Gareth is a top rugby league journalist who has one very exceptional distinction. He chooses to write about matters pertaining to the Championship and League One.
Although this blog is devoted to Featherstone Rovers it is always good to read opinions about matters relevant to us, but not specifically about us. We hope you enjoy reading Gareth's column each week.
Bradford’s hill
becomes a mountain
EVEN
when Bradford Bulls were docked 12 points at the start of the season for
entering administration, there were many people that thought they would still
survive in the Championship.
Staying full-time should have given
them a major advantage over their rivals in the bottom half of the table, there
was a link with Super League giants Leeds and of course the arrival of a high
profile coach in Geoff Toovey.
But with the season now past the
halfway mark, Sunday’s crushing 38-12 defeat at relegation rivals Dewsbury
- whose own improvement deserves much credit - has cast the Bulls fully 10
points adrift of safety with 14 games to play.
Not only that, but Toovey’s
future remains unclear at the time of writing, with his work visa still not
approved and him in the country on an extended holiday visa.
The former Super League and World Club
champions now face a massive task to overhaul that 10-point gap, not least
because their current form hardly suggests they are capable.
There was a glimmer of real hope in
their gutsy 20-19 loss to table-toppers Hull KR at the Summer Bash, which
suggested an upturn in fortunes.
But losing so comprehensively at the
Rams - who had only beaten Batley (twice) up until that point in the league -
was a huge blow.
The Bulls have now lost their last
seven Championship matches - including conceding 270 points in the last six of
those, an average of 45 per game.
It doesn’t get any easier
for the fallen giants either, as this week they host fourth-placed
Featherstone.
After that they face potentially
season-defining games against Rochdale and Oldham.
There was a lot of controversy about
the decision to allow the Bulls to remain in the Championship this season, with
many feeling they should have followed the path of other clubs in similar
situations and started in the third tier.
That seemed the fairest approach - but
crucially it could also have been the most beneficial to Bradford themselves.
Instead of the new club struggling
from day one and battling against the odds, they could have been winning more
regularly, blooding their talented youngsters in a more forgiving environment,
and had the prospect of genuine success at the end of their first season in a
promotion push.
Surely that would have been preferable
to the current situation?
Unless somebody can oversee a major
turnaround in fortunes in the near future, it’s difficult to see
the Bulls surviving the drop.
Then, they would have to start again
at a level that perhaps they should have been featuring at all along this
season.
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