JOHN Kear wished every League One club had played an Easter double header like the Bulls.

The back-to-back successes against Oldham and Hunslet underlined the depth of the Odsal squad at his disposal.

It highlighted the advantage that Kear has over other coaches in the division with the opportunity to mix and match.

The veteran coach admits he wouldn’t have minded seeing how their rivals coped in the same situation.

Kear said: “If you’re looking at the Easter period, for quality of games you wouldn’t have wanted to play on both Good Friday and Easter Monday.

“But I would have loved every team in this division to have played both. I think that would have played into our hands.

“But it is what it is and we’ve done what we set out to do.

“I honestly believe we’ve got 24-25 players able to play this level of rugby league and that’s a great luxury.

“It covers your injuries and loss of form and allows rest and rotation.”

Sam Hallas, Callum Bustin and George Milton are all in contention for Sunday’s trip to Workington after being rested in the Challenge Cup win over Hunslet.

Kear had made wholesale changes at the South Leeds Stadium and the performance demonstrated the current competition to be in his plans.

He added: “The lads who came in deserve a pat on the back – Vila Halifihi, Liam Kirk, Jordan Andrade, Brandon Pickersgill, Ross Oakes and Josh Rickett. They really energised us and we were enthused by it.

“We also managed to put Steve Crossley out there for 40 minutes, which is the least we’ve played him all season.

“I feel we’ve looked after the players and we’ll be ready for the weekend against Workington.

“We’re in a good place at the minute but that’s only because we’ve all worked very hard and applied ourselves really well. We need to continue to do that.”

Kear is hopeful that Joe Keyes will pass his concussion test and be cleared for the Cumbrian clash. Winger Dalton Grant could also be available after being left out on Monday as a precaution against tearing his tight hamstring.

Gregg McNally is definitely ruled out with a grade-one muscle tear in his quad. The Bulls will pace his recovery as they have done in the early part of the season with Dane Chisholm.

Kear said: “I don’t think we’ll see Gregg for two to four weeks.

“I feel the best case we’ll get him back will be Warrington in the cup. The worst will be against Doncaster the week after.

“He’s a good player but we’ll nurse him. We’ve got to be like we have been with Dane.

“We know his quality and we’ll have to make sure that when he returns to play, he’s back and firing on all cylinders.

“We’ve shown we’ve handled Dane in the proper manner and he’s repaying us for that.”