Contract talks not top of Sykes’ agenda (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Contract talks not top of Sykes’ agenda

7:30am Friday 19th March 2010 in

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Paul Sykes has put any thoughts of a new deal on hold to concentrate on aiding the Bulls’ charge up the Super League table.

Bottom after their first two games, Bradford have won three of their last four to sit eighth ahead of tonight’s visit to Hull FC (8pm).

But last week’s 33-8 defeat at Warrington made it clear there is still plenty of room for improvement, meaning off-field matters have taken a back seat.

Sykes signed a one-year deal midway through last season, taking him through until the end of this year, and understands he still needs to prove his worth if his stay is to be extended.

He said: “We’ve not started talks yet. It’s not even in my mind at the moment, I just want to play rugby and concentrate on winning games and improving my own performance.

“I’ve had a good few years here but I’ve just got to wait and see.

“I think I’ve been doing pretty well so far. I worked on a few things in the off-season, a bit of fitness and a couple of other areas and it seems to be paying off.”

Sykes scored one of his side’s two tries at Warring-ton, taking him ever closer to a career milestone.

The 28-year-old utlity back now needs only 21 points to bring up 1,000 for his career but credits his team-mates for their own part in him reaching individual goals.

“It’s a nice milestone for myself but that comes later,” said Sykes.

“I just have to focus on this weekend and the following weeks to come.

“It’s always good to get over the line, especially as I didn’t score for the first couple of games.

“When we all work together it’s easy because we all have set goals.

“We get a lot of opportunities in this team because we’ve got a lot of skilful players, so I just hope I can get a few more tries!”

Tonight’s trip to fifth-placed Hull signals the end of a testing three-week spell.

The past two weeks have yielded two points against Super League’s current top two and Sykes knows victory at the KC Stadium would set a strong platform for the Bulls, especially with the congested Easter period just around the corner.

He said: “The Easter period is coming up soon.

“If we can string a couple more wins together, when it starts getting drier, the sun’s out a bit more and we can start throwing the ball about a bit, then it’s going to change again.

“A couple of wins would set us a good platform, then we get three games over Easter which are all winnable games and we’ll be able to see where we’re at after Easter.”