“I’VE SEEN the reward posters,” said John Kear. “We’re the Bradford Bulls and we’ve got a bounty on our head.”

Three hundred days after uttering those words at his official unveiling at Odsal, his team had landed their own target of promotion.

It was a constant theme that the highly-experienced coach would go back to every week of the club’s first experience of rugby in the third level.

The frequent reminder to his team that everybody wanted their piece of the Bulls. From West Wales to Whitehaven – okay, maybe not West Wales – but all of League One chased that honour of bagging the big name.

Workington claimed that particular prize, and went on to do it again, but Kear and his men set the record straight at Odsal on Sunday when it really mattered.

Nobody should be surprised that Bradford bounced back at the first attempt. The real shock would have been a failure to clamber straight out of a division where most hold down a full-time job during the day and rugby is the release.

But reputation alone wasn’t going to earn promotion. That had to be done the proper way, whether it meant rattling up cricket scores in the outpost grounds that resembled public parks or keeping their heads against opponents going out there with the main intention of trying to knock them off.

That’s where Kear’s daily mantra of “respect” came in. Respecting the other team, respecting the competition.

He ensured that nobody got ahead of themselves. Any player boasting about this and that was quietly brought in check, the Bulls were never allowed to shout from the rooftops.

Chairman Andrew Chalmers might have claimed they could outdo Toronto, who had suffered only one loss in their promotion the previous season, by going the whole hog undefeated.

But that was never a view shared publicly by anyone in the changing room. Not within the head coach’s earshot anyway.

The Bulls had received 15 applications after the short and not very sweet reign of Geoff Toovey. But Kear’s was the name that stood out at the top of the pile.

With the club’s fortunes at their lowest ebb on the playing side, Chalmers put them in the safest possible hands.

Kear was lured to League One by the opportunity to restore the fortunes of one of the game’s powerhouses that had fallen on tough times.

It was a challenge he could not resist and the players bought in to his calm and measured philosophy.

Recruitment throughout the year was impressive, players wanted to play for Kear – and they wanted to play for Bradford Bulls.

The youngsters who had come up through the ranks, hardened by the problems on and off the field in 2017, found the game time to express their developing talents.

There was the experience and know-how of Steve Crossley, Ashley Gibson, Gregg McNally and briefly Lee Smith, but it was generally a youthful group with not many miles on the clock.

Brandon Pickersgill came from nowhere to forge a reputation of level-headed consistency, filling in so effectively during the frustrating injury absences of McNally.

And Ethan Ryan confirmed his position as the division’s most lethal finisher, defying physics with such athletic regularity that the spectacular scores almost became the norm.

The Bulls finally welcomed back a fit-again Dane Chisholm who regularly demonstrated his match-changing skills – even if there was the odd rush of blood that would infuriate Kear as he tried one trick too often.

With Smith crocked, Crossley proudly inherited the captain’s role and acted as the role model for the younger forwards around him. Ross Peltier, another proud Bradfordian, saw his game come on leaps and bounds with his influence.

George Flanagan proved another wise acquisition as he finally donned the home-town jersey he had craved since his days as a Bulls junior.

The fighter who’d been round the block, his presence was vital when things got sticky and he would pop up with one of those trademark tries burrowing in from dummy half.

Not that the Bulls faced too many nail-biting finales, although the opening-day thriller at Bootham Crescent was a warning sign of what was to come.

Joe Keyes held his nerve to nail a 40-metre penalty after the hooter to break York’s hearts – but the Knights would have revenge by the same two-point margin in the rematch at Odsal.

A win that July afternoon would almost certainly have sealed top spot for the Bulls. But giving the visitors a 24-point start proved too big a hurdle to overcome and York’s perfect run-in to the season ensured Kear’s men were always playing catch-up from then on.

Workington, who had ended the Bulls’ 100 per cent start with a one-point win in April, did the double with a 24-18 triumph at Odsal. Their physicality knocked the home side out of their stride and dragged them into a ragged scrap where there was only going to be one winner.

A lesson was learned – the mistakes were not repeated at the weekend as the Bulls stuck to their own game plan and landed their bounty.

SIMON PARKER