settlement in 2008.

Surely the much reduced figure actually paid means that the Harris deal can't be the main reason for the state they currently find themselves in? We shouldn't forget that 'Bullmania' was the envy of most other Super League clubs as the Bulls won four of the first ten titles and attracted the league's top crowds along the way. One mistake over the legal ownership of a player's availability can't itself have undone all of that can it? So what other factors were at play?

On the field
Not all Bradford's problems can be seen on the administrators desk in financial reports. Some of what went wrong can be seen by looking at the players on the pitch and the results they produced,

The decline in playing quality started after that last Grand Final win in 2005. You can compare the quality and experience of that side with that which started in Round 1 of 2007, notably the forward packs.

2005 Grand Final
Front row: Jamie Peacock, Ian Henderson, Stuart Fielden
Back row: Paul Johnson, Brad Meyers, Lee Radford
Bench: Jamie Langley, Adrian Morley, Joe Vagana

2007 Round 1
Front row: Joe Vagana, Terry Newton, Chris Feather
Back row: Jamie Langley, Ben Harris, Glenn Morrison
Bench: Matt Cook, Ian Henderson, Sam Burgess

In just over a year the quality in the forwards had notably reduced. There were still some quality players but I know which pack I would have preferred to have playing for me.

None of that 2005 pack were done playing - all of the six that left by 2007 went on for a number years, some playing NRL, many winning trophies elsewhere, and some still playing in play off competing sides now. Yet Bradford somehow let that great team get broken up before it's time was done.

A major factor in the on field decline must be the inability of Bradford to either develop or retain talented players in the last decade.

The 2005 squad had a number of players who had made their names after coming through at Bradford (Peacock, Fielden, Langley, Leon Pryce, Paul Deacon, Rob Parker) and a group of young players starting to emerge through their system (Karl Pryce, Brett Ferres, Stuart Reardon, Matt Cook).

None are now at Bradford. Those retired didn't end their career at the club either. How many of those names would be renowned now for what they did at Bradford? Only really Deacon, Langley and maybe Fielden? Most earned or enhanced their reputations elsewhere. Many have won trophies and/or international honours since leaving the Bulls.

The same tend has been seen since the break up of that side. You can add Ryan Atkins, Craig Kopczak and Joe Wardle to that list, as well as Sam Tom and George Burgess. Jason Crookes, Elliott Whitehead and John Bateman are more recent leavers that will fulfil their potential elsewhere.

The last player to play for one of the top tier international sides whilst at Bradford was Sam Burgess in the 2009 Four Nations.

The last star signing made by Bradford was Matt Orford. The former Dally M winner was brought in on a three year deal in 2010, then aged 31. He was reportedly on Aus$500k per year, roughly £275k at the time. He played a dozen games, busted his shoulder, then forced an early release from his deal before the 2011 season.

They haven't really made any other signings that would set the pulses racing in the last decade, and certainly not in the years since the Orford deal went wrong.

Instead of a team of Britain/England and New Zealand internationals, you would get the odd player to represent a Celtic or South Sea Island nation together with a strong of signings discarded by other clubs or plucked untested from the lower reaches.

No longer could top talent be attracted and the performance level dipped to the point where no playoff appearance has been made since the signing they apparently ruined the club left at the end of the 2008 season. Licencing has not been kind to the Bulls - despite the increased playoff spots allowing mediocre sides a shot at Old Trafford, Bradford haven't made the top 8 in five years of licensing (Okay, in 2012 that was only because of a points deduction for the off field problems).

Off the field
The closing point above shows there is an element of on and off field problems going hand in hand.

In the opening decade of Super League 'Bullmania' saw Bradford be the best or second best supported club in Super League season in season out. And this was despite a dip when they briefly relocated away from Odsal. They only sat outside the top three in the regular season ladder at the end of one of the first 11 campaigns.

In part the relative decline in Bradford crowds is because of on and off field improvements at other clubs. However three of the last five seasons have seen average gates fall below 10,000 so there had also been an absolute fall. Since 2006 when the Bulls last claimed some silverware the attendance rank has only been top 3 once. They've also only finished in the top 3 in the league once and spent most of the last 8 years out of the play offs.

2010 was the low point for attendance and performance. In an effort to get more fans through the turnstiles they slashed season ticket prices for the 2011 season. If 10,000 memberships were sold, adult tickets of £60 were available.

An attempt to reward and draw in fans should be applauded. I'm not sure they ran their numbers right though. We've run some very crude numbers but the result of our calculations suggested that the ticket revenues in 2011 were around half 2010 numbers despite average crowds being a lot higher - average gate went from 8338 to 13352.

It didn't have the desired effect on influencing the team as they again finished 10th. It also was a questionable move coming off the back of £311,403 losses in 2010 and a determination to still spend too the cap limit, whilst paying of the last of the Harris settlement.

Undeterred, Chief Exec Ryan Duckett decided to go around again, this time 2011 tickets would be available for £75 if 12,000 were sold. That target wasn't meet but £90 season tickets were still available. Average crowd dipped to 11761. This would mean a marginal increase in ticket revenues from the year before, but the financial reality started to bite. This scheme was not doing it's job and the key source of ongoing revenue wasn't coming into the club. Money was being forsaken, investment in facilities and playing personnel would be hit. The writing was possibly on the wall for what was to come.

The next step in the sorry saga came with the same of Odsal to the RFL in January 2012. It was positioned that the sale was to protect the iconic venue from property vultures looking to take the site away from our game. Sadly we all fell for this line and didn't expect what was to come. Maybe the RFL fell for the lies too because they had awarded the club another three year license not too long before being needed to step in to protect the club's major asset.

The scale of the issues stated to emerge in March 2012 when the club announced a £1m shortfall in revenues that left the club potentially a fortnight away from liquidation. Begging letters were sent to fans and former players donated treasured memorabilia to the cause as £500k was raised to prevent the Easter derby with Leeds from being the last game at Odsal as had been threatened.

It couldn't however stop the Bulls from administration when the real depth of the crisis was revealed to be a debt of £1.25m or more that prompted administration, a points deduction and the redundancy of all non-playing personnel - the coaching staff and many others at the club returning to work for free shortly after.

A protracted period of administration was survived and the team actually battled to the brink of a play off appearance before the points deduction did for them in that 2012 season. Eventually local restauranteur Omar Khan and politician Gerry Sutcliffe were successful in saving the club in September that year and were even afforded the opportunity to remain in Super League with a 12 month provisional license. The draw back to that was the surrendering of the following years TV money, to be shared amongst the other clubs instead.

That again was another very questionable decision in the whole messy saga. It could therefore have been hardly surprising that more issues would start to show themselves in July 2013 with player wages starting to find themselves delayed with banking issues blamed before owner Omar Khan reportedly released £900k in property equity to fund the club through to the end of the season and apparently the off season too. 

But it wasn't really that clear cut and the drama was about to fully come to light again. Khan and Sutcliffe were to relinquish control of the club at the end of the season, citing ill health of Khan and staying they had achieved their primary objective of saving the club from extinction.

It son became questionable how much that was true, but first their was the issue of one of the new owners, Ryan Whitcut, failing the RFL's fit and proper person tests with a string of badly managed companies on his record books. Of course he had managed to get by despite this and had a board level involvement in the (mis)management of the club since the administration.

Mark Moore remained though and looked set to take over the club with Ian Watt and Andrew Calvert until they started to wrangle with the departing owners about the transfer of shares after finding "massive holes and that cash-flow projections were based on extremely poor forecasts." They claimed to find over £400k outstanding to a host of creditors, with a further undisclosed loan of £180k. This all led to them temporarily stepping down to try and force a deal through on their terms before coming back to the table with apartment RFL guidance and support in early 2014.

No contractual agreement was sorted out so the new company left the old one to be forced into administration on the eve of the new season before claiming to have successfully taken control of the club. All that was apparently left was for RFL ratification and the discovery of what sanctions this latest administration would impose upon them.

An intriguing twist cane when it emerged three other parties were also wanting to bid for the club, but the incumbent board won out. Then came a second 6 point deduction in 3 seasons and a war of words with the RFL about the new ownership's credibility - a combination of which saw the board withdraw their offer for the club.

The other parties remained interested and up on the rails came Mandy Koukash, Dr Marwan's good lady wife. The bids are now in, the decision is with the administrators to make. One thing is clear though, if you want to learn how not to run a sports club you need to look no further than the chequered history of the myriad of owners and chief executives seen pulling the strings at Odsal in the last decade. Who would have thought signing a major world class talent would prompt the demise of one of Super League's champion clubs.

The Bull's aren't quite dead. Long live the Bulls!

Researched and written by Mark - Tom couldn't bring himself to relive it all!

2014 Super League Preview

If 2013 was extraordinary, 2014 should be exhilarating and tense in equal measure. With some talismanic players gone from some of the top clubs, a new threat to the traditional trophy winners on the scene and the spectre of relegation looming, there should be plenty to discuss in Super League this year.

We're in the midst of Super League's preseason so its time to preview what's to come in the next 10 months for the teams in the northern hemisphere's premier competition of the greatest game. 

This post features our headline predictions for the upcoming season, but you can look at our previews for each team by following these links (or picking from the sidebar):

Bradford - Castleford - Catalan - Huddersfield - Hull FC - Hull KR - Leeds - London - Salford - St Helens - Wakefield - Warrington - Widnes - Wigan

We also want to hear what you think so leave a comment with your predictions, and your thoughts on ours, or connect with us on Twitter and Facebook.

Grand Final Winners:
Mark - Warrington - My thinking is one of these years just has to be their year. They are *gritted teeth* well coached, have plenty of experience, but also got younger and faster in the off season. In Matty Russell, Richie Myler and Stefan Ratchford they have a fast, talented and young axis that should contribute lots of scoring. This behind the likes of Hill, Asotasi and Westwood who should do damage up front and Joel Monaghan should still be effective out wide. I just think they have a complete package and a very strong motivation to push it all for Old Trafford glory, with the mental strength to do so against the likely pressure of failing again.

Tom - Huddersfield - The wheels came off last year but looking at this group I find it hard to look beyond the Giants for the overall crown this year. Barring all but the most serous of injury crises or some kind of coaching implosion, it's the Giants all day for me. There may be better groups of forwards, halves and backs knocking about as units within other sides (mainly I'm thinking of Leeds' outside backs, but more on them later), but as a team the Giants are my pick for Grand Final glory come October. Their forwards get their jobs done with power and real aggression. Eorl Crabtree in particular causes so many problems for his opponents and sets a great platform for his halves to perform from. Danny Brough is the reigning Man of Steel and will be up there again this year, moving this powerful group round the park with all the aplomb he demonstrated last term. The squad is relatively settled in terms of comings and goings, but the addition of Jodie Broughton is a strong one which serves to improve the Giants further. Incidentally, Broughton is my pick for top try-scorer this year, yes, ahead of Charnley. Put simply, if any team does better than the Giants, they'll be champions.

Cup Winners:
Mark - Leeds - Same logic as the GF in a way, they've been to Wembley three times in the last four years and lost every time. In their distinguished careers, none of their veteran stalwarts have won a cup final (other than Peacock with Bradford) and you feel they will want it on their honours list before they retire. They have some great outside backs and a great goal kicker, with big game experience. Too many times they've been starting to get going by Wembley and not quite be there. They just have to time their run to be around cup games, not for September, and they'll crack it. I fancy Salford could make a run in the cup to be the beaten finalists - they have quality but not depth, so the one off nature of cup games could suit them.

Tom - Leeds - It hurts to say this as a Bull's fan, but I fancy Leeds for the Challenge Cup this year. On their day they can beat anyone and that suits them for knockout football. I think there are weaknesses in the forwards, and Sinfield/McGuirre won't go on forever (will they?!?!) but that back line is one of the most gifted I've seen. Ryan Hall was quiet last year but still bagged 15 try's. Kallum Watkins is a phenomenal athlete, probably the best player outside the NRL, whilst Tom Briscoe is another world class finisher. This all adds up to cup glory and a strong challenge come playoff time. I fancy one of the Hull sides to join the Rhinos at Wembley, although sadly for one half of the city, the end result will be the same as last year.

Man of Steel:
Mark - Stefan Ratchford - If I'm thinking Wire will take the LLS then it would make sense to take one of their players as MoS. Ratchford has to step up in place of Briers, and the media loved Briers, so he's bound to get plenty of attention. He has the ability and mentality to deal with the pressure and if he stays fit he will be the main man at the HJ.

Tom - Chris Hill - Not my first choice (Ratchford gets my vote too but I like a bit of intra-podcast rivalry), but Hill for me was our best performer after Sam Burgess at the World Cup. I like everything about this lads game and I think he's due a big year in an even bigger Warrington pack. He'll learn quickly from big money import Roy Asotasi and earn big raps all year helping set the platform for Ratchford and Myler. Halves are only as good as the forwards in front of them, and this kid is one of the best in the world. 

Listen to us discuss our predictions now!

2014 Preview - Bradford Bulls

Ninth in 2013 was disappointing for a side that only missed the playoffs due to points deduction the year before, but it was poor tackling that the Bulls really suffered with all campaign that set them back.

 

Boardroom upheaval and financial strife have characterised the off season in Bradford. It's something they are used to dominating the headlines at Odsal, but its something they also hoped had passed. It means a disrupted squad, further loss of talent, and the threat of more asset stripping. Frank Winterstein has backed out of his deal, there are rumours others may too and London may look to Bulls players as potential signings with Super League experience.

 

Ins and outs have pretty much been on a like for like basis. Garreth Carvell for Jamie Langley is an upgrade to an already decent group up front, but not a long term move. Adam Henry for Keith Lulia has more long term potential, but is a little unknown. Dale Ferguson for John Bateman is reasonable for the  right now. A permanent deal for Matty Blythe helps too. Back row is an area of relative strength - Danny Addy, Tom Olbison and Jamie Donaldson all being talented options.

 

Hooker is a trouble position with Heath L'Estrange leaving meaning Matt Diskin is all they really have with any real experience. 20 year old Adam O'Brien will be the interchange with only 17 first team games under his belt. There is a question mark too over where Lee Gaskell might play, but he offers creativity across the back division. Its a shame talented full back Curtis Naughton has left the club as a quick and elusive runner would really add to what the Bulls can throw at opponents.

 

Tackling is an area to address for the Bulls. In Addy and Chev Walker they had the leading and forth placed player for missed tackles in the league last year. Elliott Whitehead was also a culprit when he was still at Bradford, and Tom Olbison tackled below par as well. Their best regular back rower defensively was Bateman, tackling at 96% with on average around 27 successful tackles per game, now sold to Wigan. The addition of Ferguson, who tackled at over 95% in 2013 in completing over 27 tackles per game on average, will hope to address this problem somewhat.

It's likely Bradford will need to stabilise quickly, work behind a relatively strong group of props and need a few teams to have poor runs to make the playoffs.

League Leaders Odds: 125/1
Grand Final Odds: 100/1
Cup Odds: 40/1
(source: Oddschecker.com)

 

Mark's predictions:
League place - 12th
Key man - Brett Kearney
One to watch - Alex Mellor

 

Tom's predictions:
League place - 8th
Key man - Dale Ferguson
One to watch - Adam O'Brien