John Kear to rest beaten Bradford Bulls players for 1895 Cup trip
Bradford suffered the agony of a 20-16 Challenge Cup quarter-final defeat to Halifax yesterday having lost a lead three times against their Championship rivals.
While understandably “intensely disappointed” with the loss, Kear quickly has to prepare his squad for Wednesday’s 1895 Cup game at Barrow Raiders.
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Hide AdKear said: “We’ve come up short when we feel we had a great opportunity.
“That game could have gone either way. I want to congratulate Halifax as they played a really good game.
“We have to attempt to overcome the disappointment and dust ourselves down.
“But the Wednesday team will not feature any of those players who played today; it’s not fair on them.
“If the RFL want to ring me up I’ll give them the reasons.
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Hide Ad“If Super League teams can’t play Sunday and then the Thursday - which I believe is an unwritten rule - I don’t see why I should subject my players, many of whom are part-time, to playing Sunday and Wednesday, especially when the Wednesday is a trip up to Barrow.
“It’s bloody cruel, basically.”
Bradford certainly had their chances to get within 80 minutes of Wembley but missed young half-back Rowan Milnes who was stretchered off with a broken leg in the 33rd minute. “Losing Rowan affected us,” said Kear. “He’s got a great kicking game and we lost some edge with that in the second half.”
“He’s in hospital and has had an X-ray. He broke his fibula.
“In all honesty that’s the saddest thing to come out of this as when a 19 year-old kid making your way in the game that’s the last thing you want.
“But he’s copped it and it could be anything from six to 12 weeks.”