Bradford Bulls boss Kurt Haggerty has insisted that more high-profile signings will arrive at Bradford Bulls in 2027, but is keen to keep the focus on the here and now rather than next season.
Bulls suffered another defeat this evening, this time at the hands of Wigan Warriors, who secured a 34-6 victory at Odsal, in their first return to the stadium in 12 years.
Bradford got on the board through Andy Ackers, who crossed for his first try of the season, but attacking opportunities were few and far between for a home side that had a number of returning players involved.
Despite the defeat, Haggerty said that his side were “better than last week,” with improvements clear after their 42-4 loss to Warrington in round 22.
“That was the big thing for us,” he told Sky Sports. “There’s some areas we needed to fix up. We did that tonight in regards to last week’s performance, so lots of effort. Application was good. We just didn’t have enough quality there to get the win.
With Wigan in such a hot vein of form, even a full-strength side would have struggled to cope with them, so not being beaten on effort was the main positive for Haggerty today.
“Yeah, they did [give their all]. They do nearly every week. It’ll look a bit different in review this week. We’ll look at moments that we’ve lost, which is a good thing for us.
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“We’ve got a lot of young kids out there learning what Super League looks like. There’s a lot of inexperience, but these moments are great for them. They’ll learn and we’ll get better.”
Bradford Bulls boss cautious of 2027 talk amid recent signing announcements
With four games left of the regular season and play-offs no longer a possibility, most Bradford fans are arguably just waiting for next season now, especially when a trip to Las Vegas in on the cards.
However, that is certiainly not the case for Haggerty, who implores his side to stay focused on the now, rather than the futute.
Bradford have made a number of big signing announcements in the past week or so, announcing the returns of John Bateman and James Bentley to the club.
Whilst that creates noise about the club away from the field, the boss wants the talk to remain on what his side are doing now
“I’m always really careful when I answer this, because there’s still games to play. We’ve got another big game at Leigh [next week].
“There’s a lot of things happening off the field, recruitment, getting better and bigger in every areas of the club, but we’re still on a journey this year.
“I want the boys who are with us for the rest of this year to enjoy the journey, because they’re a big part of the Bulls being back in Super League, and we need to celebrate that. Publicly, I don’t want to look forward too much.”
Despite that, Haggerty said on those signings: “I think the club’s done some incredible work, getting the calibre of player over the line that we’ve managed to get in, and there will be more coming.
“But again, publicly, I won’t want to speak about it too much, because I’ve still got a group that are scrapping every week and competing.”
