Jamie Langley is cautiously optimistic about the Bulls’ prospects for 2012 but admits the real test of their mettle will come when the new season kicks off.

Few players in Super League have experienced the highs and lows that Langley has during a decade’s outstanding service at Odsal.

A one-club man, Langley was a rookie pushing through the ranks when Brian Noble’s all-conquering side were collecting trophies for fun during the early years of the new Millennium.

The past three seasons, though, have seen Bradford fail to even make the play-offs and Langley, 28, is therefore refusing to make any rash predictions.

The loose forward, a candidate to land the vacant captain’s armband following Andy Lynch’s departure, reasoned: “We’ve talked about pre-season optimism for the past few years but until the season starts you never know where you stand.

“We just need to keep grafting, get into the pre-season friendlies and when the Super League campaign starts we will gauge where we are at as a squad.”

Yet while there will be no bold rhetoric from Langley about what Mick Potter’s men may achieve this coming year, the loose forward has been left encouraged by the quality of the club’s new recruits.

He added: “The squad is looking good and I think we’ve strengthened in areas that we definitely needed to strengthen for probably the last three or four years, so hopefully we can start challenging again.”