GEOFF Toovey believes the Bulls players have grown as individuals during the club’s testing campaign.

His side go hunting a third win on the bounce against Batley at Odsal this afternoon.

With relegation long confirmed, it is small comfort but Toovey wants to end the season on a positive note.

Having beaten Oldham and Swinton, they are looking to knock off Matt Diskin’s Bulldogs in the penultimate home game.

“The boys are playing as a team,” said Toovey.

“They are playing for the fans, the jumper and their own futures. I thought they did particularly well last week.

“It was a very pleasing performance, not so much with the style of play but the grittiness and the team spirit they showed.

“Continue that for the remaining four matches and we will be okay.

“There have been a lot of things out of our control. All the players can control is the way they carry themselves.

“It’s been a challenging year with a lot of different scenarios that went on, particularly at the beginning of the year.

“But the players have stuck together through a lot of adversity.

“We didn’t manage to quite get there but I think they’ll all be better for it for next year.”

Toovey has tried to block off any talk about the future among the squad at training.

But with so many players unsure about what will happen next, it has been an inevitable talking point.

“You’d be foolish to say they’re not thinking about it or talking about it,” added the Bulls coach, whose own position is in doubt with speculation whirling in Australia.

“Of course they are talking about it, it’s what they love, their passion.

“But we’ve isolated that when it comes to training. The best thing we can do for all those concerned within the club is to play good football.

“It obviously creeps into their mind but our mantra for the last couple of weeks has been to focus on what we can do and we’ll carry that on.

“The players are a bit more used to it than me.

“I’m new to this promotion and relegation situation and being in the position we were in at the start of the year when the club might not have even existed.

“But we’re coming out of that troublesome period now and hopefully we can progress forward from here.”

His side shared the two meetings with Batley in the regular season. Bulls won 44-22 at Odsal early on but went down 23-16 in the return in July.

Toovey said: “They are a very consistent team with the same sort of squad for a couple of years. They are used to each other’s style of play.

“The last game at their ground was a close one. We lost in the last couple of minutes to a 60-metre try, which was disappointing, but hopefully we can turn it around at home.

“There is a sense of calm that’s come over the camp a little bit. But we still have a job to do.

“We’re upbeat and that’s a positive for us going into these last few rounds.

“We want to play some good football, entertain the crowd and get some wins.”