RESILIENT Bulls will keep getting up from the knockdowns, according to John Kear.

His side resume the Championship beat this weekend against Dewsbury Rams at Odsal with a 50 per cent win record from the opening eight games.

But Kear believes their efforts, while losing several key players to injury, have shown the potential to make it a big season.

Kear said: “We haven’t moaned and groaned; we’ve got on with it.

"I think we have grown stronger from the adversity.

“You can kick them and they’ll get up and kick you back. If you want to kick them twice, they’ll come back at you twice.

“I think there’s great potential for this team to develop and become a really good Championship team within this season.”

The Bulls can see light at the end of the tunnel with the casualty list that has hit them so hard since promotion. Jordan Lilley returns against the Rams and Ross Peltier is a week away from his first appearance since undergoing shoulder surgery at Christmas.

Kear added: “In an ideal world, we’d love to be six from eight rather than four from eight.

“But I’m also realistic. In an ideal world, we’d have had a pair of half-backs consistently playing there.

“That has been the biggest problem. We’ve got some high-profile, high-quality players who have spent the majority of the season so far sat in the stand.

“Jy Hitchcox is one of our marquee players, the half backs are vital to us, we’ve got Ross Peltier who is essential to us in our engine room. They’ve all been out with season-long stuff.

“We’ve done nearly a third of the season without a sizeable amount of our quality. But we’ve done it well and I’d like to applaud the players for that.”

The Bulls have also had to deal with losing Gregg McNally, who they allowed to leave on compassionate grounds so he could re-join Leigh and be nearer to home to care for his sick wife.

Even with a large squad assembled, Kear admits the Odsal options have been stretched.

“I’ve never known it as bad in 30-odd years as when we had those 10 people on the injury list,” he said.

“We thought we’d covered all eventualities – but we hadn’t. You think you’ve done all the ‘what if’ scenarios in sport and then sport will throw something else at you.

“It started in pre-season with Ross getting injured and then Gregg McNally and his sad news.

“You can’t foresee something like that. We’re not soothsayers.

“He would have been our number one fullback but it was taken away from us before the start of the season.

“I’m not using that an excuse, it’s a valid reason. But that’s why I’m also pleased with how the players have responded.”