BRADFORD BULLS chief executive Jason Hirst has revealed he was 99.9 percent confident of a place in Super League after it was announced the competition would expand to 14 teams in 2026.
The Bulls not only increased their IMG score from 12.15 to 14.81 in just one year, in doing so, they leapfrogged several teams to sit in tenth spot, rather than 16th.
That meant that Bradford were ensured of a Super League spot without the need for them to go through the independent panel which eventually decided to elevate Toulouse Olympique and York Knights.
So how did the Bulls go about ensuring such a leap in scores?
“By constantly prioritising and reviewing the IMG grading criteria on a weekly basis,” Hirst told Total Rugby League.
“By doing so, we identified areas where we could improve our scores, some of them significantly, before investing considerable time and money in doing so.
“In short, our number one aim in 2025 was to secure our return to the top flight in 2026, based upon both our on and off field performance, which is exactly what we did.”
Much has been made of Bradford’s return to the top flight for the first time in over a decade, but Hirst has explained why he and the club were always confident of promotion.
“We were always confident that due to our attention to detail, intimate understanding of the IMG grading criterial and diligent and proactive work, that we’d significantly increase our IMG score in 2025.
“Knowing and having done all that we were confident, to a degree, that we’d finish high enough up the IMG ladder, (partially due to our three straight top three finishes) to gain promotion to Super League for season 2026.
“What we obviously didn’t know was how other teams were going to score, so we were never quite 100% confident.
“That said, once it was announced that Super League was expanding to 14 teams, I personally, was 99.9% confident that thanks to all our collective and proactive work under the watchful eye of our “IMG lead”, Philip Sharp, that we’d return to the top flight.”