Picking the 12th team - by Mark

We know we're getting a new side in Super League for 2021. We know the initial criteria they must meet, and the more detailed criteria that they will then be assessed and compared under. We don't know yet who the new side will be.

I want to make my number one preference for the 12th side in 2021 clear. I would have much preferred a competent and functional Toronto Wolfpack to have been in the competition. Through the combined actions of David Argyle, Carlo LiVolsi and Robert Elstone, this just wasn't going to happen. It's a sad, unfortunate and regrettable state of affairs for the trans-Atlantic proposition.

Of the other options, my immediate reaction was Toulouse Olympique. Get a second French side in. But it's not my decision to make.

To be fair to Super League and the RFL, the openly published Application Process and Criteria document has good detail, reads largely sensibly and looks pretty fair. Lets see how it might work in practice. I'll give my subjective rankings in a conclusion below, then I'll cover how I would see the Toronto Wolfpack faring with this assessment criteria too.

Initial criteria

Three initial criteria must be met for an application to get the chance to get to the next stage of assessment. So who does it rule in or out?

1. Club was in the Super League or finished in the Championship Top 6 in either 2018 or 2019

Eight clubs meet this measure. Bradford Bulls, Featherstone Rovers, Halifax, Leigh Centurions, London Broncos, Toulouse Olympique, Widnes Vikings and York City Knights.

2. Stadium has an operational capacity of 5,000* (* New Stadiums or redevelopments of existing stadiums will only be taken into account if the Panel is satisfied (at its complete discretion) that the Stadium will be open / redevelopment finished by the start of the 2021 season)

This potentially takes one side out of the running, with a question mark over another.

Trailfinders Sports Ground in Ealing, London Broncos' home since 2016, only has a capacity of 4,000. They made some speedy upgrades for their 2019 Super League season but still needed stadium dispensation to compete. They'll need to do even more, even faster, to have something solid in place to show satisfactory redevelopment plans to get another 1,000 on in time for 2021 season kick off. The Broncos are at serious risk of missing this criteria.

York City Knights are waiting to move in to their 8,000+ York Community Stadium, but that new stadium keeps getting delayed. So there has to be a question over it's readiness for March 2021. That said, York's recent home of Bootham Crescent should still be available in the meantime, so that would fit the 5,000 capacity anyway. They should be fine on this criteria.

The rest are still fully in play:

Bradford Bulls - either Crown Flatt (5,100) or Odsal (potentially 22,000+)

Featherstone Rovers - Post Office Road (9,850)

Halifax - The Shay Stadium (14,061)

Leigh Centurions - Leigh Sports Village (12,000)

Toulouse Olympique - Stade Ernest-Wallon (19,000)

Widnes Vikings - Halton Stadium (13,350)

3. Club has an average attendance of at least 2,000 in the 2018 or 2019 Regular Seasons

From all the details a quick internet search throws up, this takes Halifax out of the picture, with 1,761 in 2019 and 1,752 in 2018. So, they are definitely out.

The rest of the eight satisfy this one:

Bradford Bulls - 4,339 in 2019, albeit that was at Odsal, where they may not be in 2021.

Featherstone Rovers - 2,316 in 2018 & 2,235 in 2019

Leigh Centurions - 3,539 in 2018 & 3,259 in 2019

London Broncos - 2,014 in 2019, as a Super League side

Toulouse Olympique - 2,437 in 2018 & 2,488 in 2019, whilst playing at the smaller and further from city centre Stade Ernest Argelès

Widnes Vikings - 4,898 in 2018 as a Super League side &  4,321 in 2019

York City Knights - 2,125 in 2019, whilst playing at Bootham Crescent

The above seven clubs stay in the running. However, I'm not sure whether Widnes Vikings have an appetite to apply at this stage, so it could just be six left in the running. They can stay in my process though.

London Broncos, fittingly for a 2020 decision, have an asterisk on their application already. It would be with a very heavy heart that I would take London out of the running, so I hope they can find that 1,000 extra capacity somewhere, somehow. Although, all would by no means be lost in London. The community game is strong now and produces Super League calibre talent even without a Super League team present. The Broncos spending most of the last half-decade out of the top tier hasn't stopped the community game in and around the capital. Long may it continue.

I do feel it also warrants mention that Toronto Wolfpack would have satisfied all three of the Initial Criteria. They of course finished top of the Championship in 2018 and 2019. Their main home base Lamport Stadium has a seated capacity of 9,600, with Wolfpack games fitting in some standing room beer garden fans too. Their regular season averages were 5,781 in 2018 & 6,521 in 2019. 

Assessment Standards

Six categories have been outlined in the Application Process and Criteria document. They each have a different number of areas in them, varying assessment guidance and will carry a different, but unknown, weighting in the final decision process.

I'm not going to run through all parts of the six categories in full detail. For a start, I don't have all the evidence or material to do that. So this will be a mostly subjective run through, using my personal and hugely underinformed opinionated assessment rankings.

a. Market Size and Commercial Potential

Looking at 6 different areas, and with most of the information to be provided by the clubs themselves, I can only guess at much of this part of the application process. 

We've already shown some details above around attendances. You would expect that broadly, season ticket numbers, merchandise sales, Our League membership numbers and fan database sizes will corollate with attendances. Bradford Bulls and Widnes Vikings would rank highest, London Broncos would rank lowest, especially if you compare like with like and look at just Championship crowd figures. They wouldn't make the initial attendance criteria without that Super League bump for 2020.

I can't profess to have any meaningful knowledge about the position of relative clubs with sponsors and commercial partners. You would guess the bigger city names of London Broncos and Toulouse Olympique have a strong relative position, and of the others Bradford Bulls and Widnes Vikings are the bigger brand names given their relative more recent success and time at the top. But it's just a guess.

Community footprint is hard to for me judge, but should be easy for the clubs to present their cases on. One thing we do know about Rugby League is that there is strong community links across the board. None of these are 'new' clubs, Toulouse Olympique date back over 80 years for example. Even those from outside or on the edge of the heartlands, like London Broncos and York City Knights, can show good community game ties, with sides from junior through to masters in their locality. The likes of Featherstone Rovers, Leigh Centurions, Bradford Bulls or Widnes Vikings should be able to show good evidence in this criteria. London and Toulouse may have the opportunity to show the most potential footprint, beyond what they already do.

Social media is something we can take our own objective look at on, certainly follower numbers are easy to check:

Bradford Bulls             28k Facebook page likes    34.5k Twitter followers    12.3k Instagram followers

Featherstone Rovers   14.2k Facebook page likes    15.6k Twitter followers    4.8k Instagram followers

Leigh Centurions        11.9k Facebook page likes    23.2k Twitter followers    8.2k Instagram followers

London Broncos          11.4k Facebook page likes    26.6k Twitter followers    5.7k Instagram followers

Toulouse Olympique   11.5k Facebook page likes    8.2k Twitter followers    6.5k Instagram followers

Widnes Vikings           40.6k Facebook page likes    40k Twitter followers    14.5k Instagram followers

York City Knights       5.1k Facebook page likes    15.9k Twitter followers    4.6k Instagram followers

For all that we like what York City Knights have done in the social and digital area for a few years now, their follower numbers don't match up to the other clubs. Bradford Bulls and Widnes Vikings numbers give them the strongest case. Not much between the others. Toulouse Olympique Twitter numbers might have to be viewed in context. Catalans underperform the other existing Super League clubs on this platform too, which could be a language thing.

I'm not sure how great an extra indicator club website traffic is for those making the assessment. But, something I would have wanted to see judged in some way is each club's media penetration outside of normal Rugby League press coverage. How many national news articles do they generate, for example. Possibly even national brand awareness. You would think Bradford Bulls and London Broncos get the most penetration there.

b. Future Performance and Growth Plans

This all comes down to the clubs' own sales and marketing plans. Which I won't get to see. So I can't possibly comment.

c. Playing Performance

This is going to be assessed under four different areas, and probably with the 2021 playing squad being part of that, opens itself up to the most fan conjecture. 

Let's get finishing positions for 2018 & 2019 out of the way first.

Bradford Bulls: They were in League 1 in 2018, finishing 3rd and going up through the extended playoffs. They were 6th in the 2019 Championship season. Basically, they come last of the seven in recent on-field performance.

Featherstone Rovers: They won the old Championship Shield in 2018, after coming 5th in the regular season. Then they finished 5th again in 2019, but made it to the promotion play-off final, losing to Toronto. That promotion final spot, as well as being unbeaten in the brief start to 2020, if what Fev see as their big calling card in this category.

Leigh Centurions: They finished 6th in 2018's Championship season, losing the Shield final against Featherstone. They were 4th in 2019.

London Broncos: They won promotion by beating Toronto in the 2018 Million Pound Game, after a 2nd place regular season finish and a good Super 8 Qualifiers campaign. In 2019 they defied expectations somewhat by being competitive in 2020, finishing last, but only on points difference.

Toulouse Olympique: 3rd in the 2018 Championship regular season, entertaining everyone in the Qualifiers too. They were 2nd in 2019, and the only side to beat Toronto in the regular season.

Widnes Vikings: They were a Super League club in 2018, albeit finishing a distant bottom, and finishing second bottom in the Qualifiers, to relegate themselves to the Championship. An 11th place finish in 2019 was in part down to the points deduction they faced that year, something that would hurt them significantly if they did choose to apply.

York City Knights: 2nd in League 1 in 2018 to earn promotion. They finished 3rd in a very strong 2019 Championship performance following that promotion.

Without knowing everything about the relative backroom staffs, we do know something about each of the head coaches. Uncle TwoSkulls John Kear at Bradford Bulls has achieved lots in his extensive career, no doubt he could do the job at the top level. James Webster at Featherstone Rovers and Danny Ward at London Broncos have Super League experience already. James Ford at York City Knights and Sylvain Houles at Toulouse Olympique have both become highly thought of, producing entertaining and competitive sides in recent years. Leigh Centurions' John Duffy maybe isn't as highly regarded, but has good experience at the Championship level and a little experience at the international level with Scotland too. Newly appointed Simon Finnigan at Widnes Vikings only has one year at League 1 on his head coaching resume, potentially putting the Vikings in the weakest spot for this area.

Just a short note on training facilities. Lots of the sides train where they play. Many below Super League don't have their own gyms, or at least don't have advanced facilities. Most will be of the same standard as each other I would guess.

So, 2021 squads then. I'll group the sides in to three ranks, with the ones I see ready to be competitive now in the first group, and the least likely to compete in the third group.

Listeners to our show will know that Featherstone Rovers, Leigh Centurions and Toulouse Olympique have been recruiting big for 2021. They probably tie for having the best squads for next year so far. We talk about another ex-Super League signing or re-signing for these three sides every week. 

York City Knights too have signed up a number of Super League veterans to their ranks, maybe though it's mostly players at the end of their time. Widnes Vikings have a good mix of experience and talented youth, albeit not great depth after some of the losses from the 2020 squad. 

London Broncos have little of their Super League side left, and they're losing key players in their spine. Although, they have a promising development system and they showed for 2019 they could unearth some real talent at short notice. Bradford Bulls look the weakest on paper, with much of their 2021 recruitment being upgrading young reserves on to first team deals.

d. Facilities and ability to host live TV Broadcast and key partners

This covers three areas, one being capacity, which I've already talked about above. The second and third are about standard and quality of the facilities. 

If Bradford Bulls revert to Odsal, there is some work to do there given the place has been dormant for sometime and was starting to crumble before that. Otherwise, all the sides play out of credible facilities that are better than some currently in Super League. All of them have been able to facilitate broadcast games in recent years, although Crown Flatt would have limited recent experience in doing that.

They're all ok, but they aren't all equal. Some of the potential applicants come with high class facilities. Others have facilities the equal of some existing Super League ones. One stands out as being weaker than the others.

The Leigh Sports Village is modern, it's been used for Challenge Cup semi-finals and international games. It ranks high. Similarly, Stade Ernest-Wallon has been renovated well in recent times and has also hosted internationals. And if the York Community Stadium is fully operational, it will be a brand new high quality facility.

Halton Stadium has lost some of it's shine in recent years. It's still a very good facility, not quite top drawer anymore. Post Office Road has had as many naming rights changes as it has improvements in recent years. Its now a really good facility, better than local Super League rivals Wakefield and Castleford. Odsal and Crown Flatt rank similarly, although for different reasons. Crown Flatt is charming, but small, Odsal is decaying but big and somewhat iconic. If York City Knights are forced back to Bootham Crescent, it will do. It's old and has some challenges, but it will do.

Ealing Trailfinders ranks last sadly for me. It's a community sports club with some temporary stands. It is a really good base for the London Broncos club to settle down it's community and training roots, but it isn't a top level match-day stadium, for all it's niceness.  

e. Finance and Sustainability

Five areas judged mostly by club provided or confirmed information that frankly I won't get to see. You can't imagine any of the clubs aren't a 'going concern' if they're applying for Super League, although the ownership and future status of Toronto Wolfpack was in the air for their application I suppose.

Widnes Vikings had an administration in 2019. That should count against them in this section if they were to apply. Bradford Bulls, of course, Leigh Centurions and Featherstone Rovers have all had financial problems in the relatively recent past, but most of that before the cut off dates in the criteria. There were rumours of late wage payments at Bradford in 2019, but these were denied and not substantiated. York City Knights too had some difficulties before the current Jon Flatman regime took over in 2016.

Leigh Centurions did lose an employment tribunal in 2019 around unfair wage deductions, which might be considered but isn't specifically listed in the guidance. There were issues in September 2018 too, when the club reportedly failed to pay players after not agreeing severance packages, after the club tried to cut ties with most of it's squad following a disappointing season.

London Broncos are hugely reliant on David Hughes, but that's not really much different to many clubs. I don't know anything about the finances at Toulouse Olympique, which in Rugby League terms, probably means they're not too bad.

f. Ownership, Management and Governance

Five assessment areas again here, most for the clubs to provide evidence on. The last one, around compliance with the operational rules, can be laid out objectively. Of course, we can also have our own subjective views on some of the characters running some of the clubs applying. Luckily, the objective can cover off some of that for me without me having to say anything risky.

Leigh Centurions owner Derek Beaumont received a £7,500 fine in June 2018 for breaches of four RFL Operational Rules, relating comment he posted on social media. He was also found to be breaching the RFL's Respect Policy and Social Media Code of Conduct. It was by no means was his first such offence, but the only one in the time window the assessment criteria sets out.

Featherstone Rovers were hit with a £10,000 fine in July 2019 for breaches of rules relating to crowd behaviour. in a match against Bradford. They were praised for their proactive approach to the issue, which may be looked on favourably as mitigation for what happened. Although, the incident leading to the charge did quickly follow another similar charge earlier that year for a game against Rochdale.

There isn't anything recently of note for the other clubs. Although, whilst it doesn't fit into the specific criteria in the assessment document, it probably isn't great timing for York City Knights that new signing Ryan Atkins gets hit with a ban for betting on a match involving his former side Wakefield.

Conclusion

This is based on the limited info I know, and without understanding what weighting the panel will settle on for each area. It will therefore be speculative and subjective! (so don't lose your mind over it)

For category a. I would rank them:

1 - Bradford, 2 - Widnes, 3 - Toulouse, 4 - London, 5 - Leigh, 6 - Featherstone, 7 - York

I can't rank category b.

For category c. I would rank them:

1 - Toulouse, 2 - Leigh, 3 - Featherstone, 4 - London, 5 - York, 6 - Widnes, 7 - Bradford

For category d. I would rank them:

1 - Leigh, 2 - Toulouse, 3 - York, 4 - Widnes, 5 - Featherstone, 6 - Bradford, 7 - London

For category e. I would rank them:

1 - Toulouse, 2 - London, 3 - York, 4 - Featherstone, 5 - Leigh, 6 - Bradford, 7 - Widnes

For category f. I would rank them:

1 - London, 2 - Toulouse, 3 - York, 4 - Widnes, 5 - Bradford, 6 - Featherstone, 7 - Leigh

Altogether, I reach my hugely underinformed and highly personal rankings of:

1 - Toulouse Olympique (9)

2 - London Broncos (18)

3 - Leigh Centurions (20)

4 - York City Knights (21)

5 - Widnes Vikings (23)

6 - Featherstone Rovers (24)

7 - Bradford Bulls (25)

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What about Toronto?

As I said in the opening, I would have liked a competent and functional Toronto Wolfpack to be in Super League. I don't think we ever got that. But how would I rank them?

Clearly they would be very strong in category a. For crowds, they beat the rest. However, they've never had a 10,000 home crowd and the official capacity of the stadium is below that figure. So suggesting a 10,000 average when they can get back to Toronto is maybe impossible and certainly optimistic. 

For social media, they beat the rest (51.1k Facebook likes, 36.1k Twitter followers, 43.4k Instagram followers). 

For community footprint, there's clearly work to do, they rank lower for this, although there's obvious potential opportunity. Whether the organisation would ever do enough to realise that is something we will likely never learn. 

I think they had some sales challenges in Toronto itself, I've heard availability of merch was slim outside of the times they played in the city. But, so many people have Toronto merch of some sort, they clearly got some sales reach in  the sport. Still, I'd put them 1st over the others in category a.

Whilst it's tough for me to score category b, we know that the Wolf Grooming bid didn't convince Super League clubs, so I can't see them outdoing every other club here. Lets say they're no better than the rest, generally. 

Category c. is tough to score for Toronto. League positions, great. Head coach, top drawer. Squad, non-existent. But even if you look at the 2020 squad, it wasn't good enough, it lacked significantly for depth, and we saw how they started the season. Any Wolfpack fan who thinks they would have been any better than a bottom three finishers after a full 2020 is misguided. I can't rank them above 4th because of this.

Category d. is a weakness. Lamport isn't a top facility. Wolfpack fans know that. Take it in isolation rather than comparing it with other grounds. You can't use it for parts of the season, it has no covered seats, it has poor media facilities. I would have to rank it down just above London. To be clear, I went to Trailfinders and enjoyed my day, but I'm realistic about the facility. I'm sure I'd love a gameday at Lamport, if it's nice weather, but I'm being realistic too.

As for Category e, they have debts, they haven't paid player wages, they don't have an owner or prospective owner willing to fund the club outside of Super League (and remember, this is a only 1 year spot, no guarantees beyond that). Argyle put them in a deep hole for this category. In all good conscience, 6th is as high as I can put them.

Then Category f. Well, I can't tell you what the club's ownership structure is, or what it was going to be if they were allowed in. Was LiVolsi going to be the owner (of a club he misspelt the name of), or was a recently launched Canadian grooming brand with just three products going to be the owner? Add to that, the current/previous owner David Argyle was handed a £7,500 fine in June 2019 for breaching RFL Operational Rules around improper conduct and unacceptable language. I'd be ranking them just above Leigh, around Featherstone.

Overall then, they would score poorly on the assessment criteria. I'm not saying some existing Super League clubs wouldn't score poorly too. But the difference obviously is that the others didn't pull out of the season at the 11th hour, so they aren't up for the same kind of judgement.

I don't disagree that some self-interest will have plagued the Super League club's decision making. Although, weren't Toronto looking at self-interest when they insisted on taking a 2 point deduction for things that clubs would normally face up to 12 point deductions for.

It certainly isn't right that clubs voting on Toronto's future had deals on the table for players that otherwise had Wolfpack deals. Although, those players weren't getting paid by Toronto, which most certainly isn't right either.

I don't disagree that there were huge flaws in the 'Independent' report into the game's viability in Canada. Not speaking to experts over there means it wasn't thorough. Not considering the part of the sports market the Wolfpack were aiming at, and somewhat penetrating, is poor judgement. However, there must be flaws too on the Wolfpack submission, which we've seen less of than the independent report. 

LiVolsi's cover letter spelt the team's name wrong. He delivered the presentation from his car. They reportedly didn't add significantly to the first submission, which by their own admission was not up to srandard. He didn't find some way to demonstrate proof of funding, without making it read like a petulant ultimatum. 

He says he expected his bid to be rejected - so why hadn't he done more to make the bid better. He knew what Super League commissioned a report to look at. Why didn't he make sure experts were presented to the report, rather than hoping the report he thought was against him would seek them out. Pull out all the stops, make the bid impossible to reasonably reject. If he cared as much as some of the Wolfpack's great fans do, this bid shouldn't have failed.

Beyond LiVolsi, the Wolfpack had four years to build a footprint and file that could support the strength of their proposition. It's hugely frustrating that they were left relying on three months of limited work to secure their future. I find that just as frustrating as a limited month long desk based report being so influential in the final outcome too. There is blame everywhere here.

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I really hope this hasn't upset too many people, I've tried to show my reasoning. I also hope you've been able to get to the end of this lengthy ramble.

Thanks for reading and make sure to listen to our shows for more Rugby League fan chat.

Mark

SLP

Season Preview: What the fans think

We asked you what was going to happen in 2018. In our show we talked about all the Super League fans thoughts we got on what they expect from their own side in 2018.

We also had some thoughts from fans of Championship and League 1 clubs that we didn't get chance to cover in the show. So here they are, including my personal favourite from former All Golds fan Lee...

Bradford Bulls	Dominic Barker	Fighting for promotion back to the Championship. A season without financial issues would be nice. Dane Chisholm to stay fit for longer than 15 mins. Cheeky little cup run wouldn’t go a miss.
Bradford Bulls	Shoddynmungo	Anything less than the win/loss ratio (although not by the same margins) of the Wolfpack will be a disappointment
Bradford Bulls	Jake Thompson	To get promoted out of League 1 and to play consistently well and not get complacent (hopefully!!)
Bradford Bulls	. Kris Illingworth	Promotion
Bradford Bulls	Stephen forkes	Hopefully promoted to championship.
Featherstone Rovers	Aaron Bannister	Featherstone Rovers to get top 4.
Halifax	Stephenrobertshaw	Top five
London Broncos	Arran Smith	Make the top 4 & Super 8s, just missing out on promotion......again.
London Skolars	David cantrell	Mediocrity on the pitch, more great community work off it
None	Lee Randall	I predict we will go through the season unbeaten
Oldham	John Davies	Promotion
Swinton	Colin James	Work hard on and off the field building a sustainable future for the club. 100% effort from everyone.
Toronto	Martyn Simpson	There will be more ups and downs this year. Closer, more intense games. Disappointed to see players leave but pleased to have a bigger squad. Off the field, there will be an increase in opposition fans moaning about Toronto's special treatment, lack of Canadian players, few away fans and the need to bring in tv money without getting any of the existing tv money. Home & away fans will have a blast in Toronto.
Toronto	Jay	2nd in championship and promoted to super league

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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!

Super League Round 2 Recap

Round 2 was a game short of a full round with Wigan down under losing to the Roosters in the World Club Challenge, but there were still a number of top match ups.

More on the Thursday night's game below, but the two biggest match ups came on the Friday, with four 2013 play off sides meeting each other.

Sky's live game was Leeds v Warrington. We saw an improvement from the Wire on their first round effort. There is still a question over the kicking game and they had a lot of ball in the 2nd half in good attacking territory so the creativity in the team without Briers may still be a concern. On the flip side, Leeds goal defence was outstanding and Zak Hardaker had a very impressive game in attack and defence. Leeds were the better side and deserved the win.

The other big game was an emotional affair as Steve Prescott was remembered when his two former teams St Helens and Hull FC met. A tight first half and a point a minute second half gave Saints a +12 in the race for the inaugural Steve Prescott Cup the sides will play for each year to remember the  inspirational fundraising hero that wore both club's colours with distinction. Saints fan and friend of the podcast (not an oxymoron) Andy Smith was there for the game - here his thought on the night's emotion on this week's show. Not for the first time in Langtree Park history, James Roby was a star man - leading his team in tackles, carries and tries, the second of went a long way towards sealing the win.

Round 2 results and tweets

Home			Away			Attendance
Wakefield	10	(4)	Bradford	23	(10)	4049
Leeds	18	(12)	Warrington	12	(6)	16164
St Helens	34	(6)	Hull FC	22	(10)	13448
London	18	(6)	Salford	44	(26)	1246
Huddersfield	24	(24)	Hull KR	24	(6)	7180
Castleford	32	(12)	Catalan	6	(6)	5104
					Average attendance	7865

Wakefield v Bradford
Dean Williams, Wakefield fan (@deanofthenorth): Bulls better defence earn win in scrappy match riddled with errors. Inconsistency from players and officials. #forgettablerl
Alan Cale, Bradford fan (@shoddynmungo): scrappy but Bulls fought hard, Disko and Gale played better behind a good pack performance. Adjusted well to losing Gaskell

Leeds v Warrington

Steve, Warrington fan (@wildywotsits): better performance this week. Second half particularly. Great effort from the new boys and the half back combo much better.
Martin Ramshaw, Warrington fan (@martinramshaw): Was always a tough one for Wire. Encouraging signs but fear it may be too late by the time we get our season up and running

Huddersfield v Hull KR

Marie Wright, Huddersfield fan (Wychwoodlady): Poor 2nd half from Giants, plenty of opportunity that we didn't turn into points.
Joseph Ward (@johjohn114859): Giants far too casual HKR never say die spirit  deserved their draw great kick by Burns  under pressure . Respect opposition

Observations and star performers

Its appropriate this week to start this section with two outstanding defensive efforts. Jamie Peacock, 36 years old, completed 54 successful tackles on Friday night against Warrington - his inspirational efforts are still setting standards despite his senior status. Tommy Lee went even better, with 57 tackles for Salford at old club London in an 80 minute display than he isn't necessarily renowned for. A count of 57 tackles was only bettered three times in the entire 2013 regular season, that should signal just what a special effort Lee, and Peacock, put in. The other defensive effort we want to applaud was young Danny Bridge - 36 tackles, no misses. 

Justin Carney deserves special praise as the only man to get a try hat trick this week. He also totted up a massive 197m on 22 carries. However he was outperformed in the metres gained by Jake Mullaney of Salford, who got 198m on 17 carries as he constantly knifed through the London defence. 2 tries and 1 try assist, 8 table busts and 147m as well, means Zak Hardaker had a noteworthy Friday night in front of the Sky cameras. 14m per carry for both Tom Briscoe and Kris Welham led the week for this particular figure.

All those singled out for attack above are exciting backs, but a special mention is deserved for a forward too - Alex Walmsley led the way for tackle busts with 10 in his 168m. Ben Westwood led forwards in metres gained with 184m in his try scoring exertion at Leeds. Gareth Hock deserves a mention too as week 2 leading offloader with 6.

Not everyone had a round to remember off course. Danny Kirmond had a rare poor day with 8 missed tackles against Bradford and to be frank he didn't look fully up to speed on Thursday night. Scott Moore of London and Ben Pomeroy of Catalan joined him on this figure, showing missing tackles in such numbers is likely to mean a loss for your team. Lots of players had 3 errors but Ryan Atkins had the distinction of leading this category with 4.

Unfortunately after pondering last week if this could become the year of the 40-20, there was only one in round 2, kicked by Tony Gigot in a losing effort down at the hive.

Last week we talked about the incidence of dirty play and all the calls from the TV commentators for cards to be shown. This week, we've started to see the cards coming. 

Many won't be surprised that Gareth Hock was the first to see a card, seeing yellow and a 10 minute cool down just after half time at London. We talk more about it in the show, but basically he felt wronged by an apparently accidental poke in the eye and decided to take retribution at his next chance. Sin bin sufficient for us but needless action by Hock who never seems to learn. The yellow cards flowed at Huddersfield and Castleford too as first fights were the order of the day. It was 11 v 12 at one point at John Smith's Stadium.

As well as cards, we've seen some bans handed out again, Catalan being the major recipient with Julien Bousquet being the second Dragon to get a 4 match ban for dangerous contract already this season after Oliver Elima got the same from round 1. Eddy Pettybourne and Dean Collis took 1 match early guilty pleas and Justin Poore got a 1 match ban for his part in the Huddersfield brawl.

Feature game - Wakefield v Bradford

Tom had a great trip to Wakefield, one of those rare good days to be a Bulls fan in recent times. 

As for the trip as a whole, we enjoyed it. Neither of us had been to Wakefield for a good few years, not that the place has changed much. We arrived about three quarters of an hour before the kick off time. Free on road parking very close to the ground was easy to find, which was a bonus - we got in and out faster than we had at the shinier newer Salford Stadium.

There isn't so much outside or assertions the ground but another thing we preferred at Belle Vue were the refreshment stands in the ground. They were well stocked and reasonably priced. 

The pre-game 'entertainment' was just a string of young dance troupes that the club announcers seemed very proud of, but not much to inspire the crowd. It gave time to browse the reasonably priced match programme, which at £2.50 had a lot to read with plenty of general rugby league content rather than just specific Wakefield content.

On the field the game was largely a poor affair. The ground looked very heavy and two sides with plenty of issues and little pace were never going to serve up a classic game of attacking rugby, particularly on a short turnaround. Sloppiness and plenty of errors made this a game a poor watch but because of what is at stake this year there was still tension, which does help create some sporting drama in what was mostly a subdued atmosphere.

Although the game was littered with dropped ball and missed tackles, there was the occasional flash of quality - Brett Kearney's catch and spin for his try, Dean Collis' excellent offload for Peter Fox to break clear and Adam O'Brien's quick play out of dummy half to grab his try and help seal the game were bright moments of quality.

Manese Manuokafoa impressed us both throughout with some very strong running making him the Bulls top metre maker whilst others like Sidlow and debutant Mullally did some tough work too. Matt Diskin got Sky man of the match but we were most impressed with Luke Gale who organised the team around and was very active in attack and defence. He looks to have copied with loss of last year's partner Jarrod Sammut by relishing in the extra responsibility of being a real team leader and is one Bradford player who deserves real credit so far in 2014.

Gale's drop goal finished the scoring and the small group of Bradford fans in the crowd were able to smile for a brief time until the whole ownership issue unravelled again following the hefty points deduction this week.

We left with a happy Tom and gambled a bit on the petrol, just reaching the Tesco at the end of the M55 in time. We talk about all this and some more in Episode 6 of Super League Pod.

Round 2 - Wakefield v Bradford Preview

Two of the favourites for the drop face off on Thursday Night Super League this week, so it could be an early season four pointer.

On previous episodes of Super League Pod bad news stories from both Wakefield and Bradford have been a common occurrence in our news round ups.

One interesting sideline to the game is the recent release of Jarrod Summut to join the Wildcats from the Bulls. Tom isn't too disappointed - he thinks his Bulls need solid, consistent and determined players who will work hard in defence as well as attack. In short, he isn't bothered Sammut has gone.

On the flip side, Wakefield needed attacking flair with Tim Smith gone and fans criticising the pedestrian nature of the half back combos they've had play in the trial games. Now with Sammut and Godinet, they should be able to complement the grit and determination that Richard Agar has instilled in his team in the past with a bit of skill.

Last season


Bradford had the better of things in the Super League meetings last term. The Round 1 win was as dominant as they would be all year in terms of metres gained and was the game that they saw the most possession of the ball over the course of the season. It didn't matter on this occasion that the Bulls tackling was woeful because they hardly had to do any of it. The attacking kicks numbers suggest most of the game was played close to the Wakefield sticks, but it isn't hard to understand why. High numbers of errors and penalties by Wakefield gave Bradford plenty of opportunities with ball in hand. Bradford were making so much ground with a very high 24 successful offloads putting Wakefield on the back foot and making them work even harder.

The reverse meeting was a closer affair on the scoreboard and Wakefield had much more of the ball than the first encounter. Most of the numbers that were skewed in favour of the Bulls in Round 1 were much more even in Round 23. In the end, the big difference was the missed tackles by Wakefield - their defence wasn't strong enough and it allowed Bradford to outscore them...just!

Form guide

Both sides had some disappointing trial games that give us a clue that these clubs will, as was already expected, struggle in 2014 and be in or around the relegation zone before restructure.

Bradford fans would say not to read too much into the Dewsbury game as it was a very young side that ran out there, but the Castleford trial game was an ominous scoreline. Things weren't quite so bad in the repeat fixture for Round 1, but Bradford still lost and that will put extra pressure on them for this big clash. By all accounts it was a lack of concentration and execution in the second half that saw Castleford take control and Bradford run out of steam.

Wakefield may also say not too much should be read into the trial games, as they didn't have any of their new signings yet. Something can be read in to their season opener though, which really they only lost from poorer goal kicking on the day, and Ali Lauititi was convinced he should have had another try but we were too far away to judge. What we did see is Reece Lyne drop a great chance to score near the end. Wakefield showed flashes of threat in the first half and controlled the second half against Salford. They looked further ahead of where we expected them to be with a quarter of their squad only just getting on board, but debutants Pita Godinet and Matt Ryan imposed themselves on the team and grabbed tries, with Paul McShane also very impressive.

Wakefield certainly played the full 80 minutes and its something Bradford will have to match them on if they are to take anything away from this early season relegation four pointer. It should be tense and enjoyable for the restricted attendance that will be in town. If you're going to the game, we'll see you there!

Other games in Round 2
21/02/2014 20:00 Leeds v Warrington *live on Sky Sports
21/02/2014 20:00 St Helens v Hull FC
22/02/2014 15:00 London v Salford
23/02/2014 15:00 Huddersfield v Hull KR
23/02/2014 15:30 Castleford v Catalan
TBA Wigan v Widnes *re-arranged due to Wigan playing in WCC, live on Sky Sports 22/02/2014 09:30

Listen to our predictions on Episode 5 of Super League Pod.

Thursday games
We saw a few Thursday night games at the end of the 2013 Super League season and they've been brought in as a more regular feature in 2014.

Despite them being played for a number of seasons in the Championships, bringing them to Super League has brought a whole lot of discussion from fans.

Mark thinks they should be a good thing for the sport commercially, as TV coverage is significant for club revenues if the sport is to progress and this will give the game exposure with less direct opposition from football, six nations rugby or prime television than Saturday evening games give us. The only real drawback he sees is it started the marginalisation of the Championships that resulted in that competition getting no live TV coverage in 2013 sadly. The moans of fans not being able to get to games is a less significant factor for Mark, its no different to a Friday night game for post-work travel issues and away followings aren't huge all across Super League anyway. Also, many of the announced Thursday night games are local affairs, and others have been announced long enough in advance that people can book their holidays appropriately if they feel they can't miss a game live. Maybe, it might have an impact on the amount of young kids that will be able to go to these games, but then again, its only one game a week and a couple of games each team.

We put the question of Thursday night games out on Twitter and here are some of the opinions you gave:

Ady Heaton ‏@wiganadheaton: Good for sky only.

Andy Barden ‏@Electric_gig: Good for the Sky Sports viewer, if its a big fixture. Also easier to watch then weekend afternoon games. You try watching afternoon games with Wife and Kids.

Paul ‏@mozza_Leeds: I personally think Thursday and Monday games are good. The only stipulation is that they should be derby games only. Cross Pennines games and London/France home games are not fair on the core fans, SL seem to forget about core fans.

Alan Cale ‏@shoddynmungo: Gives us a clear chance to showcase the game with little competition from other sports, let's see how attendances hold up

Martin Ramshaw ‏@martinramshaw: They're more conducive to a happy marriage than Friday nights!

andrew ‏@nuttyboyzok: Rubbish and stupid idea worse than Monday night games. The atmosphere is usually flat as not many away fans make it especially from Yorkshire

Listen out for us discussing all this and much more on Episode 5 of Super League Pod.