Bulls v. Rhinos 10/4/09 - any chance? : Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:20 pm  

Well, our next encounter with the arch enemy is now only days away, even though we still have the little matter of a hard game at Cas tomorrow afternoon.

Can we do it?

Since the shift in the balance of power, the omens are not good. First, Leeds have rapidly become our bogey team at Odsal but it looks seriously bad if you include the MM fixtures too:-

2003 Round 26 Sun 07 Sep 2003 Odsal Stadium Bradford 22- 21 Leeds Steve Ganson W
2004 Round 13 Sat 05 Jun 2004 Odsal Stadium Bradford 12- 26 Leeds Karl Kirkpatrick L
2005 Round 7 Thu 24 Mar 2005 Odsal Stadium Bradford 12- 42 Leeds Karl Kirkpatrick L
2006 Round 15 Fri 26 May 2006 Odsal Stadium Bradford 0- 30 Leeds Steve Ganson L
2007 Round 8 Thurs 5 Apr 2007 Grattan Stadium, Odsal Bradford 14- 18 Leeds Steve Ganson L
2007 Round 13 Sun 6 May 2007 Millennium Stadium, Cardiff Bradford 38- 42 Leeds Steve Ganson L
2007 Round 25 Sun 2 Sep 2007 Grattan Stadium, Odsal Bradford 16- 16 Leeds Phil Bentham D
2008 Round 13 Sat 3 May 2008 Millenium Stadium, Cardiff Bradford 26- 40 Leeds Richard Silverwood L
2008 Round 15 Fri 23 May 2008 Grattan Stadium Bradford 14- 30 Leeds Phil Bentham L

Significantly, Leeds have already had a day's recovery time, whereas we won't be getting our bumps, bruises and aches for another 24 hours yet. 7 days recovery for Leeds, only 5 days for the Bulls. (This being why Mac wanted Friday home fixtures BTW, as they allow the maximum recovery time for away games.)

Third, the respective form for the opening of the season is worrying. Despte not nearing their peak form, leeds are ominusly improving, whereas we have been arratic to not-very-good, despite a lot of running about and effort.

Common sense suggests quite a pasting. What odds will we be? I'd reckon substantial underdogs on the handicap coupons.

Bearing all this in mind, I can only see one result. The stage is set for a great and memorable Bulls win, against all odds. I advise all Bulls fans to lump on, to make it even more memorable.

: Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:33 pm  

Whilst that reads like a nightmare and a long one at that. I have a strange feeling that this game is going to bring out our best performance in a while. Although we are most definitely the underdogs here, I feel we will win this one.

It's going to be a nail biter of a game and I urge all fans to turn up and throw our support to the lads from all sides of the stadium

[Pumpetypump]

Re: Bulls v. Rhinos 10/4/09 - any chance? : Sat Mar 28, 2009 2:56 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

I advise all Bulls fans to lump on, to make it even more memorable.

What does Lump on mean?

Anyway - never say never. Obviously we can't look at the game out of context. I think it hinges very much on how we do against Cas and Catalan. With the right level of confidence and effort we could gain a memorable win. We'll know more tommorrow.

Re: Bulls v. Rhinos 10/4/09 - any chance? : Sat Mar 28, 2009 3:00 pm  

Shaggoth wrote:

What does Lump on mean?

Raise all the ready cash you can, and give it to your favoured bookmaker

Shaggoth wrote:

Anyway - never say never. Obviously we can't look at the game out of context. I think it hinges very much on how we do against Cas and Catalan. With the right level of confidence and effort we could gain a memorable win. We'll know more tommorrow.

I don't think we will. I think Leeds games have always been real one-offs. BTW I never say never - I am quite sad in that i go to every game thinking we will do it.

: Sat Mar 28, 2009 3:11 pm  

not optimistic unless we improve massivley against cas and catalans

[Pumpetypump]

Re: Bulls v. Rhinos 10/4/09 - any chance? : Sat Mar 28, 2009 3:16 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

I am quite sad in that i go to every game thinking we will do it.

Y'see this is what our dearly departed Mystic Eddie couldn't get his head around. As an understandable defence mechanism, the default position of the human is pessimism. "See I TOLD you we would lose".

It actually is a good deal harder to go the other way and believe we will always win.

Worse still is the sort of apathy I've fallen into whereby I don't think I care anymore. That worries me much more than either of the above.

Re: Bulls v. Rhinos 10/4/09 - any chance? : Sat Mar 28, 2009 3:28 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

I am quite sad in that i go to every game thinking we will do it.

You're certainly not alone on this. I do the same and I even go as far as looking at the league table in view of where we might be with the extra 2 points we take from the game we're about to play.

Re: Bulls v. Rhinos 10/4/09 - any chance? : Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:35 pm  

Ferocious Aardvark wrote:

Significantly, Leeds have already had a day's recovery time, whereas we won't be getting our bumps, bruises and aches for another 24 hours yet. 7 days recovery for Leeds, only 5 days for the Bulls. (This being why Mac wanted Friday home fixtures BTW, as they allow the maximum recovery time for away games.)

I think you've got your dates mixed up FA. We've got the Cats in the CC between now and then and I think that we'll actually end up having three hours more recovery time than Leeds!

Also, with Leeds playing Saints in the cup the week before there's probably no better time to catch them in the league. Still a tough gig though.

Re: Bulls v. Rhinos 10/4/09 - any chance? : Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:37 pm  

Block5Bull wrote:

I think you've got your dates mixed up FA. ...

I only did that to see how many didn't spot it.

: Sat Mar 28, 2009 4:40 pm  

And in answer to the thread's question, we undoubtedly can do it, we've got a team that can beat anyone n the league on it's day, but whether we will is a very different matter.

As I said in my post above, Leeds will be pretty battered from Saints so we're getting them at the right time and I reckon this just might be ours....