Brett Kearney admits both he and the Bulls remain a work in progress – but that will not prevent them stacking up the points.

Both performances and results have recovered after a disappointing start to the season and Bradford take on league leaders Wigan at Grattan Stadium tonight seeking their third straight win.

But Kearney is not getting carried away.

Having played just 27 minutes last year due to injury, the 26-year-old has been forced to quickly acclimatise to a different country, a different style of rugby and a new half-back partnership in a much-changed team. All the signs indicated it would take time to build, although that will not be used as an excuse for bad results.

“With all the personnel changes, things weren’t going to come together in round one,” said Kearney. “You’re not going to start round one smashing teams.

“Now we’re into the grind of the season, working week in, week out and coming up with victories. Although some aren’t going to be in the best fashion, we need to win those games.

“It’s all about the little things. If you keep working on a part of your game each week, it’ll all start to come together.

“My combination with Ox (Matt Orford) will come, it’s just a matter of getting used to each other’s style and also other players getting used to how you play.

“There’s going to be a little bit of time but we need to keep winning until we hit our peak.

“To be honest, we don’t need to hit our peak till later on in the year if we keep winning. You don’t want to be peaking in round five or six, you want to be peaking in round 25 or 26.”

In contrast, tonight the Bulls face a stable unit that has been revitalised by a new coach. Bar former Bulls scrum half Paul Deacon, Wigan have exactly the same core squad as they did last year and are finally showing the kind of cohesion needed for a title tilt.

Kearney said: “They’re the benchmark team at the moment. They’ve been fantastic defensively and they’re killing teams up the middle.

“It’s a big chance for our forwards to stand up and show we’ve got a good pack here and then obviously the halves and the backs can play off the back of that.

“We’ve got Wigan, into Warrington, into Hull, so we’ve got some fantastic games coming up and we need to win at least two of those games to show we’re contenders.

“It is an important stretch for us but if we start looking too far ahead, that’s not the team we need to be at the moment.

“We need to take every game on its merits. If we put in a good performance this week and take the two points, then the confidence is flying and we go into Warrington and Hull with more belief.”

Kearney knows his combination with Orford in the halves will be vital to chances of success against Wigan and credited the recent performance of the Bulls’ pack for making their life a lot easier.

He said: “I think the Castleford game in particular, they were fantastic. Watching a couple of the tries we scored, a couple of plays beforehand, it really was the forwards that laid the platform.

“If the forwards are going forward, we’re laughing. There are going to be games when the packs bash each other and I suspect this will start as one of those games. We’ve got to get into the arm wrestle and then hit them.”