JAKE Mullaney admits he is playing catch-up with the rest of the Bulls squad.

The 24-year-old Aussie missed a large chunk of the last campaign at Salford with a torn pectoral muscle.

So the early return to Odsal to kick off pre-season preparations under Jimmy Lowes could not come soon enough.

He said: “It’s Jimmy’s plan to keep everyone sharp and I feel I need to be back now.

“I haven’t played for a long time and I’ve got a bit of work to do before the season starts next year.

“Look at the way the other boys are running and I know I’ve got some catching up to do after being injured. Everyone looks in really good shape.

“I’ve quite enjoyed the first couple of days. I probably need the hard training and I just want to get fit again.”

Mullaney played full back with the Red Devils but can also operate at stand-off or on the wing. His previous clubs include Wests Tigers and Parramatta Eels.

He was Lowes’ second signing as part of the Odsal revamp and is determined to make his stay in the Championship as brief as possible.

“Jimmy has told the team the plan is to come straight back up,” added Mullaney. “You don’t want to get in the habit of dropping down a level if you want to play in Super League the year after.

“I don’t think it’s a problem. We should go into every game wanting to win and when it breaks into the middle eight next year, we want to be playing at that level where we can beat the teams from the Super League and go up.

“If you drop you’re playing level, it will make it harder to step back up when we get into the middle eight. We need to play the whole year at our very best, which is Super League level, and hopefully that will get us back up there.”

Mullaney, like the rest of the Bulls squad, knows they can expect to face pumped-up opponents every week looking to claim a major scalp.

“We’ve got a really good set-up here and are probably one of the biggest clubs in the UK. What Championship team doesn’t want to beat Bradford?

“It’s going to be a challenge but I think we’re going to be the best team in the league and we’ll prove it.”