AMID the turmoil at Odsal this season, there has been undeniable progress in the club's youth ranks.

The under-16 and under-19 sides have prospered and six players have been promoted to the first-team squad for next year.

James Bentley, Liam Kirk, Ross Oakes, Brandon Pickersgill, Josh Rickett and Brandan Wilkinson have penned professional contracts for the 2017 campaign.

The group, who have all come through the Bradford youth system, will follow in the footsteps of last year's graduates Ethan Ryan and Joe Lumb.

Pickersgill, Bentley and Kirk featured in the pre-season friendly against Castleford in January, which saw Kirk cross the whitewash in a victory for a youthful Bulls side.

Oakes has featured twice in the first team this year in victories against Dewsbury and Workington and will make his third senior appearance this weekend.

The Bulls face Workington again in Cumbria tomorrow and Oakes is set to line up in the centres with Kirk at prop and Rickett on the right wing.

Rickett played his amateur rugby at Siddal and is excited about the first-team opportunity that head coach Rohan Smith has afforded him.

"I can't wait to get out there with the boys and put in a good performance at Workington," said Rickett.

"There will always be nerves when you're making your first-team debut because everyone will be watching to see how you do.

"But I've played most of the games for the under-19s this season and I've just got to try and impress this weekend.

"As long as I do that, it should stand me in good stead for next year when I'm full-time in the first-team squad.

"Workington have just been relegated, so they might be a bit down from that. But that's no reason for us to slacken off and not give it everything.

"We will look to do a job up there and get another win."

Rickett is among a sizeable number of players in the Bulls squad who hail from Halifax.

Among them is homegrown second-rower Alex Mellor, who has reinvented himself at right centre in recent weeks.

Mellor was surprisingly overlooked for the 2016 young player of the year nominations.

Featherstone prop Jordan Baldwinson, the 2015 winner, has been shortlisted once again along with James Cunningham of London and Dewsbury full back Josh Guzdek.

"Playing alongside Mellor is going to help me a lot," said Rickett.

"Hopefully, whenever he gets the ball he will give it to me and I'll try and show what I can do.

"If there is a gap, I'll try and use my speed to go through it. I'm quite confident defensively too and I'm ready for the challenge.

"I grew up in Halifax and went to school there while playing my rugby for Siddal but I began supporting Bradford after I signed here as a 15-year-old.

"I got offered the opportunity to join Sheffield but I chose Bradford because it was a better option. I've been loyal to the Bulls since then."

Despite the club's two spells in administration in recent times, the Bulls' youth development system continues to harvest leading talents.

Rickett said: "That's why it's a good club to be at. You look at all the young players coming through, especially under Rohan, and it's great we are getting an opportunity.

"I've got to have confidence in myself and prove what I can do. I'm relishing the challenge of trying to establish myself in the first team."