I make a mildly disparaging remark about Bradford Bulls and within 24 hours they turn up one of the biggest shocks in Super League history.

Perhaps it was my suggestion that our neighbours at Odsal are on the slide that poked Steve McNamara's troops in the eye.

But whatever it was, the Bulls responded by contributing to a truly compelling sporting spectacle at Knowsley Road last Friday.

I am not sure that even Bradford's players thought they were doing anything other than delaying the inevitable when they went two scores up against Mick Potter's red-hot side.

And when Saints thundered in for try after try in the minutes leading up to the break, and then added another soon after the restart, it looked all over.

Bradford's subsequent comeback will stick in the memory for a long, long time, although as Saints pressed in the closing minutes there was a moment when it looked like it might all go horribly wrong.

At that point, another memorable incident - when the then Bulls coach Matthew Elliott disappeared behind the Knowsley Road brickwork as Saints' Chris Joynt scored that last-play play-off matchwinner a few years ago - sprang to mind.

McNamara, a coach who has effectively been handed the thankless task of downgrading the Bulls' playing squad as financial reality bites, was deservedly spared having to put in a repeat performance.

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I AM considering starting a separate court report column each week to deal with the various ongoing misdemeanours involving our game's star names.

But in the meantime...

Greg Bird - glassed his girlfriend, blamed his flatmate, convicted - and Leon Pryce, broke into someone's house, attacked them, convicted - both look likely to be running around at Murrayfield this weekend after their clubs - Catalans and St Helens, respectively - shied away from taking further punitive action.

In truth, I wasn't in the slightest bit surprised when Saints 'stood by' Pryce. Having declined to stand him down during his trial, they were hardly likely to start now, eh?

I wasn't even that shocked when coach Mick Potter described him as a "good person", an opinion apparently not shared by the judge at his recent trial.

It is merely par for the course in a climate where short term gain finishes well ahead of any kind of moral judgement on what is or isn't acceptable from sporting role models.

The bottom line is this: if you are valuable enough on the field, you can do what you want off it without fear of retribution from either club or the Rugby Football League.

Criticise a referee though, as Hull KR's Justin Morgan did the other week, and those jolly chaps at Red Hall will slap a four grand fine on you quicker than you can say "See that Ben Thaler, he's rubbish."
You see, Morgan's comments were apparently adjudged more damaging to the reputation of rugby league than all those pictures of the England stand off walking in and out of court every day.

If that's not a mixed up sense of priorities, I don't know what is.