JOHN Kear has promised that the Bulls young talent will get their fair crack at the Championship.

The head coach is wasting no time in his squad-building for next year in the wake of Sunday’s play-off final win over Workington.

Loanee Mikey Wood penned a permanent deal to sign from Huddersfield on Tuesday. And securing the likes of Jy Hitchcox is high on his priority list to add to earlier recruits Jake Webster, Jon Magrin and David Foggin-Johnston.

But Kear insists there will still be opportunities for the local lads who have progressed through the Odsal system to nail down starting spots this year.

He said: “We’ve had the mantra that we’re trying to build a Championship team – and a good Championship team.

“We’ve certainly got the basis there and the addition of people like Jake Webster is going to add a bit of quality as well.

“We’re very proud of that (nucleus of young Bradford-born players). It’s the ethos that Andrew Chalmers wants us to buy into.

“John Bastian and Leigh Beattie and company really can identify and develop talent. If you’ve got that in your own backyard, you really use that.

“If you look at Ross Oakes, there’s Ethan Ryan, Kirky (Liam Kirk), young Brandon Pickersgill who was sat on the sidelines on Sunday. We’ve got some good Bradford-born players coming through the system.

“We’ve also got some good lads as well who’ve come from outside and taken on our standards and beliefs and our principles.”

Kirk was left dazed by a thumping high tackle from Workington’s Fuifui Moimoi – who was red-carded for the hit.

“We’re obviously really pleased there’s no lasting damage,” added Kear. “But he was concussed so we will go through all the protocol to make sure he’s ready for when we play in the Championship.

“He’s a good kid, 21 years of age and he’s playing in the engine room. He’s improved as the season has gone on.”

With a fixture list containing Toronto and Widnes, Kear is looking forward to not being the team constantly under the spotlight next season.

“It will be nice. We can point the finger at someone else.

“We can hunt them instead of us being the hunted.

“But I’ve got to credit the players who have handled the pressure very well indeed.

“In all honesty, you’d have wanted to go up as champions. But we needed to do it the sudden-death way and it’s a great feeling that we have done that.”