Players don't worry too much because they just move on to the next contract. Only us poor suckers get left with the debris.

Absolute boll0cxs today. The players, Kears tactics, the referee. Hang your heads in shame. As another poster said, we bottled it yet again. We've just cannot stand up and be counted when it counts.



Kears tactics have caught up with him. We've seen the weakness of having such a light weight bench and have got away with it because the teams have been rubbish. The team today wasn't a Coventry or North Wales and we got found out. As i said earlier, the decision to have a scrum half, winger and a light weight prop was a shambles. Zero impact.





The referee wasn't the reason we lost but he was an absolute disgrace. How many thuggish shots do we should the players have to put up with. Blatent ignoring of the rules when Workington performed a professional foul. He wasn't the reason we lost. That's because Kear went with a crap bench and team have a soft underbelly.



1St place is gone now. York won't lose another game.

Quote ="paulwalker71"Listen guys, we can blame the referee all we like - and he [iwas [/iuseless... BUT.... The truth is we haven't been very good for most of the season. I've been bagged on here for criticising us when we've won easily against teams in this league, but I really believe that we are nowhere close to being as good a team as some seem to think - and definitely nowhere near being good enough for the Championship. If we do go up, we will need a wholesale clear out of this squad. Workington came today with a great game plan, and executed it perfectly. They fully deserved their win. We were poor. Very poor. Lack of game management, with poor half backs and truly woeful last play options. And our defence was soft - Workington might well have scored more than they did with a little more steadiness. Top spot has gone now, we are in the Play Offs. That means either a semi or a final against Workington. Can we beat them when the pressure is on? I am not confident of ">that.'" I agree totally Paul. I wrote what I thought was a considered observation a couple of weeks ago after the Crusaders game and got called garbage: woolly07 wrote: 130 points is what I meant a week ago when I said I felt that "at this time" York seem to be more fluent than us. We are still struggling for large parts of the game and not wiping the floor with teams. Luckily, we do have two so called easy ones near the end but how many on here think we can do a 130-0 score in those games. I can still see us finishing second which would be disappointing and leave us with a couple of very nervy games playing knockout rugby. Hopefully it will still work out fine and there is nothing to worry about. I can't even think about being in the knockouts and then having a mare of a game....surely not. Us Bulls fans have been through far too much to have that served to us. RagingBull Who even posts this garbage. Oh dear!

Quote ="paulwalker71"Listen guys, we can blame the referee all we like - and he [iwas [/iuseless... BUT.... The truth is we haven't been very good for most of the season. I've been bagged on here for criticising us when we've won easily against teams in this league, but I really believe that we are nowhere close to being as good a team as some seem to think - and definitely nowhere near being good enough for the Championship. If we do go up, we will need a wholesale clear out of this squad. Workington came today with a great game plan, and executed it perfectly. They fully deserved their win. We were poor. Very poor. Lack of game management, with poor half backs and truly woeful last play options. And our defence was soft - Workington might well have scored more than they did with a little more steadiness. Top spot has gone now, we are in the Play Offs. That means either a semi or a final against Workington. Can we beat them when the pressure is on? I am not confident of ">that.'" I agree totally Paul. I wrote what I thought was a considered observation a couple of weeks ago after the Crusaders game and got called garbage: woolly07 wrote: 130 points is what I meant a week ago when I said I felt that "at this time" York seem to be more fluent than us. We are still struggling for large parts of the game and not wiping the floor with teams. Luckily, we do have two so called easy ones near the end but how many on here think we can do a 130-0 score in those games. I can still see us finishing second which would be disappointing and leave us with a couple of very nervy games playing knockout rugby. Hopefully it will still work out fine and there is nothing to worry about. I can't even think about being in the knockouts and then having a mare of a game....surely not. Us Bulls fans have been through far too much to have that served to us. RagingBull Who even posts this garbage. Oh dear!

Another big game where we've been left wanting. Thought we got some rotten luck in the freak ball hitting the ref and then no sin bin from that professional foul in front of the posts. We panic far too much for a team of our supposed quality - maybe it is the weight of expectation

Yeah and some more rotten luck where the Bulls player got punched in the face, and Workington got the penalty. Shocking luck that.

Think you hit the nail on the head with the term supposed quality. We do not have a cohesive side in the slightest. We have a maverick probably highly paid half back who is killing us. Chisholm was like a headless chicken at times today and did nothing bar the interception. He needs dropping! And the longer it goes on the longer he will think he’s untouchable. A few kicks to a try scoring freak like Ethan have masked a lot of his guff this year

I think Kear's selections let us down today more than anything. I get the goodwill gesture with Peltier becoming a father earlier in the week but he was there running around as the 18th man so why not play him?

Workington have a big set of forwards, JK must have known this, so to go into this match with only two forwards on the bench left me scratching my head a bit. Why play Pownall on the bench? Was it part of the agreement that he has to play each week? It makes no sense to me. Why not play an actual second rower like Liam Johnson instead of moving Oakes there? Playing in the pack has now resulted in an injury to Oakes, nice work Kear.

Lilley at hooker is also a disaster. Worky just ran at him - and over him - every time they had the ball, he just isn't big enough to be tackling the forwards.

Wood, Kirk and Hallas just aren't good enough. Kirk does not run his weight at all, and makes no attempt to keep his feet after collision.

Even our attacking structure was poor today, just look at the tries we scored. Both Minchella's and Garside's are just driving at the line with absolutely no skills. Where are our set plays, how come we can never create an overlap or put a runner through a gap?

Somebody has just told me one of our fans attempted to confront the referee at the end of the game. Idiot.

P155 p00 w@nk sh17 b@57@rd flipping b0ll0ck5!



I can see York losing to Workington at deferent park but even then we have to consider the play offs are our most likely route now.



I think kear needs to decide on which 2 half backs he wants and drop one. The three half backs doesn’t work. Also I think Flanagan should be captain. The only street wise one out of the lot of them. We were bullied today. It was all on with that ref. He ultimately was the difference between the teams but we have the class on paper for that not to matter. Not good enough.

Quote ="Maccbull_BigBullyBooaza"Also I think Flanagan should be ">captain.'" I've not seen a game for quite a while, but out of interest, who is captain when Lee Smith isn't playing?

Quote ="Maccbull_BigBullyBooaza"Also I think Flanagan should be ">captain.'" I've not seen a game for quite a while, but out of interest, who is captain when Lee Smith isn't playing?

Crossley.

The game was disappointing and the bench did lack forwards, however I think you are wrong about Wood, I thought he was one of the better forwards today, particularly in defense, he must be involved in at least 4 tackles during a set, also he seems to be the one who sets the line speed and travels defensively. I thought during the second half we had a period of real intensity and everyone seemed fired up, this all went to pot when subs were made and it started getting messy again. Also, I think Kirk tries to find the floor for a quick play the ball. A lot of the errors today were not made by the forwards but by poor decision making from the halves and hookers. They also clearly targeted

Lilley defensively.

If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/">https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/1031225861033406464?s=21">https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21

If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/">https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/1031225861033406464?s=21">https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21

Quote ="dddooommm"If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/">https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/1031225861033406464?s=21">https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21'" That is the gayest thing I have ever seen

Quote ="dddooommm"If we see them again in the playoffs JK should use this to fire the team up: https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/">https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/1031225861033406464?s=21">https://twitter.com/reecebell14/status/ ... 06464?s=21'" That is the gayest thing I have ever seen

Very disappointed today. It seemed like it was one of those games we were never going to win.I think they should have taken Chizzy off he looked shattered after his try. I know Kirk is learning the ropes but I wish when he has the ball he would keep pumping his legs like Ferguson did. Rant over.

Chisholm is so predictable at times. Not to mention all for himself.



He’s another very average Aussie happy to get a wage in uk.

For a large part of the season I have been saying we are poor. Having watched the Northern for about 48 years now I know a little bit about one man charge rugby and this is what we have been playing far too much of late. We do actually have a very, very decent back line but they seem to have forgotten what open, expansive flowing rugby is.

I still stand by Kear and believe he is the man to get us back to the SL but I think his reputation is starting to take a knock as his first season is coming to a frustrating end. Who is the best coach right now between Kear and Ford? Fair question!

I expect us to go up but as I said two weeks ago that two play off games will be very nervy as we all know the Bulls can blow big games.

Yesterday our halves were abysmal. Keys and Lilley are still young so no real blame aimed at them. I believe I was the first one about a month ago to say Chizzy is very poor and we should look at Lilley one week before we went for him. Others then started to question him after I had broached the touchy topic. Chizzy is not good enough for this league the way he is currently playing. One flash of brilliance and many fans are wetting themselves with excitement and ignore the other 78 minutes of nothing. The halves are there to organise and take the line on when a gap opens. I will say now that he will not get another contract as Kear must see that we need an experienced play maker who is in the game for most of those 80 minutes.

We will go up but a large number of new players and playing ideas will be needed come February next year. It is not all doom and gloom but rather a realisation that we are not as good as we hoped we would be in this division. I will say again, we are not a fluent rugby team and look very disjointed and rudderless at times.

Quote ="woolly07" We will go up but a large number of new players and playing ideas will be needed come February next year. It is not all doom and gloom but rather a realisation that we are not as good as we hoped we would be in this division. I will say again, we are not a fluent rugby team and look very disjointed and rudderless at ">times.'" I'm not sure we will go up We've shown time and time again in recent years that we cannot win those 'must win' games. For some reason, however much the playing roster changes, we always seem to lack the 'smarts', the 'nous', the 'know how' - whatever you want to call it - to get the job done Would I be confident about beating Workington in a 'must win' play off match at the end of this season? I don't think I would.. But I certainly agree we need a massive clear out if we do go up, because this squad will get just as easily bullied in the Championship as the last time we were there.

Quote ="woolly07" We will go up but a large number of new players and playing ideas will be needed come February next year. It is not all doom and gloom but rather a realisation that we are not as good as we hoped we would be in this division. I will say again, we are not a fluent rugby team and look very disjointed and rudderless at ">times.'" I'm not sure we will go up We've shown time and time again in recent years that we cannot win those 'must win' games. For some reason, however much the playing roster changes, we always seem to lack the 'smarts', the 'nous', the 'know how' - whatever you want to call it - to get the job done Would I be confident about beating Workington in a 'must win' play off match at the end of this season? I don't think I would.. But I certainly agree we need a massive clear out if we do go up, because this squad will get just as easily bullied in the Championship as the last time we were there.

Regarding Chisholm. I don't think he was great (too many times he kicked dead) his body language also doesn't do him any favours. HOWEVER he still was the only one to do anything. His intercept try and the only clean break were made by him (another scandalous decision by the way, the ref not sin-binning the Town player. I'd be damanding why he ignored the rules of the game on that occasion)



You can't let Keyes off any blame and lay it all on Chisholm (wrong decision to go for 2 from half way when he didn't make the ball dead either, not going for the 1 point when he was perfectly set up for it! Although if Grant wasn't stood 2m in front of Egodo maybe we would be calling him a hero)

Grant again was poor and its worrying that we're not learning from our mistakes. We must be the highest placed team for giving the ball away fron kick-offs and yet again Grant no where to be seen to defend a 40-20.



Also if You watch the game, the amount of times our left handside were all going in the same direction making it so easy to defend against. Garisde basically ran Pownall and Ryan into touch all game. Garside needs to straighten his line running or come inside more.



I don't think Chisholm played well. But like i said, Keyes came up with some poor plays. I honestly think Kear needs to take the majority of the responsibility for that team defeat. Awful team selection and the chopping and changing of half backs/centre/wing partnerships in the middle of the game has cost us.



I still think we'll go up via the play-offs with only Workington offering the only threat. But i'd expect us to win with the right team selection. Put Bustin, Peltier ,hopefully Hytchcox, in place of Kirk, Pownall and Grant, and we win that game.



Yesterday was a real sickener.

What astounds me about Chisolm is that he ran 90 metres and is absolutely cream crackered, he is a full time player and should be fitter than that. When he scored his try I turned to the fans I stand with and jokingly said "that`s him done for the rest of the game". I`m sure Kear doesn`t coach him to run around like a headless chicken most of the time and confuse his team mates. For a half back there is no structure to his game. Why do we start playing around with Lilley who is a playmaker by putting him to hooker so we can accommodate Keyes, Leave either Chisolm or Keyes out and let Lilley run the show.

Our front row replacements yesterday for Crossley and Green (who both got stuckin and had good games) Wood and Kirk are kids who can`t hack it against the like of Moi Moi and Wilkes. When I saw Kirk lining up to come on and Moi Moi was coming on at the same time, I thought Kear what are you doing.

Its still in our hands but if we have to meet Workington in the play offs there is going to have to be a change of plan from 5 drives and a kick to Ryan.

Quote ="ifallwerelikemumby"What astounds me about Chisolm is that he ran 90 metres and is absolutely cream crackered, he is a full time player and should be fitter than that. When he scored his try I turned to the fans I stand with and jokingly said "that`s him done for the rest of the game". I`m sure Kear doesn`t coach him to run around like a headless chicken most of the time and confuse his team mates. For a half back there is no structure to his game. Why do we start playing around with Lilley who is a playmaker by putting him to hooker so we can accommodate Keyes, Leave either Chisolm or Keyes out and let Lilley run the show. Our front row replacements yesterday for Crossley and Green (who both got stuckin and had good games) Wood and Kirk are kids who can`t hack it against the like of Moi Moi and Wilkes. When I saw Kirk lining up to come on and Moi Moi was coming on at the same time, I thought Kear what are you doing. Its still in our hands but if we have to meet Workington in the play offs there is going to have to be a change of plan from 5 drives and a kick to ">Ryan.'" Chisholm is a poor version of sammut

Quote ="ifallwerelikemumby"What astounds me about Chisolm is that he ran 90 metres and is absolutely cream crackered, he is a full time player and should be fitter than that. When he scored his try I turned to the fans I stand with and jokingly said "that`s him done for the rest of the game". I`m sure Kear doesn`t coach him to run around like a headless chicken most of the time and confuse his team mates. For a half back there is no structure to his game. Why do we start playing around with Lilley who is a playmaker by putting him to hooker so we can accommodate Keyes, Leave either Chisolm or Keyes out and let Lilley run the show. Our front row replacements yesterday for Crossley and Green (who both got stuckin and had good games) Wood and Kirk are kids who can`t hack it against the like of Moi Moi and Wilkes. When I saw Kirk lining up to come on and Moi Moi was coming on at the same time, I thought Kear what are you doing. Its still in our hands but if we have to meet Workington in the play offs there is going to have to be a change of plan from 5 drives and a kick to ">Ryan.'" Chisholm is a poor version of sammut

I agree with much of what’s been said.



On Chisholm and the rest of the halfbacks the problem is a lack of organisation. When Chisholm is at first receiver he plays off the cuff and while that’s ok some of the time he too often does his own thing and runs down a blind alley which then screws up any resultant play. He can do the odd inspirational thing but these are outweighed in my view by the negatives in his game. When he was out of the side early on in the season we beat York away and looked very good away at Keighley. Since he’s come back in we’ve looked disjointed against the better teams. It’s all very well racking up the points against the lesser lights but it’s clear in attack we are less organised than most other teams who are far more slick moving the ball. With our back line we should be top of the table.



The other thing that gets me frustrated is that like the confusion at half back it’s the same at hooker. We have three hookers and one on loan that arguably has more potential than any of them. Hallas is too slow although his defence is good. Halafihi is quicker but lacks nous. Flanagan is the best of the lot but lacks discipline. Chopping and changing them and the halfbacks contributes massively to our disjointed attack. One bad pass from dummy half can disrupt an entire move and when you add in Chisholm running down a blind alley you have problems.



Our attack seems now to just consist of a few drives then a kick to Ethan Ryan. Teams are finding it easy to disrupt us by their quick line speed. Referees often don’t police the 10m very strictly and this means the opposition can get in our faces easily.



As for the forwards I hear that Peltier was left out because he’s just become a father and has been sleeping in the hospital all week. He had a stinker last week too. Having said that I thought Kear’s choice of two young kids as the bench forwards was a mistake as it meant when the changes came we had a spell with zero go forward. Surely if you’re resting Peltier then start with Crossley and Kirk and then swap for Green and Wood?



Watching us get dragged into the niggle yesterday was reminiscent of us last year in the championship. We got bullied and put off playing rugby. It was so predictable as it was exactly what happened in the away fixture. Do we not learn? It was so painfully obvious that was going to happen yet we got suckered again. If we do go up, and I can see us blowing that then some changes are needed as we will struggle in the championship with the current squad.

Fully agree about the hookers Bullsye. We're lucky in that we still get another crack via the play-offs and it's time we have a consistency in the halves. Choose 2 and stick with them. Lilley should be the one and then its up to kear to choose Chisholm or Keyes. Flanagan and Halafihi to be the hookers. Hallas works hard but his distribution is awful. Back-row or not at all. We've tried changing the team to fit certain players in the line up and it needs to stop. The fact Butterworth is at Cas when none of the hookers have really been outstanding still leaves a sour taste.

I'd start Keyes and Lilley. Keyes has been our most consistent halfback this season. I'd have Chisholm on the bench and with instructions that if he starts running down blind alleys then he's off.



Hooker I'd go with Halafihi and Flanagan. Hallas to play in the backrow or nowhere. He should be as far away from dummy half as possible.



The sooner Bustin and Peltier are back the better too.

A pack consisting of Crossley and Bustin as starters and Peltier and Green on the bench gives me a lot more confidence than Kirk and Wood. I do like Kirk but as many have said he's young and learning. He'll get there. He'll be another Kopczak I think.