KEAR EXCITED FOR FESTIVE FAX CLASH

John Kear has spoken of his excitement ahead of his side’s return to action on Boxing Day against Halifax Panthers – insisting the clash will prove to be a good benchmark for his players.

The likes of Dec Patton, Elliot Hall and Kieran Gill could all make their first run outs in Bradford jerseys if selected, while Simon Grix’s Panthers have recruited heavily in the off-season.

Kicking off at 12:30pm, the trial match is the first of a packed pre-season schedule that sees Batley Bulldogs, Hull FC and Leeds Rhinos visit Odsal Stadium. 

And the Bradford boss is looking forward to seeing combinations develop – and is sure players will be putting their hand up for a starting spot come Round One.

“Everything has gone really well so far but that tends to be the case cause no-one has lost a game yet!,” said Kear, who is sponsored by Bradford Bulls Banter. 

“The mood in the camp is high, they have worked really hard indeed in a very tough pre-season but I do feel they are now ready to play and I am sure playing will be a bit of respite from the toil of the last few weeks!

“I am really looking forward to Boxing Day, and I am really happy with how things have gone so far. 

“Halifax are a good team, they have spent some brass that’s for certain with some of the calibre of signings they’ve made, they were a very good team who will be even better next year but we are as well. 

“It will be a good benchmark to see how well organised we are in areas we’ve worked upon, great to see whether combinations are developing and it will be good to see where we are at conditioning wise as well. 

“There will be no let up in training this week either, we are looking at Sunday being a very structured and intense pre-season trial game and I am certain we will get a lot out of it with players putting their hands up for a starting spot against Dewsbury in Round One. 

“There’ll be quite a number of debutants but this is just for them to say to me I want to play in Round One, that is what everything we do now is geared towards.” 

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