KARL Harrison believes that operating with a full-time squad will give the Bulls a significant advantage over their part-time rivals next season.

The new assistant coach has plenty of experience of a full-time environment during his previous stint at Odsal and five-year spell in charge of Salford.

He has spent the past five seasons in the Championship, two with Batley and the last three with Halifax, where his players had full-time jobs and trained several nights a week.

Bradford and London Broncos have retained a full-time squad following their relegation from the top flight and ambitious Leigh are the only other side in the division to go full-time.

Harrison said: “Part-time teams still train four times a week. Yes, the majority of the players are working but they do still train on evenings.

“However, with them working full-time, I don’t think you can push them too hard physically because they have had a full day at work and have to travel home.

“You have to manage things but when you’re full-time, that is your job and you can spend more time on things, whether it be on the field or video sessions.

“I always felt in a part-time environment you were holding something back all the time because you can’t give them everything.”

The challenge now for Harrison and head coach Jimmy Lowes is to fashion a winning formula from their 29-man squad.

Harrison added: “It’s a strong squad but you can only play 17 out of the 29.

“You have to earn the right to get into the 17 and you need to play well to keep that jersey.

“With a big squad, you’ve always got people chomping at your heels and we need to create that competition for places so everybody is playing to the best of their ability in the top squad.

“The challenge is to mould a team from this group and there are a lot of new players, so there is a lot of hard work to be done between now and February.”

* Kingstone Press Cider have announced a new extended partnership with the RFL for the 2015-2017 seasons, which now includes the Super League competition for the first time.

Following two successful years as title sponsors of the Championships, the new contract will see the cider brand be involved at every level of the game from England RL right through to National Conference League and community clubs.