Rookie Head Coach Francis Cummins is certainly having to do things the hard way.

After the financial meltdown of last

season, the former Leeds stalwart has had a shoestring budget to work with, which meant he only started the season with four recognised props.

But despite the constraints, Cummins managed to keep the nucleus of last year’s squad, including prized young asset John Bateman, alongside signing two of Super League’s exciting talents in Matty Blythe and Jamie Foster.

Unfortunately, however, their torrid end-of-season run was not what the former Rhinos assistant would have wanted, with his focus now firmly set on 2014.

Unpredictable Jarrod Sammut is the man who holds the key to success for Bradford.

The ex-Crusaders half-back was involved in one of the golden moments of the Magic weekend, as he grabbed an

unbelievable try on his Super League debut against the Bulls in 2010.

And, after a few up-and-down seasons, Sammut has finally begun to showcase his full potential this season, with his best

performance coming against  Huddersfield where he scored a hat trick.

If he plays well, his teammates usually follow, and Paul Anderson will have certainly earmarked Sammut as the man they have to stop.

Reborn Bradford have endured a poor end to the season.

The four-time Super League champions went into administration last year, which led to the redundancies of 16 members of staff, including the entire coaching team.

The off-field staff then dramatically returned voluntarily and, despite losing six points, the Bulls did not let the economic uncertainty affect their on-field performance, only missing out on the top eight on the last game.

After stability returned, Bradford began this campaign like a house on fire, with a surprising 40-6 landslide victory over Wakefield.

They continued a strong start to the season and were as high as third in the table in the early stages of the season.

Play-off participation was the goal set once again for the Bulls, with the former multiple world club champions failing to participate in the end-of-season shake-up for the past four years.

But a dismal end to the season saw Bradford’s hopes fade and their high-scoring defeat to Castleford two rounds ago put an end to their top-eight ambitions.