ANDREW Chalmers reckons the 2018 Odsal squad will see playing for the Bulls as more than just a job.

The joint-owner is excited by the calibre of the recruits brought in by the club for their League One promotion push.

Steve Crossley's return from Toronto last week was the latest capture for a group that Chalmers fully expects will boss the third tier and inject some pride back into the fallen giant.

Chalmers also believes there is no comparison with the squad that was hastily hustled together when he took over the new club with Graham Lowe ten months ago.

"I have to say the quality of the squad for 2018 is much higher," stressed the Kiwi.

"We have players who want to be here and play for the club. It's not just a job in that sense – they want to represent this club.

"We're having a full off-season with players naturally competing against each other to win places in the side. That's the best mechanism to avoid complacency.

"All the clubs I've been involved with, that's always been the case. This year, at the beginning of 2017, it wasn't here because we'd barely signed enough players to put out a team."

The players are discussing their conditioning programmes with new physio duo Matt Dukes and Aaron Scholes over the next few days. They then return to Tong for the start of the gruelling build-up schedule from Monday.

Chalmers said: "Our short-term goal is getting through pre-season with a full squad. The aim is promotion by winning all our games. There is no low-balling the target – it is clear what we have to do.

"The other key goal is (having a run in the) Challenge Cup. It's the same in terms of Toronto, who did well and got knocked out against Salford. We certainly back ourselves to make a decent crack of it."