Bulls look for sudden impact as they begin at Giants

The former champions start at Huddersfield Giants this evening seeking to immediately eradicate the memory of last season's misery when they failed to make the play-offs for the first time in Super League history.

As well as having a new captain on board – prop Andy Lynch marks his 300th career game tonight by leading the Bulls out for the first time since his appointment – McNamara has also reshuffled his backroom staff and introduced a revolutionary satellite tracking system to monitor the health and fitness of his squad.

"We have a different group of players, different staff, and we have had a slightly different focus on how we condition the players," he said.

"We certainly looked at the strengths of our squad and tried to adjust some things to make sure we use that to our advantage."

The Bulls coach feels his squad are in a superior state to 12 months ago when they won just two of their first nine games, hindered by a warm-up fixture being cancelled and their opener against Harlequins getting postponed due to a frozen pitch.

"The trial games have been good for us," he said, after facing Super League rivals Leeds Rhinos and Hull KR, as well as Dewsbury Rams.

"We missed out on them last year but this time we've had some very tight close encounters that will stand us in good stead.

"We are as close as we possibly can be to being up to speed."

A clutch of Australian signings should aid their cause with Matt Orford, Brett Kearney, Heath L'Estrange and Glenn Hall all set for their competitive debut at the Galpharm.

However, Huddersfield's players will be well-versed on each when they tackle their West Yorkshire derby rivals.

"I'm quite familiar with them all," said Giants coach Nathan Brown, the former St George's chief.

"I've played against some of them in the NRL and coached against them all for a number of years.

"They'll certainly add to what Bradford have got; three of them come from a very successful Manly team that reached the last two Grand Finals, winning one of them.

"Whatever Bradford do against us on Friday, they will be better still in four weeks' time when those players have had time to bed in."