The Phantom Horseman

A few more random thoughts on the game... I'm not sure we're any nearer to knowing who will partner Ford at half back when he's fit. neither Aekins nor Chisholm stood out in attack yetserday, although half backs really aren't going to have much chance to shine on their narrow pitch. Chisholm actually defended as well as I can remember seeing him, I know Bradford reckon Arundel scored in the corner and we'll have to wait to see what thier video evidence shows but regardless Chisholm did well to stick with him as you might have expected Arundel to just brush him off. We had an unusually ineffective spell from our bench, Moors, Davies and Jones are normally good impact players but I didn't think any of them were near their best yesterday and we looked much stronger during the periods Springer, Lockwood and Wildie were on. probably helped that Bradford didn't have Rogers to come back on after he failed his HIA, but that's happened to us a few times this season too. Lee Greenwood's post-game reaction seemed to be "at least we showed we can compete with them" which was puzzling, I thought this was a perfect storm for Bradford, they came into the game on a roll after a few wins, were at home in front of a partisan crowd, were facing a Fev team that had 8 missing (including 6 likely starters) and this was a relatively meaningless game for Fev on the back of a well-publicised difficult week. I would have thought they would have been a bit disappointed with their performance. If anyone wants a laugh, have a look at the comically one-eyed Telegraph & Argus match report at https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportlatest/23764679.bradford-bulls-narrow-defeat-featherstone-rovers/, which said the referee was "doing his best to make enemies with the home faithful". No issues with the officiating from me but a bit rich to be complaining about the decisions that went against them when there was more than one questionable one when it looked like we should get the ball inside Bradford's 20m and possession was awarded to them instead. Bradford got a few home advantage calls I thought especially from the touch judges which is part of the game, one disadvantage to having most of the Fev fans situated where they were ie behind the sticks miles away from the action is that they're not in a position to react to events on the pitch and possibly influence the officials, that will be different with home-field advantage in the play-offs. James Ford talking after the game suggested Johnno might be available for Newcastle but definitely for Toulouse which suggests he wants to put a marker down in that game even though it's 100% a dead rubber in every aspect bar the possibility that we might meet them again in the playoffs.

It was good to see Fordy having a little chuckle in his post-game interview on RoversTV about Bradford's attempt to stir up their fanbase like this.

Might be on my own here but I thought that was a creditable effort. We were misisng Ford, Kopczak, Taylor, Briscoe, Hau, Bussey, Hardcastle, and Yei, at least 6 of whom would make our first-choice 17, but we still clearly got the better of the collisions, and barring a 20-minute period in the 2nd half when we kept turning the ball over (as did they to be fair) we were mostly in control. Can't read too much into games at Odsal because it's hard to look good in attack because of the narrowness of the pitch whereas conversely it's easier to defend, but job done, and League leaders' shield secured.

Hi Kiggy, I got the impression some of the players missing recently (Ralph etc) were out of an abundance of caution, plus a couple of players serving short-term suspensions recently? I know Ashall-Bott, Rennie, maybe Jussaume are out for the remainder of the season, but who else?

You sound shrood, Odsalbull.

Fev were expected to prove themselves the best team in the league, and they have, over the duration of a season. Over the course of that period, they have lost a couple of league games and a Challenge Cup game. It's perfectly possible they will lose again in the play-offs. Saying a team has "bottled it" because they lose in a one-off game shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the effects of randomness. Personally, I'm definitely concerned about Fev's prospects if they face Toulouse and the latter have close to a first choice 17, they beat us at Fev not because we "bottled it", but because they played better. I'd even say the same about Halifax, if they qualify for the play-offs, again they have beaten us twice because they were the better team, not because we "bottled it". Again - it's a lazy, meaningless phrase.

This must be the silliest and laziest saying in rugby league, especially in this context. If Fev had been 12 points clear halfway through the season and then lost a string of games, then maybe. But in a system where it all comes down to two play-off games, randomness kicks in. In a one-off play-off game, anything can happen. To talk about rugby league players - some of the toughest sportsmen on the planet - "bottling it" is a bit daft in my opinion. It's an especially strange comment to make on a day when they won and secured the league leaders' shield!

Full time Bradford 8 Featherstone 16. Thought Fev might get beaten today when I saw the team and with nothing really at stake, with Johnno Ford, Craig Kopczak and Elijah Taylor all rested as well as Luke Briscoe, Josh Hardcastle, Arama Hau and Jack Bussey all out injured, but a solid performance, especially in defence, saw them home and they always looked a bit stronger than Bradford. That does confirm that Fev have finished top of the league and won the shield, eight points clear with three games left to go, but unfortunately for us it all counts for nought unless we can win those two play-off games!

Probably makes sense to be fair given the result isn't of massive significance today. Looks like the plan all along has been to get Ford to the play offs in one piece.

As he hasn't answered this, I'll give the answer myself. This has sprung up not because of something Ford has said this week AFAIK, not because of something he has even said since he joined Fev, but because someone started stirring things up by putting a couple of pieces up on the "Bradford Bulls Live" Facebook page (which has over 4.5k followers and appears to be a vehicle for Gledhill from what I can tell) including one post which simply said this: James Ford: “The pitch at Odsal isn’t suitable, the facilities are below standard and the corners are dangerous.” RFL/IMG: “Odsal Stadium currently meets minimum standards.” Of course all the Bulls fans took to the bait immediately, because they understandably thought he'd said it in the build-up to this week's game whereas in fact it was in May 2022 when he was still York's coach, and it looks like Bradford have made more of an effort to cover those dangerous corner areas this year. Still, that's got the fans wound up, so job done.

I once saw a Super League game between London and Catalans played at Esher RUFC, it can't be any worse than that. My guess is that Toulouse were in a difficult position because quite a large number of Fev fans would have bought accomodation in the city many months ago (there were discussions on the Fev social media pages about buying early because of the World Cup) and it would have been logistically difficult to arrange transfers for them all to out-of-town venues such as were arranged for their 2 recent home games. That's only a guess though.

In the line-up just published on Fev's social media, Briscoe is included and not Lacans. Remains to be seen if that's correct.

Just out of interest, has Ford actually said anything publicly about Odsal since he joined Fev? Or is is true that the only people who have actually brought it up were Gledhill and Greenwood in their interview this week?

Briscoe and Hau missing from the 21-man squad for this game, not unsurprisingly. Looks like Bradford are dipping their toe back into DR with Liam Tindall of Leeds in their squad.

If anything I think it works the other way in this league. Teams tend to over-perform against teams that have beaten them recently, and complacency tends to creep in for the team that won the first encounter.

Where did I say I was worried? I certainly have some concerns about Fev's prospects in the play-offs as we have some vulnerabilities that have already been exploited by the likes of Toulouse and Halifax, but whilst I'd like to see us play well this weekend my main concern is not to get any more injuries, as I said this game is a dead rubber for Fev.

Good point, like you I can't think of 3 either... Seriously though...there's obviously a lot of ability in the Bradford squad, but a lot of players with questionable temperament or consistency issues too. You've only to look at the Bulls results to see that, but it's even more obvious when you watch them play. But there's clearly a lot of talent there with so many ex-SL players etc, and if most of them were on a good day and playing against a team that were below their best it's perfectly feasible that they could win against a team higher in the table, as they did against Toulouse. That's the weakness in the current play-off system in my view - there are teams that have lost 10 games in the weakest Championship for years that could sneak into SL if they just put a couple of performances together at the right time - but that's what we're stuck with until next year when IMG comes along.

I hope you're right and I agree with your logic. I just think this is a massive game for Bradford, especially as some of their players were reported as having said they couldn't wait to play Fev at Odsal after we beat them at POR, and they seem to be particularly upbeat and (if you'll pardon the pun) bullish at the moment,whereas for Fev it's effectively a dead rubber.

It's probably true that they have their best chance in years, anything could happen in one-off play-off games, but it does highlight how daft the promotion system is now, ie teams that have lost 8-10 games or more still have a shot at promotion. The play-off system used to exist for the benefit of the Sky cameras, but with ViaPlay covering it now and with what are clearly much-reduced subscriber numbers, that clearly doesn't apply any more. You've only to look at the match threads for the live ViaPlay games on the General Forum to see that basically nobody is watching them. I predict that when the final comes a lot of people will be asking around for how they can get a stream, because I think even a lot of hardened Championship followers baulked at the lack of value in the ViaPlay coverage this season.

Ah ok. I prefer the term "SL occupancy" rather than "results", as for instance Wakefield have won 28 of their 93 league games (30%) since 2020, whereas Fev have won 68 out of 75 (91%).

Think you need to explain that?

Yep I have been saying that on this forum for months. Current SL occupancy has a massively favourable factor in terms of so many things that score IMG points - on finances, on crowds, on social media followers, plus on knock-on effects such as merchandise sales etc. The idea that clubs get points based on a 3,000 home crowd threshold regardless of whether your home crowds are aginst Wigan, Hull, Hull KR, Leeds and St Helens or Keighley, Whitehaven, Newcastle, Barrow or Swinton is so patently preposterous - you have only to look at Leigh's crowds this year compared to some very moderate ones when they were dominating the Championship last season. That's before you take into account that finishing bottom of SL three years in a row will still score you more IMG points than finishing top of the Championship three years in a row (unless you win the Grand Final). As you say, Leigh's amazing year probably wouldn't have happened under the IMG system, and Fev have made no bones about the fact that they see this as the last chance for the club to get into SL. It's not hard to imagine Derek Beaumont would have lost interest if this system had been in place a couple of years ago, and whether Mark Campbell will feel motivated to continue with the huge amount of work he has put into Fev remains to be seen if they don't go up.

I think this too, I think the biggest clue is comparing the Toulouse promotion-winning team of 2021 to this year's version which is miles weaker across the board yet is still in second place well clear of the remainder. It's a worry in terms of the SL performance next year for whoever gets promoted, Fev have been by some way the most consistent team but are likely to lose at least three of their better forwards to retirement. Fev will certainly spend money if they do go up but if it isn't Fev (and we haven't been especially convincing lately) then it's going to be an even weaker team on paper - Toulouse are far worse off than they were prior to the 2022 season even accounting for how they lost Ford and Kheirallah in pre-season, and if it's not either Fev or Toulouse that go up then we're potentially looking at teams that have lost 10+ games in a sub-standard Championship season suddenly being elevated to SL and with most of the better SL players already signed up for next year. The reason for this is not hard to find, the slashing of Championship club budgets at the last Sky money reduction means it's even tougher for them to compete with SL clubs for those fringe players. This is always going to be an issue when there isn't a club with a vastly wealthy owner trying to make the leap from Championship to SL when the previous year they only had around 10% of the funding of SL clubs.

I'd normally fancy us to beat Bradford at their place, because the narrow pitch favours a power game and we've had the better of that against most opponents this year. Bit of a different vibe to this game though. We're still feeling our way under a new coach, with one half back recently returned to the club and another just returning from injury. More importantly, as MLP says, the next 4 games are essentially dead rubbers for us, in terms of the outcome at least, whereas this is a massive match for Bradford. They desperately need points to ensure a top 4 finish and a home game in the first round of the play-offs. I'm sure they will see this as a big opportunity, with us looking a bit srcatchy at the moment, likely to be missing one or two key players, and that extra bit of intensity might be missing from us now until the play-offs. Still, as Mark says, it would be nice to build in the right direction for the play-offs, and of course a win would officially seal the league leaders' shield (do they still present something for that or is it going to have to be a Widnes away-style home-made celebration?). Interesting to see that it was Chisholm, not Aekins, who made way for Ford at half time, and that Aekins once again started on the right hand side. I did think that if Chisholm was his preferred partner for Ford it made sense to play him on the right hand side, because Ford has spent all his career on the left.

Think it's like this (numbers refer to regular season finishing positions): Round 1 3 v 6 and 4 v 5. Byes for 1 and 2 Semi final 1 v lowest-ranked winner from round 1 2 v highest-ranked winner from round 1 Final Highest-ranked semi final winner v lowest-ranked semi final winner.