JIMMY Lowes won everything as a player during his glittering Bulls career but he insists: As a coach I have proved nothing yet.

The legendary former hooker is revered by Bradford supporters following his glorious spell at Odsal after arriving from Leeds in 1996.

But he says he still has to prove himself as a head coach to the legions of Bulls followers who are hoping he can guide the club back into Super League.

Lowes said: “Our supporters are fantastic and once you show that you’re for the cause, they will turn out to support you as they always have done for many years.

“But you’ve got to earn the right to get their backing.

“I came here from Leeds and I wasn’t the most popular signing, so I had to earn that right as a player.

“I have to do that as a coach as well because I haven’t proved anything yet. I enjoyed my time here as a player and now I want to achieve as a coach.

“To do that, I need to be good and I need the team to be good as well and have good support around me and from above as well.

“We went down last year but the feel of the place is very good.

“We have had some functions of late which have been well attended and everything has been pretty good on that front.

“Relegation is never the best thing. You can take stock and do a clean sweep but you don’t have to get relegated to do that.

“If we had stayed up, we would still have had to rebuild and I think that’s how you’ve got to look at it.

“We weren’t good enough to stay up and we would have started the rebuilding process whether we had stayed up or not.”

The Bulls are missing several players this weekend and Lowes does not expect his team to be firing fully until at least round four.

He added: “You never go into the season firing on all cylinders, no matter how many friendlies you play.

“I reckon it takes between four and six weeks to get up to speed in any league competition and we’ll probably start the season a bit undercooked.

“But the people who know the game know that weekend’s match has no bearing other than a win or a loss.

“It’s as simple as that and will not determine where we will finish in the league.”