The times we have thrown away games and made errors at crucial time we should have maybe 5-6 extra points, can't believe that for a brief glorious minute we where 2nd behind wigan in the league.

Well I still think we will





depending what happens at Cas lol



But the only team we will possibly go above will be Catalans,



With their last 3 fixtures being Leeds, Wigan & Warrington and with us only being behind on PD by 59,



it is still very do-able



Would also be good if it did happen that way just to laugh at Mr. Whitehead lol



COYB !!!

It still proved impossible to persuade my missus that we wanted Leeds to win.

Hopefullly the mindset of the players will be to just finish the season strongly and try and go out on 3 victories. Desperately unlucky to not beat Catalan last week but perhaps we're just those few players short this year to get through some of those tough matches. I expect we'll look back at the end of the year and see those points dropped versus Widnes and one or two other results as very costly.



Still for me, on the whole we have competed better than I expected we would with such a light squad. I'm optimistic about what FC can do with a much stronger squad next year if recruitment continues at a similiar quality.

I posted this in another thread but I think it is relevant here.... (posted before the 2 Hull teams played Friday night btw)



ON TOPIC: I think DG has a good point, it would be a big push for us to make the playoffs now but it is still possible! Looking at the table after the loss to Catalans I noticed we are 4 points behind both Hull teams and 6 behind Catalans. These are the only teams we could catch....



We would need a few favours from other teams to make the 8 and you would expect both Hull teams to win atleast 1 maybe 2 of their last 3 games but then you look at Catalans which I think is where we have our chance... Catalans have 26 points with only +11 PD but they have an awful run in of Wigan (H), Leeds (A) and Warrington (H) I think their is a decent chance they could lose all 3...



But we would have a massive job of our own to do starting sunday against Cas! with 20 points and -48 PD could we beat Cas London and the Giants and sneak into the playoffs on PD??



Unlikely? maybe, Impossible? not yet



COYB!!

Problem is, the league may be over for Leeds, Wigan and Warrington and they might not play like we know they can (look at last night). The cats do have a tough run in, but the other squads might start looking at resting bodies for the finals. I'm hoping there's still a chance, but I'm not at all confident.

Well, many took the P out of my spreadsheet but hhere we are almost finished, and it was pretty much bob on, in that the main thing it picked out was that our main contender for the 8 was not the Hull clubs, but Saints.



Unfortunately, and however it came about, we handed the major advantage to Saints when we lost to Catalans, and as I posted then, this meant we basically shot ourselves in the foot and couldn't do it. Without unexpected help from others.



So near and yet so far. The table predicts as follows (alpha order)



Hudds 42

Warrington 41

Wigan 41

Leeds 35

Hull KR 30

Hull FC 28

St. Helens 27

Bradford 26

Catalans 26

Wakefield 25

Widnes 22

Castleford 16

Salford ** 11

London 9



but of course our PD is over 50 worse than Catalans so in fact we are behind them, and we would miss out by points difference.

As things stand, but we'd need to be winning and the Cats to be losing, so that might change - indeed would have to change.

Well it was still a possibility but as someone pointed out and as our luck would have it Catalans are beating Wigan pretty comfortably by the score update I just saw...



I am not one of those people that believes the conspiracy theories and that big slump of form has ultimately cost of a place in the playoffs but with Leeds losing last night and Wigan losing now, both which you would reasonably expect to win on any day, you do start to think why does our luck suck so damn much

There's always next year, the mid season slump cost us dear and our lack of being able to close games out when we should be putting teams under the kosh, and scoring more tries we just sit back then we get beat.



Cant blame the teams higher up the league resting players or not taking games seriously (dont know if thats true just speculating) its our own fault:



21-21 vs widnes should have seen that game out 1pt

28-32 vs widnes same again we where in control and we let it go 2pts

22-23 vs catalan 18-4 up 9/10 of the teams would have put that game to bed 2pts

26-20 vs wigan didnt see the game but heard some on the radio think we fell asleep and they scored 2 tries in 2 mins that killed us 2pts

And maybe vs saints couple of errors cost us dear in that game so call it 8pts extra we should have had with more composure.



But on the whole not a bad season provided we finish 9th - havent ruled out a catastrophic collapse by Hull fc or Hull kr - but i think we are done now, take some pride in these last games and lets just have some fun and lets all go out on a high and show the rest us Bulls will be back next year even stronger.



Dont buy into the small squad excuse pretty sure there are other teams in the league with squads as small as our, think it was the sequence of fixtures and the mid season injury pile up that took its final toll.

It's definitely over now. Every single result has gone against us with KR, FC and Catalan winning this weekend.



Hard lines Bradford. We must do better next year.

Definitely. Been a frustrating year. We've performed well, n fact there hasn't been really too many games where we've been very poor. No one can question our attitude, but the thing that has cost us this year is not having that ability or intelligence to close games down. Mainly falls on the half backs shoulders does this responsibility so i expect better from them next year.



Could be a crunch year for Gale next year IMO, it will be his third with us and another year of games where he shows nice touches, and then others where he fails to control won't cut it IMO. He has shown glimpses again this year of what he's capable of, but we can't have 3 years of that. Hope we kicks on next year.



The additions of Carvell and Ferguson will definitely improve us, Gaskell will provide more competition and George will provide much needed speed. Plus our young players such as Roberts, Mellor, Naughton and Wood will be another year old and much more ready for SL than this year.



Top 8 should be achievable next year.