BRADFORD Bulls winger Jayden Okunbor has expressed his delight after recently signing a new contract with the Odsal outfit and admitted that he was close to giving up prior to his move to West Yorkshire.
The towering speedster signed a one-year contract with the Bulls to extend his stay into the 2025 season.
However, the former Canterbury Bulldogs man was brought in by Hull FC ahead of the 2024 Super League season, but he made just eight first-team appearances before leaving for Bradford on loan.
Having made his move permanent for the rest of this season and the 2025 campaign, Okunbor is delighted to be settled down once again.
He said: “I’m really happy. I think before coming here I wasn’t necessarily enjoying my footy. I was pretty close to just giving it away at the end of this year.
“Since coming here with the boys and the group that we’ve got, and even the fans, I’ve never felt more welcomed into a club ever. So, I can’t thank them enough.
“To have my future secured for next year is really exciting. This club’s on the way up. I have no doubt that we’ll be where we want to be in the next couple of years. So, to be a part of that is going to be massive.”
When asked further why he decided to pen another deal with the Bulls, Okunbor continued: “It was literally just how happy I was.
“Going to training every day and seeing the boys, I kind of didn’t have that feeling before and since coming here I’ve just been really happy.
“I love rugby league, it is a sport that I've played since I was young and I think once I found that happiness again, I knew that I wasn’t finished.”
Furthermore, Okunbor admitted that the strong Australian contingent that Bulls currently have helped to push him towards a decision.
He said: “It’s a massive factor. There are heaps of us in there; it’s pretty crazy.
“It did help in my decision making because we all get on extremely well.
“Even the English boys, we all get on really well which is pretty cool because you sometimes expect a slight divide between the two nations.
“But at Bradford, everyone has just got together, and everyone goes out together, so it’s really good for the chemistry within the group.”
Reflecting on Bradford’s latest victory (58-0) over Whitehaven, Okunbor said: “We were really happy with the response. It was important that we reacted well to the disappointment of the draw at Barrow and that’s what we did.
“We’re still angling for that top two, so this performance was a good start ahead of the final run-in.”
Okunbor appeared to have even more freedom on Sunday, but he admitted that it wasn’t something that was particularly planned.
He joked: “With the way the game went, I think I just got a little bit excited, and it meant that I left my wing and even ended up on the left side at points.
“Freddy (Eamon O’Carroll) has given me a pretty simple job to go and make some yardage, and if I need to make a tackle then I will.
“The boys in the middle are doing such a fantastic job that I only seem to be making one tackle per game at this moment in time.
“Of course, scoring tries represents a bonus too.”
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