STEVE Crossley has promised Bulls coach John Kear: Count me in for the hard yards this season.

The most battle-hardened of the Odsal big men is prepared to keep taking the hits in their League One promotion campaign.

As the oldest head in the Bulls pack, Crossley is ready to lead by example and carry on putting in the marathon shifts like he did at York last weekend.

Crossley said: "I think I played 30 minutes in the first half and 36 in the second. I like taking on the leadership role and John's given me that.

"There are young lads coming through and some of the interchanges that will be coming on with me like Ross (Peltier). It's good to help lead them forward and get them going for the team.

"I'd like to think the younger ones look up to me but they are also developing and progressing really well themselves. They will get plenty of chances this year and I'm excited to see how they go."

Crossley admits the Challenge Cup home clash with West Wales Raiders on Sunday will be a real step into the unknown.

There are no game tapes for the Bulls to study after the newly-formed Welsh club's league debut against Newcastle was postponed at a late stage.

Crossley said: "We've not seen them play, so they might be a little bit of a surprise package.

"We need to go into the game focused and stay professional to go full on against them. We don't know what they are going to throw at us, so we need to stay switched on."

The Bulls head into the cup weekend buoyant after the thriller at York.

Crossley scored one of the Bulls' three tries at Bootham Crescent to avoid a repeat of his defeat with last season's title winners Toronto Wolfpack – their only loss of an all-conquering year.

Yet he felt that York put up a stronger fight this time than they had done against the Canadian side seven months ago.

Crossley said: "That's probably one of the toughest games we'll have all year. They were straight into us right from the kick-off.

"I think it was a lot tougher than the game we lost in last season when I was at Toronto.

"The York boys really made it hard for us defensively. They were compact, got their numbers in on the tackles and made everything slow – it took all the way to the last kick of the game to get the win.

"It was nice to get over the line personally and I thought we could have taken a bit more control of the game after that. But York really fought back and made it such a difficult game for us.

"That game will do us a lot more good than if we'd had a big scoreline. It showed how much character we've got in the team.

"We can grind games out, we can 'D' on our own line and stay in it. That was much better for us than if we had really run away with it."