Bradford Bulls CEO shares recruitment update amid ‘sell the dream’ statement

CEO Jason Hirst has spoken on the difficulties of ‘selling’ Bradford Bulls to potential players, after offering a recruitment update over the past few days.

Hirst’s Bradford were given just six weeks to form a Super League-calibre squad ahead of the current season, after only being told they were in the top flight in mid-October.

With the difficulties of that recruitment window on full show, given the number of Championship players having to step up to Super League, recruiting ahead of next season is proving to have different challenges.

The Bulls have made just two signing announcements for 2027 already, with Cameron Scott joining from Wakefield Trinity and Sam Eseh arriving from Wigan Warriors.

However, with the likes of local neighbours Wakefield and Castleford announcing almost all of their 2027 arrivals already, it has left Bradford fans with FOMO.

Whilst Hirst understands their frustrations, he has reiterated the need for patience, with the process of recruitment being a lot more complex than what is looks like on paper.

In an interview with BullsTV, the CEO provided the latest on transfers, and where the club are at in terms of bringing bodies in for 2027.

Bradford Bulls CEO offers recruitment update

Hirst said: “All I can say is the reality. Kurt [Haggerty, head coach] and myself, supported by Brian Noble, we’ve been on with recruitment for four or five months now.

“People might say, why aren’t you announcing people? We’ve announced two. We’ve announced Cam Scott, ex-Bradford, and we’ve announced Sam Eseh, a young English player, big and powerful, which is an area we do want to improve.

“We do want bigger bodies. The fact that we haven’t got bigger bodies this year isn’t because we didn’t want them. It’s because when you’ve only got six weeks, you can only recruit what you can recruit and most players are signed up.

“When I hear people say that we want a small pack, absolutely not. We want a big pack. We want linebreakers.”

With the club’s transfer targets laid out, Hirst continued: “Recruitment is a year-on-year process. This season was phase one. Season 2027 is phase two.

“We’re looking to strengthen across the board in every position. Is the reality that we’ll strengthen across the board in every position? Maybe, maybe not.

“Recruitment’s not as easy as just looking at a list and thinking, ‘I like that player, and we want him, and we want him, let’s go get them.’ There’s 13 other clubs in Super League all looking at certain players.”

The CEO reflected on the roller-coaster that is recruitment, revealing that, at the time of recording, they were “expecting a contract back in the next few days for one player to get that across the line.”

In the same breath, he added: “Equally, I’ve found out today that we’ve missed out on another player.”

Attracting players to Bradford and selling the club to them is another difficult part of the job, with the side lacking the financial backing of the NRL.

Hirst explained how the Australian competition is a “different world”, which has “billions and billions” invested into it. That in turn inflates the market, making it even harder for Super League clubs to import talents.

“We enquired about a player last week from the NRL who’s likely to be fourth or fifth choice at his club in his position this coming season,” he said. “He’s being offered twice as much money as what we’ve offered. Believe me, for us it was a very good offer, so players can sit tight in NRL reserve grades earning twice as much money.”

Their league position is another problem, with Hirst revealing they find themselves in a “chicken and egg” scenario.

He added: “Players obviously look at league tables, and if Bradford Bulls are sat in 10th and a club’s sat in 5th and both teams are wanting that player, it can make it difficult. Not impossible, but it can make it difficult to attract that player as a club that’s currently sitting 10th.

“It’s a little bit chicken and egg. How do you get into the top 6? You develop players, the coach makes them better, he has them playing as a team, but you also look to recruit. But it’s difficult to recruit when you’re not in the top 6.

“It’s easier if you’re sat in 4th place to sell the dream, to sell the reality to players.”