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| Quote Bullseye="Bullseye"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.
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.
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.
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.'"
Great to speak to another Pudsey Lad.Interesting place Pudsey because I remember as a kid my dad telling me you could split his work place down the middle.Literally half loved rhinos and half loved the bulls.
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| Quote ArthurClues="ArthurClues"I miss them. Ali needed a Frazier, Borg needed a McEnroe and both Leeds and Bradford needed each other and the 20k gate receipts that went with it. It just wasn't always apparent at the time.'"
I agree ArthurClues
Leeds v Bradford was a great rivalry which certainly packed out both Headingley and Odsal, So much so that it became a cash cow and both clubs must have earned a fortune on the back of it during the golden years.
I personally miss the rivalry that we had with the Bulls as derbies against Castleford and Wakefield simply don't compare IMO
Some very good reasoned debate too on this subject by Bullseye and Jim too and also without any agendas or points scoring between them either which is a refreshing change to some topics on here
I'm not sure if Adeybull is still posting on the Bulls forum?
But he was also worth debating with back in the day of our rivalries
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| Both Leeds and Bradford have endured financial difficulties which nearly closed them both down.
Leeds offered financial assistance to Bradford by allowing then to keep ticket money and loan them players whilst Bradford did everything they could to take players away from Leeds in a way to finish Leeds off in the mid 90s.
The Bradford rivalry was great for both clubs, great for the game but to me Bradford was never our rivals. Cas was always the big derby to me, the team i always wanted to beat more than any and that still remains.
Just wish we would help out well run clubs who deserve help like Batley.
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| Perhaps it is because I grew up in Bradford during the start of Bullmania, but for me Cas have never been serious rivals. Bradford may be out of SL but I doubt Cas will overhaul their SL trophy tally in the next 30 or even 50 years. Those Bulls-Rhinos games had real intensity and 'spice' (as Stevo would have put it) that I don't think I've seen in a Cas game (even the Sinfield headbutt game).
Since Bradford's demise our real rivals have been Wigan and Saints - even if we did suffer a bit of a dip in recent years.
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| Quote Marty Grrrrrrrrrr!="Marty Grrrrrrrrrr!"but to me Bradford was never our rivals. Cas was always the big derby to me,'"
Yeah same here. The Bulls era was great but we should never lose sight of the club's fundamentals - for Leeds it is and needs to be all about the Hun and Cas when it comes to our top local derbies.
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| I’m probably different but it’s Wigan for me.
Cas is a big derby. Maybe not the intensity of Bradford but nicely that’s a result of the massive side the Bulls put together. My word they took it to you with Anderson, Fielden, Peacock and Vagana. Big part of the spice was Barrie Mac.
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| Wigan is a big game but certainly not a derby match.
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| Quote bdrhino="bdrhino"Great to speak to another Pudsey Lad.Interesting place Pudsey because I remember as a kid my dad telling me you could split his work place down the middle.Literally half loved rhinos and half loved the bulls.'"
I'm from Pudsey too. Well Farsley, Pudsey anyway. Moved to Mirfield to be with the Mrs, which similarly is another area that was a good mix on Leeds and Bradford fans. The Airedale Heffer which was run by John Charles son was great on rugby nights.
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| 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.'"
James Bentley was at Fev's scholarship system before then moving to Bradford (moved with the coach)
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| I hope Bentley lives up to his promise, he's not a player I've seen an awful lot of but plenty on here seem to think he'll kill it at Leeds. Seems a good lad, hope it all works out as planned.
Does anyone know where Corey Johnson will play for Bradford by the way? Used mostly at 7 for York, I'm kindof hoping he'll get a run at 9 for Bradford assuming he's physically ready.
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| Quote The Ghost of '99="The Ghost of '99"Yeah same here. The Bulls era was great but we should never lose sight of the club's fundamentals - for Leeds it is and needs to be all about the Hun and Cas when it comes to our top local derbies.'"
I think we can all agree the Leeds v Bradford Derby was to a degree a contrivance by Sky. We've always been rivals but are not each others primary grudge matches. For you it's Hunslet and Cas, whereas for us it's Halifax and Huddersfield. That said, there's a lot of our Derbies that live long in the memory. Brian McDermott having a psycho moment in the cup and punching any Leeds player that came near. Barry Mac fancying a bit of a rest so randomly leathering Fielden. I also loved Karl Pratt (whatever happened to him?) running in front of the away end at Odsal with his hand to his ear, although I bet you'd have cheerfully put your fist down his throat at the time.
I could never get on board with the "I hate Leeds" mentality though. Seemed fake really and I've always grudgingly respected the sleeve and the way the club has been run.
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| Quote Pumpetypump="Pumpetypump" That said, there's a lot of our Derbies that live long in the memory. Brian McDermott having a psycho moment in the cup and punching any Leeds player that came near. '"
It's really funny how this incident gets exaggerated over the years
My recollection of this event was that Brian Mac punched Terry Newton once, Damian Gibson once and then had an altercation with Martin Massella.
None of Brian Macs punches actually sat anyone on their despite being the only one throwing the hammer, which especially in Damian Gibson's case is laughable as he was only 10 stone wet thru
If that dust up had occurred on the street then I would have backed Terry Newton to be the winner all day long.
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| Quote The Biffs Back="The Biffs Back"It's really funny how this incident gets exaggerated over the years
My recollection of this event was that Brian Mac punched Terry Newton once, Damian Gibson once and then had an altercation with Martin Massella.
None of Brian Macs punches actually sat anyone on their booty despite being the only one throwing the hammer, which especially in Damian Gibson's case is laughable as he was only 10 stone wet thru
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If that dust up had occurred on the street then I would have backed Terry Newton to be the winner all day long.'"
McDermott was an ex-Royal Marine and semi pro boxer. Hard as nails mate.
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| Quote KaeruJim="KaeruJim"McDermott was an ex-Royal Marine and semi pro boxer. Hard as nails mate.'"
Yes I'm aware of Brian Mac's Military career and also his boxing exploits Jim.
With regards to the afore mentioned incident then his 2 free shots on both Newton and Gibson didn't really have either player rocking on their heels and this incident has been greatly exaggerated over the years.
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