BRADFORD BULLS are back in Super League! Please indulge me, just for a few minutes, while I take off my editor’s cap and revel in a moment of just being a fan of the former champions.
My first memories of supporting the Bulls were in the early days of Super League, when a game day was about so much more than the action on the pitch. The razzmatazz, the noise and the experience of Bullmania made the whole event something special.
It’s something I have definitely missed in the last 11 years, and I am not naive enough to think all that will return overnight, but it’s a start.
I can be a bit old-fashioned sometimes, so would I have preferred to earn promotion back in the traditional way of winning a Grand Final, having that sense of euphoria that comes with being champions, rather than it being decided partly on spreadsheets, social media hits and business finances? Probably!
But will I care when the fireworks are popping as the Bulls walk out against the likes of Leeds, Wigan and St Helens once again, in front of, hopefully, near-full terraces at Odsal? Probably not, and I expect that will be a feeling shared by many of my fellow supporters.
Now, switching hats back to my role of editor of this publication, let’s look at the promotion of Bradford, Toulouse and York from a more neutral and rational point of view.
On the surface, whether by intention or coincidence, the three top clubs in the Championship have all been promoted, with the team that finished bottom of Super League being relegated. Anyone looking on from outside the game, who doesn’t know about IMG’s involvement, will think rugby league operates in the same way as many other sports – which we all know it doesn’t.
Bradford made the grade by concentrating their efforts throughout the season on the areas they knew would boost their IMG score. That has subsequently seen the club jump up that particular table to 10th from last season’s 16th place, meaning they automatically replace Salford who slipped to 15th
Two issues ago I wrote on this very page that: “if IMG points were brought in to effectively rate which clubs are the best adapted for Super League, then they should be used to determine the full line up of Super League.” And that’s exactly how it turned out, with Toulouse and York finishing 13th and 14th respectively.
So while it might seem like everything has worked out just right, there is still one part of the expanded Super League that niggles me, despite Bradford being the main benefactor of it. And that’s central funding distribution.
By qualifying as one of the top 12 teams, Bradford gets a full and equal share of the pot when it comes to the RFL’s central funding, while York and Toulouse won’t.
The exact amount they’ll get, in comparison to the other 12, still isn’t know. But it hardly seems fair that the team that won the Championship Grand Final – Toulouse, and the team that won the League Leaders’ Shield and the 1895 Cup at Wembley – York, will get less financial support than a team who finished lower than them both and finished the season trophy-less.
It is going to be hard enough for the promoted teams to compete in Super League anyway given the lateness of finding out they’re going to be in the top flight. To then expect them to do that while not on a level financial playing field with the other 12 does seem very unfair.
As much as I am looking forward to Bradford being back in the big time I am expecting a season of struggle at the wrong end of the table.
For all three promoted clubs, this is only the first step in a long journey to becoming an established Super League presence. So it is very much not a case of job done. The really hard work starts now.
But that is all about next year, and I cannot finish this column without mentioning how this season finished.
I have long since been dreaming about the day we get a new name on the Super League trophy, and that day came on 11th October when Hull KR completed the treble and joined Bradford, Wigan, Leeds and Saints in being able to call themselves Super League Champions.
As I wrote this time last year, I always go to the final as a supporter, rather than attending in a journalistic capacity, and I think this year’s was the most enjoyable one I’ve witnessed in a long time.
I was sat in and amongst a majority of Hull KR supporters and it was impossible not to get caught up in their enthusiasm at the thought of creating a little slice of history.
The sense of belief emanating from the noisy Robins contingent felt so much different than last year, and once they took the lead early on, it really did feel like they were never going to let it slip – the energy from their fans probably wouldn’t let it.
Just nine years ago, at the end of 2016, Hull KR suffered relegation to the Championship, and their Grand Final victory in 2025 topped off a quite remarkable climb back to the top.
Bradford, York and Toulouse could do a lot worse than taking inspiration from Willie Peters’ side that in rugby league, as in any walk of life, anything is possible, with the right attitude, work ethic and self-belief.
First published in Rugby League World magazine, Issue 514 (November 2025)