Bradford are the sole unbeaten team remaining in the professional game this season – and coach John Kear admits he couldn’t be more proud of that feat as the Bulls head to Cumbria on Sunday to face Workington.
The Bulls will put their unbeaten start on the line against former player Leon Pryce’s Workington Town, following four wins from four at the start of the new League 1 season.
And Kear has called on his side to keep that record alive as long as possible.
He told TotalRL: “It’s something to be proud of. We want to win every game we play in because we’re professional sportsmen, it’s as simple as that.
“But yes, we’re proud of that – and I guess the message is: let’s carry that on for as long as possible, starting with Workington on Sunday afternoon.”
Unlike Sunday’s opponents, the Bulls were forced to play twice over Easter owing to their rearranged Challenge Cup tie with Hunslet – which they won to set up a fifth round tie at Warrington.
And Kear is hopeful that, having rested several big names on Monday, the Bulls will have avoided the traditional Easter hangover this weekend.
“We have a big squad and we rotated a vast majority on Monday,” he explained.
“It ultimately proved to be correct to do that with the level of performance and result we had on Monday.
“We still feel we’re in our Easter period if you will; we identified four games, finishing with Sunday, as our Easter. But our middle unit had a good rest on Monday and that’s not going to be a weary pack as far as I’m concerned.”
And Pryce admits he’s looking forward to duelling with Pryce – who he has previous history with. He said: “I gave him his debut for England many years ago – so perhaps he owes me one and he’ll go easy!”
Kear also admits he has some tough decisions to make after the Bulls’ fringe players impressed on Monday afternoon.
“I was delighted with the lads who came in,” he said.
“I thought both three-quarters; Ross Oakes and Josh Rickett, were good – as was Pickers (Brandon Pickersgill). He always does seem to do himself proud. Thrown in Jordan Andrade, Liam Kirk and Vila Halafihi, and there’s some players who did themselves no harm.”
Pickersgill will likely play fullback on Sunday to fill the gap left by the injured Gregg McNally. Joe Keyes is available.
