Bradford Bulls and fellow Super League newcomers deserve more credit, says Kurt Haggerty
Bradford Bulls boss Kurt Haggerty believes the achievements of Super League's promoted clubs have gone underappreciated after all three upset the odds once again.
The Bulls, York Knights and Toulouse Olympique were widely tipped to occupy the bottom three following promotion from the Championship.
Instead, with nine rounds remaining, the Super League newcomers sit above established clubs Castleford Tigers, Hull FC and Huddersfield Giants after claiming eye-catching victories at the weekend.
Bradford beat Huddersfield, while York and Toulouse – both operating on half the central funding received by the rest of the competition – recorded impressive wins over Hull and St Helens respectively.
"I think it's pretty incredible because if you'd have spoken about this probably around round eight or round 10, I would have batted it off a little bit," said Haggerty.
"All the promoted teams won at the weekend who were supposed to fall off a cliff. It's probably not been spoken about enough. I think it deserves a little bit more credit.
"I think it showed that we've got resilience. We might not have the biggest squads or the highest-paid squads but we all clearly coach well, we've got a fantastic group of men and they all believe they can win each week no matter who they play against.
"You look at the Toulouse score, you look at our score, we're not just scraping over by one-point wins, so I think what the three clubs have done so far is pretty incredible.
"I do remember reading some comments at the start of the season that the Bulls would be lucky to win more than two games. It's always nice to change the narrative and prove a few people wrong."
The next challenge for the promoted clubs is to secure another season in Super League through the grading system.
Haggerty believes Bradford have already demonstrated why they belong at the top table.
"You look at the game at the weekend over at Huddersfield, I think there were probably more Bulls fans in the stadium than there were Huddersfield fans," he added. "The noise they make every week, no matter where we've been, shows that this club needs to be in the Super League.
"The positives of us being back in the Super League are the fanbase we have, the size of the club and how quickly and how impatiently we want success."