RAIN swirled outside as the Bulls squad sat silently through a video review of the Swinton game.

Despite the previous day’s victory, mistakes still needed to be erased and shortcomings addressed.

But there was no hint of the Monday morning blues around their Tong training base. Not after the tonic of that first two points.

One man has pretty much seen it all in nearly two decades with the club. General manager Stuart Duffy has become the “great survivor” as the Bulls emerge from a third financial meltdown in five years.

He is a constant from the glory days. Since joining from Leeds on May 18, 1998 he has witnessed three Grand Final successes, two Challenge Cups and three World Club Challenges.

But Championship survival this season, from that minus 12 start, would represent the biggest achievement in his eyes.

“That would be the best thing that’s happened since I’ve been here,” he said. “It would be amazing if we could get out of this and stay in the division.

“We’ve had a lot of things thrown at us that were not of our making.

“So although you’re not going to finals, it’s just as important to be winning these games like Swinton. We’re back up and running and the fightback has started.”

Gary Tasker was chief executive and Matthew Elliott coach when Duffy, now 67, first came to Odsal. Tasker was back working alongside him again during the first week of the “new” club in an advisory role for the RFL.

“It’s been stressful,” admitted Duffy with some understatement. “But what’s been done in a month is incredible.

“We started on the Monday when Andrew Chalmers came in with just myself and Gary.

“Then we got some staff back and got season-tickets on sale and started putting the team together.

“It felt a bit more real. Then amazingly at the end of that week we played Huddersfield in pre-season.

“Leigh Beattie has been looking after the team and we’ve improved every week.

“We’ve brought a few players in so it’s become more like it. I still get that buzz coming into work, even in the bad times.”

That loyalty was put to the test by the implosion of the old club. Even with previous administrations fresh in the mind, nothing had prepared him for what has just unfolded.

“This was the worst one and I didn’t realise how much it had taken out of me.

“We’d been told all along that the club was likely to be sold. Instead it just folded and ceased trading.

“Suddenly everyone was made redundant – and that was all of us. Last time it was just the football side of it but the company were kept on.

“But this time it was final. They’d locked the doors and we were gone.”

Not all. Administrator Gary Pettit asked Duffy to stay on for the rest of that week and man an empty office.

He said: “It was horrible being in there on my own. You just didn’t know which way it was going to go.

“But we’ve seen it happen at other clubs in various sports. Look at Durham in cricket this year.

“If you don’t manage the club correctly with the finances, you can soon end up in this situation.

“It’s a very difficult one to call.

“Do you sign Lionel Messi to win the Premier League and Champions’ League? But what if you don’t.

“Look at the Leeds United situation. They went for it in Europe and see what happened.

“It’s where you draw the line and obviously we didn’t look after the books correctly.

“You could sense there was a situation building in May last year, when we started to get paid late.

“When they asked me to step up to general manager, the big holes were more apparent.

“I’m a bit cocooned up here at Tong. But when I moved back to Odsal you could really see what was going on and what was coming.

“We worked very hard to stop it but it was obvious something really bad was afoot.”

Chalmers and Graham Lowe have taken on the task of restoring a fallen giant to past glories. It is a long, long way back on and off the pitch – the Bulls also need to rebuild trust with those who have been left out of pocket from their latest demise.

Duffy added: “People have been let down two or three times in our case.

“Sometimes it means that you’ve got to pay up front for things because they won’t put them on account. I understand that absolutely.

“This time it’s got to be run properly. It can’t go wrong again.

“I think in Andrew Chalmers and Graham Lowe, they’ve got the right people. They understand the business of this sport.

“After having a security company operator and a restaurateur, no disrespect to them, we needed rugby people. They know what’s required.

“They aren’t here to make money out of the stadium or looking to get hold of the assets. They are here just for the rugby.”