Trouble at t' Mill

Written by John Ledger from YEP.

Caisley issues rallying call to disgruntled fans

Bradford chairman Chris Caisley tells John Ledger why the club's supporters should not lose faith in the Bulls' ability to reach the Super League grand final.
IT BEGAN as a steady trickle, quickly became a procession and soon degenerated into a stampede as hundreds of disgruntled fans headed for the exits at Odsal last Sunday.
There may have been a full 20 minutes remaining but many people steadfastly refused to stay and witness what was to become a record home defeat for Bradford. As sickening as the margin of their 66-4 defeat by St Helens was, it was the way in which the Bulls capitulated against the team that has so often proved their nemesis in the Super League era that caused most concern, anxiety and anger among the sport's most demanding supporters.
Although no team has an automatic right to glory, the followers of Bradford Bulls have come to expect, rather than hope for, success from their heroes. Having grown fat on the rich pickings at Odsal in recent years, they had neither the stomach nor the heart to see them through the lean times the Bulls find themselves in.
With the taunts of the St Helens fans ringing in their ears, they streamed out towards the car parks like an army of spoilt children, while the more resilient among their number remained to send the Bradford players from the field amid a chorus of boos.
For Chris Caisley, a man whose passion for the Bulls knows no equal, the day was a tortuous experience, not just for the result but because of the response to it by the people around him.
Just a week after fewer than 800 supporters had deigned to travel to the KC Stadium to see the Bulls complete an edifying win at Hull, Bradford's chairman was again reminded of the fickle nature of his fellow fans. "I wish people wouldn't be so negative all the time," said Caisley.
"I can understand why they are, not least because some of our worst performances have been at Odsal this season and Odsal was once a place where you would turn up expecting us to win.
"However, it's important to point out that we have had almost 10 years of almost uninterrupted success and even last year reached the grand final and won the world club title.
"We are due a little bit of patience and it's at times like this that everyone should pull together and support the club, the team and the coach.
"The players and the coaching staff have come in for a lot of unfair criticism and I'm determined that we support them. It's unfortunate that at the moment we go a score down and our crowd goes silent to the point when you can hear a pin drop.
"I hope they will reflect on all of this and give the lads their absolute top support because it's now more than any other time that they need it. All the shouting and the barracking in the world isn't going to do any good."
Bradford's troubles – they have lost seven of their 16 Super League fixtures this season and were dumped out of the Cup by Hull – have sorely tested Caisley's belief that success in sport is not necessarily cyclical but he remains convinced the Bulls' cause is not yet lost in 2005.
And with a rich crop of junior talent emerging at the club and plans to turn Odsal into a sporting village which will make it the pride of the city at an advanced stage, Caisley insists the future has rarely looked brighter.
Much of his hopes about the prospects of salvaging something from the wreckage of this season rest on the imminent return from lengthy injuries of the likes of Shontayne Hape, Paul Johnson and Lesley Vainikolo, all of whom have spent extended periods of inaction.
However, it is difficult to share his optimism in the light of the events of last weekend when the limitations of some of Bradford's key personnel was cruelly exposed. Leon Pryce's dismissal for a cynical high tackle on Jamie Lyon showed what a liability he can be, Karl Pratt appeared hopelessly out of his depth, Iestyn Harris was made to look slow and ponderous, Stuart Fielden was a shadow of his former self while Robbie Paul again showed why so many people feel he should retire now as one of the club's all-time greats rather than be remembered as someone who never knew when to go.
"We have set some pretty high standards and people expect more of us just as we expect so much more of ourselves," said Caisley.
"I don't like whingeing but we have had to deal with a lot of adversity that would have challenged any club.
"We did lose a lot of top-quality players at around the same time but as tough as it was without the likes of Jimmy Lowes, Danny Gartner and Mike Forshaw we still reached the grand final last year and won the World Club Challenge.
"This year we expected Ryan Hudson to solve our hooking problem but through no fault of our own that didn't happen and it has affected us deeply.
"We scoured the whole world to find a replacement but couldn't find anyone who was available. There are more opportunities now than there were then and by hook or by crook we will fill the No 9 position before the start of next season."
Whether the Bulls will kick off 2006 again captained by Great Britain second row Jamie Peacock remains the subject of conjecture and there is a sense Caisley's patience at the 27-year-old's delay in agreeing a new contract is wearing thin. Peacock continues to be linked with a move to arch-rivals Leeds, who this week leant weight to the view they are building up a war chest to take him to Headingley with the release of Liam Botham, and though the Bulls have not ruled out the possibility he could stay at Odsal, Caisley will not allow the player's prevarication to dictate club policy.
"These things are always a distraction and very soon we will have to get to a situation where the distraction is removed one way or another," he said. "There are other players around and rugby is the same as any other business: when you lose one employee you go out and replace them with another. Nobody is indispensable."

Thanks to The Chief from RLFans who originally posted the above.

Things are going sour at two of Rugby League's 'Big Four', Bradford and Leeds. Everyone knows that the Bulls have never adequately replaced Jimmy 'dummy spitter' Lowes and to see Robbie Paul described as an all time great is just laughable. You can't criticise Bradford for getting fans to come and watch in numbers as they have done since the start of Super League but a lot of those fans have been what are disparagingly termed teeny boppers. Girls who like Robbie's shorts. I'm not convinced that that is a long term fanbase and the fact that they were streaming out after 50 mins is not encouraging. They have been spoilt over the last few years and may not have to get used to the flip side of the coin for a while.

As for Wigan .... Agent Millward is steering them towards relegation! Well, maybe not, but it is fun to think it may be even a remote possibility!