Bulls skipper Graeme Bradley bowed out of rugby league with a stinging attack on referee Stuart Cummings after being sent off as the champions finally lost their grip on the Super League crown.

The inspirational Aussie, who is retiring from the game, ended a 14-year career on the lowest possible note with a red card for alleged use of the elbow in a tackle on St Helens winger Chris Smith in the 46-24 defeat at Knowsley Road in last night's elimination semi-final.

"It will be interesting to hear the referee's justification for what he did," slammed Bradley.

"We had made a good start and everything was going well.

"I don't know whether that had some influence on his decision.

"It's not a nice way to end and I still don't know why he did it. There was nothing in it and I didn't say anything that could have contributed to it.

"I couldn't watch the rest of the game I just stayed in the dressing room," added Bradley who takes up a new marketing role with one of the club's sponsors in December and hopes to keep an involvement at Odsal.

Bulls coach Matthew Elliott said: "It wasn't the best way to end a 14-year career and I don't really want to say more about the incident itself only to say that I didn't think either that decision or the one to dismiss Paul Newlove were correct.

"Graeme has been a tremendous influence around the place and I am sorry to be losing people of the calibre of him, Paul Medley and Abi Ekoku."

Victorious Saints coach Shaun McRae, whose side now meet the losers of Sunday's derby clash at Headingley between Leeds and Halifax, said: "I didn't really see the incident involving Bradley and would need to look at the video before expressing an opinion.

"You would need a crystal ball to see how strongly it influenced the outcome but I thought my players deserved a lot of credit after the way Bradford had started.

"I wouldn't be too critical of my players because Bradford's two early tries were well worked but once we held possession we scored points.

"Paul Newlove says he is not too worried about suspension because he feels there was little in the tackle. I hope he is right because we need him next week."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.