MANY Bulls fans have been left disgruntled after their season ended with four straight defeats, but head coach John Kear insists he has seen plenty of positives, despite the end of term results.

Speaking after the 23-10 defeat to Batley in the Championship elimination play-off on Saturday, which ensured Bradford will be playing second-tier rugby league for at least one more year, Kear said: "It was a good performance here, but obviously it's just disappointing how we've ended the season with those four straight defeats.

"But the Widnes game could easily have gone the other way, Whitehaven we were in a winning position, and this game we were as near as dammit as well.

"You've got to realise there were two teams competing (in the Batley match), and we've competed well, but the opposition were slightly better."

This was nothing like the horrible defeat to Whitehaven in the final game of the regular season, but Kear admitted that Bulls did get a few things wrong tactically at Batley.

He mused: "I thought we came back into the game well (down the slope) in the second half, with the middle men really rolling them down the middle.

"But I think we went away from the middle too much, we should have stuck at that, and just kept hammering down there.

"Credit to Batley though, they did tremendously well, and as for us, we've achieved what we set out to at the start of the season (reaching the play-offs).

"But next year, we need to go from being competitive and making the play-offs, to being contenders for promotion.

"That's the challenge we've got."

Kear does not want to discuss 2022 in great detail yet, with this season only just ending.

When asked what Bulls fans can look forward to for next year, Kear said: "Well there's loads of things, like the recruitment, but it's been a long season.

"What we need to do now is sit down and review this campaign, and then have a period of time away from rugby league, where we can recharge the batteries and get ready to go again next year."