Bradford Bulls head coach Kurt Haggerty has made it very clear that his side do not want to finish bottom of Super League, insisting that it’s a ‘tag’ his side are eager to avoid.
As it stands, the Bulls sit at the foot of the table, two points adrift of 13th, but they host a Castleford Tigers side without a head coach before then facing fellow promoted side York on the road in round 27.
Two wins will likely ensure the Bulls don’t finish bottom and Haggerty has admitted that it’s something Bradford are fully focused on, telling the media on Tuesday: “You may get some coaches and say we’ve not spoken about it or addressed it. We’ve spoken about it.
“Thas has been the elephant in the room. We’ve addressed it in particular today in our team meeting. We certainly don’t want that tag.”
Sitting two points adrift and with the worst points difference in Super League, the Bulls will have to win both remaining matches to give themselves a chance of avoiding that tag and Haggerty was clear that he had led those internal conversations about that.
“We’re going to have to make some sacrifices in this game to make sure we put our best foot forward to win it and obviously carry that over to York. We’ve addressed it, we’ve spoken about it and we don’t want that tag.
“It was led by me. I addressed it with the group and then gave some of our senior players the opportunity to speak about how they feel about it, and then it’s certainly in collaboration.”
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Despite the prospect of a 14th-placed finish being possible, Haggerty admitted that the club’s first season back in Super League should probably be looked back on favourably when accounting for all the hurdles that have been navigated.
He said: “When you sit there and reflect, and when you’re going through the really tough times at the moment in regards to results, when I break it down and I sit with Jason Hirst and Brian Noble and we look at the things that we’ve put in place for next year – going to Vegas, we’ve sorted a pre-season camp away, we’ve brought in some very, very good players, there are still other players to add to that as well.
“So when you breathe and take stock and look at what we’ve done in the space of less than 12 months, it’s very, very good.”
The Bulls only had six weeks to prepare a Super League team and make the transition from part-time to full-time, and that transition has in part led to injuries due to players having to adjust.
Hoping to remedy that, the club have hired Andrew Dixon as their head of performance for 2027 but Haggerty explained that problems are already being fixed up by his former teammate.
Haggerty said: “He’s studious, he knows what it looks like to play and work at top level. He’s addressed some issues that we’ve had already, which has been really good.
“We’ve had some really open and honest conversation. He’s put programmes together already of what it’s going to look like next year. He’s going to be very, very good for this club.”
Dixon will obviously be heavily involved in the aforementioned warm weather camp, and whilst the details aren’t in place yet, Haggerty was keen to underline just how important it will be for Bradford in 2027.
“We need to pick a place, we need to sort it and go from there. As long as it’s warm, I’m pretty comfortable,” Haggerty said.
“It’s so important because when you get your overseas boys in, usually you get them just before Christmas or just after, so by the time you go away you’ve got your full group, you can sharpen your tools and really put your systems and processes in place. It’s so important.”
