Quote Blotto="Blotto"he had the luxury of being able to "buy" the Cups during the "Glory Years"'"
It was never that simple, and I think you are doing Noble a real disservice. Even in those days I'd hazard a guess that the Bulls weren't always the highest paid team in the competition, especially considering Wigan's dispensation etc. The fact is that clubs have tried to "buy" cups for years in British RL and most have failed. You only have to look at Wigan in SL, Warrington (prior to their CC win) and Leeds (the Laughton era plus the Clyde, Mullins and Carroll period in SL). Whilst Bradford have probably spent close to the cap (and sometimes over it
) in the glory years the core of the team has usually been based around picking up "average" players from other clubs (e.g. Forshaw, Lowes, Anderson, McNamara etc) and moulding them into a successful unit with a few higher quality players from Down Under thrown in (plus homegrown players).
So McNamara's recruitment (e.g. Sykes, Sherriffe etc) from previous seasons actually fits into a previously successful formula for Bradford. But it obviously hasn't worked for a number of reasons. I would suggest the following possible explanations:
a) The decline in the club's finances combined with the levelling up of the rest of the competition
b) That the quality of SL has improved to a state in which released players from the likes of Wakefield, Quins and Cas are not going to substantially improve at a different club because coaching and conditioning standards are similar already
c) McNamara doesn't have the coaching ability to make the first team perform [ito more than the sum of its parts[/i (not necessarily a criticism of him because few coaches have this ability anyway)
