The Playoffs beckon!

I can’t believe that the season is almost over, it seems to have hardly started. As usual it has been a rollercoaster ride, with fascinating twists and turns, loss of form, injuries, unexpected defeats, miraculous wins, sacked coaches etc, along the way. In a week’s time we will know who will be where in the top six, and then the playoffs begin. Six teams know that their season is almost over, while the other six begin to crank up the pressure. Knockout rugby is so nerve-wracking for fans, but it is so incredibly exciting when your team wins, although there can only be a day or two of euphoria before the worry about next week’s match begins. October 5 will seem very flat, even if your team has won the Grand Final, because it means no more Superleague until February 2009, which seems a million miles away. It would be great if the Grand Final is not between Leeds and St Helen’s, as it would mean that the playoffs have been exciting and unpredictable. Though it looks at the moment as if St Helen’s are unbeatable and Leeds are just coming back into form, so I suppose a Leeds/St Helen’s final would give us all a great spectacle on current form. When they played each other in the Challenge Cup semi-final Leeds were not at their best and the game was a bit of an anti-climax. It would be pretty amazing if Catalans were to get to the final after only three seasons in Superleague. But as a Bradford fan I obviously don’t want that to happen, as that would probably mean they had knocked Bradford out along the way. As far as I am concerned my favoured scenario would be Bradford beating Catalans in Perpignan, then beating the next team, then meeting Leeds at Headingley in the final eliminator and getting glorious revenge for all the defeats inflicted on them by Leeds this season! Oh, and then beating St Helen’s in style. But I can’t quite see it somehow.

Just looking at my predictions for the top six in my first post. They were Leeds, St Helens, Wigan, Catalans, Bradford, Warrington. When we know the final positions next week, it could be that all my six are in the wrong order! I can’t wait to find out. Andy Wilson regularly reports in the Guardian on the journalists’ tipping competition, and they don’t seem any better at getting it right than I am.

Faded glory

What can lift Bradford Bulls out of the doldrums and give them back the success that they used to have?

The trouble is I think Bradford believes they can just turn up to win, without realising that times have changed, they have to work for success, they no longer have a dominant pack, and have become mediocre rather than a force to be reckoned with.  I know that money has played its part in reducing the team from one full of internationals, to one with a few possibles, some past internationals and a number of very so-so individuals.  But surely even with the team they have they should be able to put together a better performance than the one against Harlequins last week, and come to think of it the one against Wakefield the week before, and Warrington the week before, and Huddersfield the week before that.  I dread to think how things are going to be against Leeds on Friday (and against a Leeds team smarting from their Challenge Cup exit and their defeat to Warrington last Friday).  It could be another really embarrassing evening for the Bradford fans, followed by listening to Steve McNamara’s excuses about why it wasn’t as bad as it looked.  I see that Bradford are fielding a part-timer and two lads from the Academy.  Haven’t they got enough fit first team players left?  At the start of the season they seemed to have a good-sized squad, even if it was unexciting, but there seems to be hardly any one left now. 

I know they have been unlucky with injuries – although I am Paul Deacon’s biggest fan, I never quite realised how pivotal to the team he was until last year when he was missing at the crucial end of season, and this year when he has been missing again for quite some time.  Perhaps the truth is that his quality wasn’t quite as noticeable  when the team around him was of a higher quality, when we had Vainikolo and Hape, and Fielden, and Peacock, and Pryce.  How I wish we could acquire some players of that quality now.  And of course the loss of Morrison is a huge blow, not just as a player but as a force on the field.  Burgess too is a great team player, always energetic and purposeful, and he is badly missed.  Why did Bradford give a new 3-year deal to the decidedly suspect Platt?  He can be very good, but he can also be very, very bad, and often makes mistakes in dire places and at crucial times of the match.  Halley also makes a lot of mistakes but he is a much more reliable full back than Platt.

This season more than any other Bradford have looked lost for much of the match, and whereas in the past you could feel confident that though they might play badly for part of the match, they would probably be able to pick it up when it mattered, there is no such confidence this season.  I just wonder if Bradford have never quite recovered from the awful humiliation of that loss to Wigan at the end of last season, and that their confidence has been terminally dented.  Let’s hope Steve Menzies is a magician, and that he and the tremendous Morrison can re-inject some steel into the Bradford team.  I believe that playing well and winning is all in the mind, and if the team has confidence in itself, and is just that, a team – then it can win matches.  Any team could be like St Helens if they put their mind to it, and play for each other and not as individuals.  Is this coaching, inherent skill, or just luck?  I was a big advocate of Steve McNamara when he became head coach, but my confidence in him has ebbed away.  I don’t believe that the players at Leeds or St Helens are so much better than the Bradford side, they just have belief as a team, they work together and they are successful because they know they can win.  Bradford needs a coach who can instil that sort of spirit into the team, because at the moment it is sadly lacking, and if they can hang on to sixth spot it will be a miracle.  Most fans have already abandoned this year and are desperately hoping for some big improvements next year.