The thing about Sykes is that you would have expected that he'd have come out today all guns blazing, given that there are now multiple options for each position that he could play



But he just didn't seem interested, frankly

My thoughts on today.



We carried on the 'feel good' factor and it was nice to see a lot of Bulls fans still upbeat about the 2011 season. Yet again we scored a lot of points (40 unanswered points I think?) which will give us a shed load of confidence going into the opening 2 games against Wigan and Leeds. I'm also really happy with our defence, conceeding only 20 points in 2 games (albeit against lower league opposition) is pretty decent. I hope we can follow this form going into next weeks game against Wakefield.



As for the players, Elima was a tackling machine. Don't think he missed anything he went for during his spell today. Southerwood and Briggs worked well together in the second half and ran the show for us. Diskin seemed fairly settled in the team and took his try well.



Briggs for me was our MOM (closely followed by Southernwood). His kicking game was pin-point and he tore the right side of Dewsbury's defence apart time after time. Vinnigan also looked really good and worked well with Briggs. His finishing was clinical and he also put in a decent shift in defence.



I also agree with some peoples opinions on Ah Van. He does look very handy going forward but he does look a little nervous when defending our line. Maybe it's just a bit of pre-season cobwebs that will hopefully be gone come the start of the season.



Considering who wasn't playing (Lynch, Langley, L'Estrange, Herbet, Raynor, Walker, Ainscough, Donaldson, Halley, Kearney, Royston & Sibbit) we've got some serious competition for places. It didn't really sink in until I checked the line up again to see who we rested. Next week I assume we will field our probable starting 13 and cannot wait for the next game to come.



Overall another good pre-season performance.

It was Dewsbury 6-40 Bradford in the second half.



Maybe we'll reverse the trend of past Bradford sides and put the points on the board at the death instead of early on?

Just to put that into a bit of context, you might not have noticed but by around the 55 minute mark all of our players that played the first half had been substituted and we played the second half, from when it was 12-10, with a completely different team.

So did we.

No you didn't. I mean it literally, every player was changed.

You still got smashed DanielleRams. Dont cry

You're missing the point!



You shouldn't judge your performance on the last 30 minutes of the game, as you were playing most of our reserve team. Judge it on the first 50 when our first team was out there, otherwise you're just kidding yourselves.

I wasnt at the game so i cant really say. Sounds like first half was competative though

Your point is taken. But after half time, only 4 players were out there that have a realistic chance of being in our 17 come the first game of the season.



Both teams had reserves out there. In fact, we left out most of our first teamers, and the likes of Scruton & Diskin only played for about 20 minutes. To sum up, the result means jack sh*t really, as did the 6-6 and 12-6 scorelines.

Yeah it was. First half was really good and entertaining, and to be honest you couldn't tell which team was in Super League, 6-6 at half time was a good reflection of the first half. Second half started evenly with a try from each team and then, like I said before, all 13 players came off and a totally different team played the rest of the match that couldn't handle the speed and strength of the Bulls.

Don't forget that our starting 13 today was actually mainly our 'second team'. Look at the thread about 'Our Starting 13' and you will see what I mean.



Most of our team in the second half today was actually our 'third team'. Strength in depth, eh?



That said, I thought Dewsbury played well. I think you'll be competitive in your league and hope you have a good season