Fielden pinpoints 2005 as start of Bulls’ demise

Former Bradford and Great Britain prop Stuart Fielden thinks that 2005 was when things started to go wrong for the Bulls.

Brafford were offficially liquidated this week, meaning that a new club needs to be formed to take the Bulls’ place in the Championship.

Any new club will also face an automatic penalty of 12 points deducted, hampering their season before it has even started.

“If I could put it into one year, the start of that demise would be 2005,” Fielden told Sky Sports.

“It was a great year because Bradford won Super League that year, but you had nine world-class players that left. From Jamie Peacock to Leon Pryce, to Lee Radford, Rob Parker and Robbie Paul – the list goes on.

“Not only did they not replace those players with the same quality, but they didn’t replace those players with the amount of squad members required.

“To compound the issue, in 2006 I left, Lesley Vainikolo later left, and Sam Burgess and Shontayne Hape left a few years later. The core of players left and weren’t replaced.

“If you keep losing players from your talent pool and don’t replace them, it will get poorer and poorer until you get relegated.”