Mark Dunning left furious at Bradford’s defeat to Barrow as he tears into performance

Mark Dunning is furious after the Bradford Bulls lost 46-12 to the Barrow Raiders yesterday afternoon.

It is three defeats on the spin after some impressive signings at the start of the season as well as some good performances early in the season.

Speaking on West Yorkshire Radio, Dunning said he was “spewing.”

“I’m absolutely spewing, absolutely spewing because I’ve just witnessed a group of men quit in a Bradford Bulls shirt and I’ve never seen that before. I’m spewing, I’m absolutely furious.”

When asked about the effort from his side, he addedL

“I think we did show it in the first half. We were winning the game 6-4 and we spoke at half time about sticking to the process and still having jobs to do, but they’ve come out and disrespected the ball, disrespected everything that we’d shown them.

“I’ve just had a really honest conversation with the players there and there’s hands in the air already saying ‘yeah we should have done that’. Rubbish! It’s not good enough.”

He has also warned his players that personnel will change after the defeat:

“They’ve just been told, personnel is going to change. Yes we’ve got an injury list but personnel has got to change.

“There’s some individuals, not all of them, but some that when we look back on video I think they’ve quit. I think they’ve tapped out because it was too hard, too hot and too tough for them and they’re not characteristics of Bulls players.”

He also labelled the fact that they lost the second half 42-6 as embarrassing:

“It’s embarrassing. It’s not frustrating but it’s embarrassing. Absolutely embarrassing and I’ve just told the players that.

“I’m a massive advocate for everything we do, we do together as one group and straight away the players are down there apologising to me ‘we’ve let you down again’.

“I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to hear it because it doesn’t do anybody any good. Stop apologising and make sure your actions are louder than your words.

Speaking of letting down, Dunning also said he was devastated for the fans:

“I’m absolutely devastated for the fans. This is Barrow’s biggest gate due to our fans behind the sticks there and some of them have been here all weekend, paying hard earned money in a cost of living crisis and they’ve watched that. It’s not acceptable and on behalf of the players and everybody I apologise to those who have turned up today because that’s nowhere near good enough.”

He refused to let the players take all the blame however:

“We do everything together and I’d never abandon my players ever, I’ll never throw them under the bus but there’s a lot who need to take a long hard look at themselves.

“A lot of the time in sport things are put on one man’s shoulders but I think everybody at the game today sees there’s a few individuals that need to look at themselves.

“I’m spewing and I’m absolutely livid and that’s all I can say on camera. How can you find a positive from that? There’s none, none at all.”