{"id":398523,"date":"2026-01-07T23:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398523\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T23:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T23:22:11","slug":"joe-bullock-tipping-barrow-raiders-for-a-big-campaign-total-rugby-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398523\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Bullock tipping Barrow Raiders for a big campaign \u2013 Total Rugby League"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BARROW RAIDERS can push towards the top of the new-style Championship, according to prop Joe Bullock.<\/p>\n

Paul Crarey\u2019s side finished ninth in the old second tier last season, but with the top three moving to Super League and the merging of the divisions resulting in a new fixture format and a top-ten play-off, plus the well-publicised financial difficulties at Salford and Featherstone, Barrow will like many be sensing an opportunity to establish themselves in the section.<\/p>\n

The Raiders\u2019 planned pre-season game against Whitehaven on Saturday (January 3) fell victim to a frozen pitch<\/a>, although they did record a 50-24 victory over North Wales Crusaders<\/a> between Christmas and New Year.<\/p>\n

Bullock said: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing better than getting out there and being in the environment and the situations that games put you in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve learnt a lot about ourselves as a team. It was good to get a win, but there are a lot of things to work on and improve on, which is good too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to look at what we\u2019re doing and learning and improving. We\u2019ve got a real opportunity with the team we\u2019ve got and the way the Championship is this year to push at the top with the clubs that are in there, and it\u2019s important we start the ball rolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to make sure we are in the best position we can be at the start of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bullock is part of Barrow\u2019s quality-over-quantity recruitment drive, which has also brought winger Tee Ritson back from St Helens and led to the arrival of local prop Greg Richards from Toulouse.<\/p>\n

Now 33, Bullock ended last season at Barrow after joining midway through the year from Salford having previously left the Raiders in 2018 to join Wigan, so it\u2019s his first pre-season back in the part-time game.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI\u2019ve been injury-free, so for me personally it\u2019s been getting used to training at night again and the travelling up here. It\u2019s a little bit different but I\u2019ve enjoyed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a good group of lads here, we\u2019ve got a good little minibus of us who travel up together, so it\u2019s been good getting bonds with different people, and training has been pretty intense as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barrow host Scotland on Saturday in back Shane Toal\u2019s testimonial match.<\/p>\n

Championship 2026: Barrow Raiders preview, squad and signings<\/a>Championship ins and outs: Every transfer for 2026 season<\/a>Pre-season Cumbrian derby postponed due to frozen pitch<\/a>Six Again: Big-name Championship signings for 2026<\/a>Barrow Raiders put 50 points on North Wales Crusaders<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BARROW RAIDERS can push towards the top of the new-style Championship, according to prop Joe Bullock. Paul Crarey\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-398523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}