Brett Kearney is the first to admit his first year in Bradford didn’t exactly go to plan.

If it wasn’t tough enough ditching Australia’s Central Coast to decamp 10,000 miles across the globe, the 26-year-old had more to contend with than the harsh Yorkshire climate.

This being England, it never rains but it pours. So, when the losses began mounting up during the Bulls’ worst ever Super League campaign and an all-too-short English summer gave way to a more familiar gloom, it would have been easy to make a dash for the beach.

But this Aussie flyer is no fly-by-night.

Throughout this year’s on-pitch struggles, Kearney never once considered jetting back home and doesn’t intend on doing so any time in the near future.

“I’ve settled now, definitely,” he said. “When things started to take a turn for the worse there were times when I missed the beach but we feel at home here now.

“A lot of people said it takes you a good year to settle in but once you do, you just adapt to it.

“It’s a big change but this is my life now and I’ve really enjoyed it. Everyone at the club has made us feel welcome right from the start.

“I’m already looking forward to next year. Hopefully things will start to go well and I can have a long career here.”

Even if 2010 was disastrous for the Bulls, it represented something of a personal triumph for Kearney.

Having missed all but 26 minutes of the previous campaign with Cronulla due to a serious foot injury, the full back was naturally cautious about his chances of making a mark in Super League.

But, bar a few troublesome niggles, he came through with little trouble, missing just five of his side’s 30 games and finishing as Bradford’s joint-top try-scorer with 14.

The former Country Origin star even picked up the Telegraph & Argus player of the year award, thanks to a string of composed and committed performances.

Few have made the transition from the NRL seem quite so effortless – especially in a struggling side – even if the best is yet to come.

“I made one of my goals to play 20 games this year and get as much time as I could on the field, so that was a positive,” said Kearney.

“When they come back from major injuries, a lot of players say the first year back you will pick up injuries but not necessarily the same one that kept you out.

“You suffer other little things because the body’s not used to the week-in, week-out grind.

“I was happy with some of my season but I was a little bit inconsistent and with another good off-season I expect to be better still.

“But the club have moved forward with some key signings and a new coach. That will help everyone 100 per cent.”

Kearney hopes to play his own part in the turnaround by drawing on past experience.

The 12 straight games lost with the Bulls this season is the worst run of his career but he twice came close at Cronulla.

A ten-game slump in 2006 was followed by a seven-game losing streak in 2007 before a remarkable recovery saw the Sharks finish third in 2008.

After finishes of ninth and tenth in the past two campaigns, the Bulls are desperate for a similar transformation in 2011.

Kearney said: “I had a very similar run with the Sharks when we lost a lot of games and then we came back to finish third the following year with very minimal recruitment.

“I thought I would be able to use that experience to help make a change during the season but it was the same back then. We could be the better team and be pipped by two points. It was a sense of deja vu.

“You want to turn things round quickly. We finished with one win from 14 so you have that on your minds for a while. Come the first game of the season you will see some hungry blokes ready to change things.”