LEIGH coach Paul Rowley reckons the Bulls will be a far stronger proposition when they clash again in the Super 8s.

The rivalry will be renewed in week six of the seven-match run of fixtures that will determine who wins promotion.

Leigh's recent visit to Odsal produced a thrilling 36-36 draw but, while the Centurions were below par, Bradford were missing a number of key players.

Rowley says the return of Jake Mullaney and Lee Gaskell for the Super 8s will give the Bulls a massive lift.

The Leigh boss said: "There is no doubt Bradford will be considerably stronger going into the Super 8s. With Mullaney and Gaskell in their side, Bradford would have beat us convincingly at Odsal recently.

"I've no problem saying that – but I guess at that point we had mentally won the league and it was like celebrating Christmas and waiting until October for your next party."

Wakefield and Salford, the two clubs thought to be in most danger of the drop, have embarked on a flurry of late-season transfer activity which Rowley believes demonstrates a loophole in the system.

Bradford have also recently signed Omari Caro, James Clare, Matt Ryan and Dane Nielsen, who is due to arrive next week as he awaits visa clearance.

Rowley said: "The difficulty for us is that the teams coming down have extra money to spend and I guess that late rush to buy players represents a flaw in the system.

"It is what is it, and nobody has broken any rules, but it is a flaw in the system, in my opinion.

"But we'll be all right – we'll just go with what we've got and see where it takes us.

"We have taken a couple of Super League scalps in the Challenge Cup, and gained a lot of confidence from that, but doing it week in and week out is a different proposition.

"After we played Warrington in the cup, we put a run of really intense wins together. I was quite interested to see how far we could take that and we got to four.

"Now we've got to get to seven – but saying that, there are going to be a lot of losses and wins that we don't expect."

Rowley expects there to be plenty of twists and turns in the coming weeks, making to difficult to predict the outcome of the Super 8s.

"Whether we dictate the intensity of that tempo or our opposition do will determine whether we are successful," he said.

"We are underdogs with the bookies, and they don't often get it wrong, but the challenge is to prove them wrong.

"Our target was to ensure we finished in the top four of the Championship so we can get the same amount of money for next year and that's a sustainable figure for the club going forward.

"We've achieved that and anything else is a bonus. We genuinely just crack on each week and keep enjoying the journey. The only promise I ever make is that we will make things interesting."