John Kear gives injury update, comments on arriving loan talent and brands Leeds as “formidable” after pre-season friendly

John Kear believed that his side’s performance in today’s pre-season friendly against Leeds was very encouraging as they prepare for the start of their Championship season next week against Dewsbury.

The Bulls were particularly impressive in the first half in which they showed great defensive resolve to keep Leeds at bay and even took a 12-0 lead.

Despite a 30-0 second half loss, Kear was pleased with what what he saw from his players: “I thought it was very useful, we had certain aspects we needed to fix up and improve and we certainly did that in the first half.

“I thought we were very good in the first half, possession was dominated by them but we showed great resolve and work ethic to keep them out and took two chances, so I was delighted at halftime.

“They’d had seven sets to one and didn’t break us and that was very encouraging.

“In the second half, the weight of possession killed us and also I put a load of kids on.”

Against an under-strength Leeds side, the Bulls were missing a number of key players themselves which was worsened when Aaron Murphy went off injured this afternoon.

Kear did explain the absence of two key players this afternoon however: “Tom Doyle was a slight injury risk so we didn’t want to risk him and Ben Evans has a Covid issue from this morning.”

Interestingly, Kear was able to watch three of his squad play for the opposition today with Muizz Mustapha, Jarrod O’Connor and Corey Johnson all set to join the Bulls on loan and all impressing for Leeds today.

Kear noted just how impressed he was by the trio: “Jarrod O’Connor does some work doesn’t he? I think with Muizz Mustapha and Matty Dawson-Jones I’ll have to act as peace maker with that one but the Leeds trio are very good players but I thought George Flanagan put his hand up to say ‘you’re not taking my spot’ to Corey Johnson.

“O’Connor’s work rate has blown me away, I thought in the first half they were playing six O’Connors.”

On the trio’s impending arrival and when they’ll join his squad, Kear said: “I’ll be giving Richard [Agar] a ring early this week.”

Johnson’s move brings into question Billy Jowitt’s place in the halves. Jowitt has impressed pre-season since Jordan Lilley’s injury and notched an assist today, but with Johnson’s ability to play as six or seven it means Jowitt has another competitor to fend off: “Billy Jowitt has worked hard all pre-season and done well in these first three games but obviously one of the times Corey Johnson caught my eyes was for York against us last year when he played in the halves.”

Kear did note the quality of the Leeds’ youngsters as a whole and branded their squad as “formidable” going into the new season: “I think Leeds can be very happy as well, it showed they have some very good emerging talent and their strength when you’ve got Bodene Thompson on the bench. It shows they’re going to be formidable.”

Perhaps the best bit about today was the return of a huge fixture and the great atmosphere that comes with it. Kear certainly agreed especially with a bit of biff adding the old Bradford-Leeds spark: “It was a great atmosphere, when there was that dust up in the first half it was like a proper Leeds-Bradford derby, we don’t want to bring back the biff but it certainly made things interesting.”