IT is an intriguing thought.

If the Bulls had managed to keep their best homegrown talent down the years, where might the club be right now?

The list of players nurtured in the youth ranks at Odsal and currently plying their trade elsewhere is endless.

Take Leon Pryce, Chris Bridge, Ryan Atkins, Brett Ferres, Larne Patrick, Craig Kopczak, Joe Wardle, James Donaldson and of course Sam, George and Tom Burgess.

All of them now play for Super League or NRL clubs.

Jamie Peacock, Stuart Fielden and Paul Deacon can be added to the list of notable former Bulls who spent their formative years in the red, amber and black.

The best two homegrown players to have emerged in recent times are Elliott Whitehead and John Bateman.

As England overcame New Zealand in the final, decisive Test at the DW Stadium last month, it was hard for anyone of a Bradford persuasion not to feel more than a tinge of pride.

Whitehead, signed by the Bulls from West Bowling, scored two tries to effectively win the game for Steve McNamara’s side with a performance that so typified the second-rower’s qualities.

Former Dudley Hill junior Bateman played his part in the centres too, displaying the kind of commitment and drive which have characterised his career to date.

Both men are born and bred Bradfordians and here they were helping their country to a first series win since 2007.

Their success is testament to the excellent work carried out by the Bulls’ academy coaching staff down the years.

Against all that, it is another uncomfortable reminder of the talent that has slipped through the Bulls’ fingers.

The players mentioned thus far have all gone on to bigger and better things since leaving Odsal.

That cannot be denied, but the reasons behind the numerous departures are varied.

Some have gone because of dubious judgment calls on whether or not they should be retained, but it has largely been a case of the player wanting to further their career elsewhere.

Whitehead and Bateman both asked to leave well before their contracts were due to expire.

Whitehead handed in a transfer request in June 2013 after falling out with then coach Francis Cummins.

Cummins wanted Whitehead to lead a healthier lifestyle, Whitehead thought he could play for a better team.

Before long, Whitehead joined Catalans.

He has not looked back since moving to the Dragons and was named in the 2014 Super League Dream Team after scoring 18 tries in 25 appearances.

After another impressive campaign in 2015, Whitehead cemented his place in the England side and is now off to Canberra Raiders on a two-year deal.

Good luck to him.

Bateman enjoyed his best season yet in 2015, winning a clutch of Player of the Year awards for Wigan in only his second season at the club.

He made clear his desire to leave Odsal at the end of the 2013 season after growing sick of the Bulls’ off-field problems.

Two years on, the fee of little more than £70,000 that Wigan paid for his services looks like daylight robbery.

Bateman’s career has gone to a new level since he joined Shaun Wane’s side and his star should continue to rise.

Fair play to Bateman for that because he actively sought to better himself by moving out of his comfort zone in Bradford and taking on the challenge of proving himself at Wigan.

Standards at the Warriors are notoriously high but Bateman quickly established himself in Wane’s side and is now one of the first names on the teamsheet.

Yet Bateman remains true to his Bradford roots and is frequently back in these parts to spend time with his daughter Millie and also take in the odd Bulls game at Odsal.

Curtis Naughton, a pacy winger or full back from Dewsbury, was let go at the end of the 2013 season.

He had only made one first-team appearance, in the final-day home win over Huddersfield in September 2013 (one of five academy players to make their first-team debut that year), but his potential was not in doubt.

When no contract could be agreed, Naughton headed off to Australia for a year with Sydney Roosters Under-20s before joining Hull FC ahead of the 2015 campaign.

He prospered at the KC Stadium last term, scoring hat-tricks in victories over Castleford and St Helens.

His rise to prominence should continue in 2016.

Donaldson was another player to come through the ranks and make his name at Bradford.

The popular Cumbrian back-rower fought back from two career-threatening knee injuries to establish himself as a first-team regular.

When the Bulls were relegated at the end of the disastrous 2014 campaign, Donaldson secured himself a two-year deal at Hull KR and who could blame him?

Kopczak infamously left his home-town club to join Huddersfield just before the end of the 2013 campaign as Omar Khan bought the Bulls out of administration.

Local lad Kopczak has generally fared well at the Giants and has joined Salford ahead of the new season.

Patrick is another former Bradford academy player who has gone on to enjoy a fine Super League career since leaving Odsal.

There are also plenty of players who came through the youth ranks at Bradford before enjoying solid careers elsewhere, if not quite at the top level.

Karl Pryce graduated through the Bulls’ academy into the first-team before making a cross-code switch to rugby union with Gloucester.

He returned to rugby league with Wigan and London before a second spell at the Bulls.

He now works as a Bradford postman and plays his rugby on a part-time basis at Dewsbury.

Oliver Roberts, a promising second rower who made his Super League debut under Cummins in 2013, left Bradford at the end of the nightmare 2014 campaign.

He joined Huddersfield and was tipped for big things, but has yet to make his first-team debut for the Giants and had loan spells at Sheffield and Oldham last season.

Nathan Conroy, Sam Bates and Adam Brook all featured prominently in the Bulls’ academy side in recent seasons and were full-time first-team squad members.

But all three have been shown the door with Brook not having made a single first-team appearance.

Some players naturally find their level and reinvent themselves elsewhere as they get older.

Keal Carlile, Paul Sykes, Matt James and Matt Cook have all enjoyed decent careers since emerging from the academy and into the Bulls’ first-team before heading for pastures new.

There are also players who did not progress through the youth ranks at Bradford but did make their name at Odsal before departing.

Phil Joseph had been managing a bar in Huddersfield and playing part-time rugby when the Bulls took him on trial and offered him a one-year deal for 2012.

He was not kept on after that season but has since had three years at Widnes, earning himself a move to Salford where he will now play alongside Kopczak.

Elliot Kear – another player deemed not good enough to keep at the end of 2014 – is also being linked with the Red Devils.

Luke Gale? He joined Castleford at the start of last season and, after an outstanding debut campaign, could consider himself unfortunate not to have been capped by England against the Kiwis.

There are plenty of ex-Bradford youngsters scattered throughout the game, the likes of Ben Hellewell, Elliot Minchella, George Flanagan, Adam Walker, Richard Moore and Ritchie Hawkyard.

There are currently four homegrown players in the Bulls squad who have played in Super League – Danny Addy, Tom Olbison, Adam O’Brien and Alex Mellor.

Addy, Olbison and O’Brien are all proven Super League players while Mellor showed glimpses of his undoubted potential towards the back end of the 2014 campaign and again last season.

These are the young men that Bradford must ensure do not go the same way as so many of their fellow academy graduates by moving elsewhere.

Rugby league and indeed the Bulls have been no strangers to financial difficulties in recent times, which makes the need to produce your own players all the more important.

The success that Leeds, St Helens and Wigan have achieved with a homegrown heart is to be applauded.

There is much good work being done by Bulls head of youth John Bastian.

Ethan Ryan, a winger, and hooker Joe Lumb recently became full-time first-team squad members at Odsal, while James Bentley is another highly-regarded academy prospect.

It will be interesting to see if they can follow in their footsteps of so many former Bradford juniors in making the grade at first-team level.

As they gear up for their second season out of Super League, the Bulls continue to intrigue, on and off the field.

Current former Bulls XIII:

Curtis Naughton

Karl Pryce

Joe Wardle

John Bateman

Ryan Atkins

Chris Bridge

Leon Pryce

George Burgess

Keal Carlile

Sam Burgess

Brett Ferres

Elliott Whitehead

James Donaldson

Interchange: Craig Kopczak, Tom Burgess, Larne Patrick, Oliver Roberts