Doom and Gloom,the end is nigh…the bubbles burst,the wheels have fallen off..rubbish….those were the words ringing in my head from people after Fridays disappointing defeat to Kippax.

Yes it was a poor performance and yes like I have highlighted for several weeks we are not playing that well with ball in hand but lets put some stuff into perspective here.

At the start of the season I highlighted to the players and the coaching staff that we must show a vast improvement in our defence right across the park.

So the 1st 12 weeks of the season were spent addressing this concern.5 games into the season it is by no coincidence that we have the best defensive record in the league with an average of conceding only 12 points a game……I think that is pretty impressive in any standard of football?

The 2nd placed team in our division has conceded over twice that amount!

Like I said earlier this is no coincidence, its down to hard work by the coaching staff and players addressing this area.

On the flip side our attack has suffered due to the fact that I didn’t show the guys much ball during the off season and the early part of this.

When you only have 2-3 hours a week to work with these guys something has got to give initially until you are satisfied of the end product.

Over the last few weeks we have started to address our attacking plays …but  like our defence it is not going to happen overnight.

In the coming months I am more than confident we will be more fluent with ball in hand and couple that with our strong defence we will be a hard team to beat.

All the above said we are top of the table after 5 games and have only lost one.I don’t think that is too bad a record considering our 1st 3 games were all away against some stiff opposition.

Hemel have beaten some good sides down there since we played them and Dewsbury Celtic have looked invincible since we beat them on their own turf?

So all the negativity that came after Fridays game was a bit unwarranted as far as I am concerned.

Most of our fans wanted a tougher competition instead of the run away score lines against the  poor opposition of previous years…Now we have one  some people are still not happy because we are not producing 50- 0 wins ….You cant win?

There are going to be a lot more twists and turns during the course of this season I can assure everybody…things are not always going to go right all the time. The players know that we have not been breaking any pots in regards to attack but as I put earlier I am sorely responsible for that.

We will improve, I have no doubts so rather than the doom and gloom that surrounded the place last Friday night lets get behind the team and show other clubs why you are the best supporters in the world. 

Buttsy.

Well we are finally up and running for 2010!

Pre-season seems to have gone on for ages and its finally good to be involved in some footy at last!

Wigan Gave us just the workout we needed at this stage of the season.

For us it was just all about getting a ‘blow out’ and the lads getting used to playing again.

Whilst some of the lads have played through the winter there’s still around 50% of the guys that haven’t played since last years grand final and the Wigan game was all about giving these lads a run.

We have worked really hard on our defence in pre season and I thought yesterday it was outstanding.

All the guys worked really hard and have listened to the coaching staff and taken on board what we have said.

With the ball in hand we looked really ‘rusty’ but credit to the guys, they kept working hard and over the next few weeks our sharpness will come.

Overall though I was pleased with our performance and it gives us a good starting base on where we are at and what we need to do to improve.

Finally I would just like to extend my sympathy’s to Richard Leese and his family.

Unfortunately last Christmas Richard’s Dad passed away due to cancer.

It’s been a really tough time for Richard but not once has he looked for sympathy or looked for excuses not to train.

Rich is a great guy and a good player and the way he played yesterday tells me that he’s in for a great year.

since i last did this. But a lot has happened since then.

We’ve managed to win the minor premiership, again.
We dropped only 5 points all season.
We’ve a player nominated in the Player of the year awards,
we managed to beat Carlisle with only 14 players. well Done to the 14 that went up.
Paul Drake made his 100th starting appearance for the Buffaloes in the home game against Featherstone.

And the Leigh fans have gone into a frenzy over rumours circulating about them not been relegated. Check them out here and here.

This weekend we play Huddersfield Underbank Rangers, on Saturday 19th September. Kick off at 2:30. come on down and cheer the buffaloes to a win

The Cartelles Logo

Bramley Buffaloes continue with their highlights clips on YouTube, this time featuring the recent game against Warrington Wizards. The track featured on the clip is by The Cartelles, from Cardiff.

The Cartelles formed in the last few months of 2006, throughout 2007 the band quickly picked their feet up receiving radio play from over 35 local UK stations (including Red Dragon FM, XFM and BBC Radio Wales) and playing venues all over the UK.

Throughout the year the band continued their success by playing alongside bands such as The Automatic, Kate Nash, The Streets, Underground Heros and Viva Machine. They also won the XFM Unsigned competition and we’re chosen from 1000’s of artists by the Brylcreem team to appear among 9 others on the Brylcreem Effortless EP. They’re highest point of the year though was having the opportunity to open the main stage at the Metro Weekender festival in Cardiff.

After the departure of their lead guitarist THE CARTELLES made a comeback in 2009 with a new line-up, new songs and an even more positive attitude.

This year is already looking good for the band, they are currently putting the finishing touches to their new EP with new songs that are obviously going down well at their live shows as they were put through to the Live and Unsigned South West Final in Bristol and have been talking with local label See Monkey Do Monkey Recordings.

Club captain, Danny O’Connor said, “This is a fantastic song, we were really impressed when we heard it for the first time.”

“We are having a good season again and this give us that bit of exposure we wouldn’t normally get,” continued Danny.

You can see the highlight clip on the home page of the website and for more from the Buffaloes on YouTube.

The Cartelles can be found on MySpace by clicking here

Mark Butterill, the Buffaloes Head Coach passes his thoughts on the last three games

Huddersfield Underbank:

Lost for words after this game,the guys had done the hard work clawing back a 16 point deficit only for us to lose the game in what was effectively the last tackle of the game.

Once again ill discipline cost us dear and I have told the guys in no uncertain terms that things need to improve.

In the cold light of day though there turned out to be a lot of positives.

The commitment the players showed in turning a 16 point deficit around and turning it into a 10 point lead highlighted the class we have in the squad despite having 5 regulars out.

John Eliker I thought was back to the John of old with his defence and his running…unfortunately though he has now picked up a 3 game ban for getting sent off at Nottingham which is a massive disappointment to John and myself.

If we learn that we cant afford to give away stupid penalties and on the back of that easy field position then we can take something out of this defeat and hopefully push on in our quest for success.

East Lancashire Lions:

I appriciate you can only play whats in front of you and east lancs have been struggling all year but i thought that some of the trys scored in the early part of this game were fantastic.
We spoke all week after the Underbank game about getting back to winning ways and ridding ourselves of the ill discipline that has been a bugbear for most of the season.

Its seemed that the guys heeded my words and really put in a polished performance.

Jon Nicolls and Nicky Fontaine were supurb but Shaun Flynn was a different class in the kick returns, Filling for Andy Mgann at fullback who was carrying a foot injury.

Credit to Andy though, we were down on numbers and he put his hand up to go on the bench and play if called upon.Andy has been fantastic for us all year and hopefully will be fit to take his place on the field next week at Dewsbury Celtic.

Dewsbury Celtic:

This is a massive massive game for us this weekend.

As we all know Celtic always give Bramley a really tough game at their place and again we will have to show the class and discipline we showed at East lancs the previous week.

We are still down on numbers due to suspensions and injuries but travel to Celtic with a quality 17.

As a coach I highlighted early on in the season that the squad was too small and lacked a bit of depth that’s why a lot of recruitment has gone on throughout the season.Luckily so far the extra bodies we have brought in have really helped us though the last month where holidays ,injuries and suspensions have really hit us hard.

Over the next couple of weeks we should have a full compliment of players going forward in the final push for the grand final.

John Eliker is back after the Hemel game,Danny O Connor is hopefully back for the play offs and people like Matty Mullholland and Richard Hulme are back for the Hemel game itself.

Really hope all you supporters can get over to Dewsbury this sat as I know that myself and the players love playing when the crowds right behind us.
All season you have acted as the ‘extra man’ and hopefully you can do the same for the rest of the season.

Unfortunately as you all know we suffered our first defeat of the season last week against the Nottingham Outlaws.

It turned out to be a frustrating day all round to be honest starting with 2 players arriving late for the coach due to work commitments.

This had a massive bearing on our build up to the game giving us no time to warm up correctly and talk as a collective unit.

In fairness though we put in enough hard work during the week to counter this, but players being creatures of habit I guess not having the correct build up kind of threw them off the task at hand.

We started the match poorly and gave away needless penalties which gave the outlaws crucial field position.

My guys have to learn that in order for us to be in a position to win tight games we cant afford to give away stupid needless penalties which for me is becoming a worrying trend recently.

The lads have now decided to fine themselves every time they are penalised, so fingers crossed going forward it shouldn’t be such an area of concern (especially if your as tight as John Elliker).

Like I said if you give a side as good as Nottingham crucial field position you are going to pay the price regardless what side you are and to our cost we found ourselves down on the scoreboard almost straight away.

The frustrating thing for me was that we never executed what we had done in training all week. Sloppy passing,poor communication and wanting to get involved in an arm wrestle were not what we trained to do.

Come halftime and a chance to re-evaluate things the guys started playing how they can and with 10 mins to go I felt the Outlaws were dead on their feet and there for the taking.

Again though due to poor communication and poor last tackle options we couldn’t get over the finish line and Nottingham killed the game with a late try.

Hand on heart they were the better side throughout and we didn’t deserve to win.

it was a valuable lesson for all concerned and credit to the boys that they were all man enough to admit that a bit of complacency had crept into their game and they are keen to make amends this weekend against Liverpool.

Fingers crossed this happens and we get back to winning ways.

Yours
Mark Butterill.

Well this weekend saw us suffer our first league defeat of the year. With a shocking performance against new boys Nottingham Outlaws. Hopefully Mark will sort the failings out this week during training.

Featherstone drew with Underbank and Dewsbury Celtic beat Hemel, Liverpool and East Lancashire also got wins this weekend.

Elsewhere in the game, Salford stunned league leaders St. Helens beating them at the Willows. Hunslet lost another coach and Celtic Crusaders lost again.

We are on the verge of launching our new website.

Again in Co-operative Rugby League Conference we saw some shocking refereeing. But i can’t say that the poor referee cost us the game, that was down to us 100%.

Onwards and upwards

Till Next Time

shambolic performance from the officials in the middle.  The Friday night game was marred by a blatent mistake from the referee, when he awarded Stanley Gene a try that never was.

We are still feeling the effect of a tough encounter with Featherstone, a fortnight ago.  Richard Hulme has been suspended for punching after been sent off for a high tackle.  whilst Foul and abusive lanuage gets away pretty much scott free.  Why do we bother.

This weekend sees the start of the second half of the season.  With a reversal of the week two fixture against Warrington Wizards, who will no doubt be up for some revenge after their defeat to us at Wilderspool.

The following Thursday we play a rearranged fixture against Gateshead Storm, with an 8pm Kick off. 

Last weekend saw the debut of Robin Wilkes who had an outstanding game.  Mark is expecting big things from him, and this years other recruits.

In the super league, Wigan were shown who was boss by the Celtic Crusaders in Bridgend with the Crusaders registering their first home win of the year.  The mighty Hull KR were brought down to earth by a good performance from Harliquins RL, at Craven Park.  Leeds scored a win over the Giants, but only just and St. Helens hammered Castleford.

The international match was as one sided as everyone thought it would be.  The French were missing some of their better players and England probably unearthed a star of tomorrow in Myler, from Salford.  He’s being wowing the crowd at the Willows, but has proved that he can do it at international level.  Lets hope the promise hes showing now, continues isn’t coached out of him by the coaches at club level, or international level.  I have to be honest and say i switched over at half time as it was a poor game and after watching the Buffaloes win easily i wasn’t really in the mood for another one sided game.

Doncasters path to salvation is under way after the fans organised a meeting with the good people at Supporters Direct.  Lets hope they can get it together and run their club.  The Co-operative model is the way forward in my opinion, so that no one person can take over the club.   Now Supporters direct have a development officer, who is a nice person and up for the job, hopefully we will see more Trusts and trust owned clubs springing up.

Especially when the people running the clubs in the championship and Championship 1, realise that Super League is now a closed shop.  They should in my opinion be developing the competition as a stand alone competition in a similar way to the way the Football League is different from the premier league.

The clubs in championship one, are aiming too high, and should be looking to reduce costs and overheads and bringing the level down a step or two, which would allow us to progress and play some of the teams that we believe we should be playing at.

for us to progress, we currently need to meet the framing the future document, which states that we need a ground that holds 5000 people, 1000 under cover, with 500 seats. 

How many clubs in that competition get over 500 spectators on a regular basis?  do the total attendances in each weekly round average over 5000?

The answer to the first in not many, and the second is deffinately not.

The powers that be need to be looking at this and helping the clubs develop as proper community resources, which in turn would allow the clubs to increase their attendances.

Till next time

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we’re half way home, well at least we will be after saturdays game at home to Carlisle Centurions.

After nine games we’ve dropped one point so far, and that was last week at Featherstone Lions in a tough/phyiscal/call it what you will encounter at the millpond which saw the referee flash his card 8 times during the game.

The surprise package of the season so far has been Nottingham Outlaws, who are sitting pretty in third place in the table. Old foes Hemel are second but have lost to both ourselves and Nottingham at Pennine Way. Warrington will no doubt come good by the end of the season and be there or there abouts come the play offs.

Else where in the wide world of sports, the football mob have gone mad wanting to pay £80 million for a player, whos a sulkly sod at the best of time. Setanta look like going into administration, which mean we won’t be able to see any NRL on TV. Hang on till the Origin series over please.

Doncaster are on their yearly trip to oblivion, who knows whats going on there, but they should look at following our model as an IPS and be owned by the fans. Come and play with us.

Liverpool are in trouble as are manchester united as their owners have hocked them up to the hilt with debit, used to by them. How long before that goes belly up?

Had a funday a couple of sundays ago at the Supporter Direct training session held in the new city museum in leeds, make some contacts, chatted with Laura from SD. Good times.

Three home games to come, Carlisle, Warrington and Gateshead.  Followed by an away trip to Nottingham for a mouthwatering clash.

Till next time

What a few weeks it’s been.

We’ve had Murrayfield Magic, we’ve had the demise of the Bradford Bulls as a top four Super League side, been beaten by Celtic Crusaders and Salford City Reds, we’ve seen London Skolars get their first win, we’ve seen Workington Town going backwards, Batley on the up and so on.

How Fantastic is Rugby League?  The troubles still rumble on in Australia with an incident from 2002 leading to the suspension of Matthew Johns, former league star and Channel 9 presenter.  Whilst over here, Danny Sculthorpe and Danny Brough get a weeks suspension for an alochol related incident on the way home from london.

At home though, where the important things are going on.  The Buffaloes are still unbeaten and going well at the top of the co-operative rugby league conference national.  Having a 100% record so far this season, with 14 games to go. 

This last weekend saw us travel down to Hemel Stags who this year seem to be one of our closest rivals, who were running in second place, a defeat to them would have seen them jump to top spot in the table, with us a point behind.

However, the resiliance of the Buffaloes proved too much for the Stags, and with only 16 men, we won 22-18.  One touch judge thought he was despatching trains the way he had his flag up, and was on the field more than the Hemel Coach Troy Perkins.  Read the match report here.

Troy was up to his usual tricks trying to referee the game from the touchline and sometimes on the field as well.  At Half time Troy button holed the referee trying to sway his thinking and after the game allegedly abused the three officials, so much so two refused to stay in the club house.

Post Match there were no pleasentaries, as is the norm in our competition, much to the disappointment of our supporters.  Not to worry we will invite Troy to make up for it when Hemel come to our ground.

On to this weekend and we have reversed the fixture with Gateshead Storm, meaning that this weekend we are away to the Storm, playing at the Thunderdome as a warm up match to the Gateshead Thunder Vs St. Helens game in the Carnegie Challenge Cup.

Storm come to Bramley on Thursday 25th June with an 8pm kick off.

We sent out a press release informing fans of this switch of game and this lead to an interview on Yorkshire Radio, who do us proud in terms of coverage.  JD on Radio Leeds also gave us a mention on Sunday afternoon

Catch my interview later on this week on Yorkshire Radio.

Away the Mow.