JOHN Kear plans to halve the Bulls’ pre-season for next year to avoid burn out.

He admits lessons have been learned after the hectic schedule building up to the Championship campaign just finished.

The Bulls played six friendlies before the opening game after winning the Yorkshire Cup, which had been resurrected as a warm-up competition after a 26-year absence.

But Kear insists that was too many – and with their run to the last eight of the Challenge Cup, the Bulls did not have a free weekend until the end of July.

As the club prepare to be rehoused at Dewsbury for 2020, Kear is looking at playing three build-up matches – with one expected to be against their new landlords.

He said: “It’s going to be a different pre-season to last year, I can assure you.

“We’ll see what crops up but there won’t be as many games.

“We’re in talks with a couple of clubs and there’s obviously a pretty easy one to arrange in there.

“I’d like to play three and space them out from Boxing Day until a couple of weeks before the start of the season.

“This year’s pre-season was intense and it cost us a little with our early season form. We won two out of the first five.

“The other thing that cost us, and I wouldn’t swap it, was the Challenge Cup run.

“Between beating Leeds and losing to Halifax in the quarters, we didn’t win a game.

“But I wouldn’t swap that emotional rollercoaster..”