Bradford Bulls aim to mute former ace Chisholm

The Aussie crowd-pleaser faces his old club for the first time with Featherstone Rovers to add spice to the clash between the Championship play-off challengers.

Chisholm’s exit from Odsal has divided the fanbase after the Bulls made it clear he would not be getting a new deal at the end of the season.

Kear accepts the spotlight will be on the maverick half-back but insists his only focus is on claiming a first league win in three games.

He said: “I’m sure it will be built up as the Dane Chisholm show. It’s bound to happen the first time we play them, especially with how well he played against York last week.

“He was very good indeed and there’s no getting away from that.

“They can build it up all they want as far as I’m concerned because all we want is two points.

“If Chissy wins the man of the match and we win the game, I’ll be more than happy.”

Chisholm featured only three times for the Bulls this season. His availability was circulated to other clubs after he was allowed to fly out to Australia to attend a friend’s wedding.

He has hit the ground running at his new club with five tries in five games and won the man-of-the-match honours in Featherstone’s impressive Summer Bash victory over York.

That performance included a long-range interception try and Kear knows all the tricks that Chisholm can bring.

He added: “We know certain habits that he’s got and may well be able to exploit them. But we also know he’s got certain habits that can be pretty dangerous as well.

“But he’s part of a group and it’s a different team to what he was in here.

“We’ve just got to accept that he’s left and move on. He’s playing well and he’s in a very good Featherstone team.”

The teams have already been involved in two nerve-tingling tussles this year – with the Bulls emerging as one-point winners on both occasions, most spectacularly when Jordan Lilley’s drop goal sealed a stunning Challenge Cup fightback.

But Featherstone have won four of their last five Championship outings and hammered York 42-10 at Bloomfield Road – a display that has put Kear on his guard.

“I thought Featherstone’s performance was the best in the Summer Bash,” admitted the Bulls coach.

“They were really good, especially in that second half when they absolutely dismantled a very strong York team.

“They’ve definitely sent out a warning salvo across our bows and we need to take that on board.

“Featherstone played like a team who had a fortnight to prepare. We played like a team that had played Leeds the week before.

“Hopefully we’ll be better this week having the luxury of an eight-day prep. But we’re also expecting Featherstone to be very good indeed.”