Quote KaeruJim="KaeruJim"That's a good post mate thanks.
I'm sure the reasons for not producing RL talent are complex, but that low level grassroots participation is significant IMO. It's not like the club hasn't had time or runs on the board of success over the years.
With the ponds, you are kind of agreeing with the point I made - Bradford don't seem to have (for various reasons) established much of a native Bradfordian pond, and so they've been picking up players in exactly the same other locations as other clubs squabble over. My point is then: if they were promoted back to SL, how does that improve the player development pool of the whole comp? That's assuming new player identification and development is a priority, which I strongly believe it is. '"
Two things really. One – Odsal and surrounding area (the main centre for RL in the city) shares its hinterland with a lot of Kirklees and Calderdale. Look at Odsal on a map and a mile down the road to the south you’re in Kirklees. A few miles further and you’re in Halifax. That means a lot of the Bradford “heartland” isn’t actually in Bradford. But just because its not the Bradford council area doesn’t mean the club shouldn’t be able to call kids in those areas “their own” most of our support comes from that part of the world. Elsewhere in the city is more football centric and in the north west you’d have a job persuading anyone in the Keighley area they have anything to do with Bradford. As for the east toward Thornbury and Bradford Moor and it’s not RL or football. In the centre around Manningham it used to be football but isn’t anything now. I guess what I’m saying is that you can skew things when plotting RL development on a map of local authority areas. RL allegiance doesn’t fit those boundaries. I grew up in Pudsey and have been a Bradford fan since 1980! I do know though that player ID is thing we’ve worked on hugely and that’s why we’ve seen the likes of the Pryces, Bateman, Whitehead and Trueman come through since the Bulls came along.
Second point does it matter who improves the player development pool? What really matters is that it is done well and whoever does it well does the whole game a service. We’ve done it well at Bradford and made a better fist of it than most, despite the lack of money or the RL hinterland.
Quote KaeruJim="KaeruJim"Re. Bentley, are you sure a Dewsbury, York, Featherstone wouldn't have taken him if Bradford hadn't? Plus, if Bradford were a SL side at the time they might not have initially taken him either, it probably needed to be a Champ club given where he was in his career at the time.'"
I didn’t make my point clear. Nobody took Bentley. He was a free agent at the end of 2016 just like the whole squad that was picked over by other clubs. Nobody was interested in signing him, not Dewsbury, not York or Fev but Bradford did once we started again and as you say we did a good job with him afterwards.
Quote KaeruJim="KaeruJim"Most players leaving Bradford seem to have good things to say about it as a club, and we wouldn't be sending three of our lads there if we thought it wouldn't be a good environment.'"
I hope that’s right. It hasn’t been on occasion for one reason or another but most Bradford fans with a brain are really grateful for the loan players we’ve had. Leeds in particular have been really good.
Quote KaeruJim="KaeruJim"Fanbase: yes they attracted lots when they were tonking everyone by 30 points each game. Their crowds didn't hold up great when success went though and whereas I'm sure they're one of the better supported Champ clubs, would all those old fans return if Bulls were in SL again? And do they have better prospects of support now than York, Halifax etc.? Honestly I think the club did a great job in the Summer era as a marketing exercise, but too many of those fans were only there for the success and it showed when the bad times came again.
Maybe they are a sleeping giant in the Champ but the club has been run unsustainably for a long time now, and you have to compare what Bulls would bring against other aspiring clubs. Would Bradford be in my top 14 clubs if I was giving out licenses? Maybe, but certainly not a shoe-in for me.'"
As I already said all clubs would see the fan numbers drop if they went through what we did. Don’t kid yourself you wouldn’t see Leeds attendances fall to 4 or 5k or less if you went through the same thing. As I said I remember Leeds getting crowds like that when they weren’t successful. All clubs would be affected in the same way. Nobody is immune. Nevertheless we do get better gates than anyone else in the Championship despite 3 administrations, 1 liquidation, 2 relegations and losing a heap of home grown players to our rivals.
As for giving out licenses we don’t deserve one yet. I don’t recall saying we do. I hope we do get back into the elite at some point but there’s a lot of work to do.
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