Captain Matt Diskin believes the Bulls squad is well equipped to deal with their latest financial crisis – because the majority of them have experienced it all before.
During the summer of 2012, the club were placed into the hands of administrator Brendan Guilfoyle, who made the entire coaching staff and key administration personnel redundant.
Now the Bulls are battling to keep their heads above water again and last week’s cost-cutting measures saw a number of staff lose their jobs.
Diskin said: “Some of the new players might be a little bit shocked by what’s going on but I think they can take comfort from how composed the rest of the team are.
“We have experienced this before and we kind of know the ropes by now in terms of how to deal with it. It’s a shame when we have started to make some recovery from the last administration.
“It’s two steps forward and one step back but hopefully once the new board get a grasp of everything, then we will kick on.
“But it’s not a pleasant time for anybody involved at the club. It’s a very close-knit group and, through the circumstances in the past couple of years, we’ve had to get tight.
“We’ll build on that and we’ll remain tight. We’re a very honest group and we don’t hide our opinions. We’re very open, which has helped us become a lot closer as a team. That will help us grow continuously.”
Diskin is a savvy businessman himself and owns a successful commercial cleaning company which is set to grow and create jobs following support from the Bradford-based Business Enterprise Fund.
The hooker and his uncle Terry Diskin are founders of Birstall-based Aquabright, which specialises in cleaning industrial and commercial premises across the north of England.
The business is expanding after a £20,000 investment from BEF, which offers loans and assistance to entrepreneurs who have been turned down by the banks and is supported by the European Union.
Diskin is at a loss as to how the Bulls have found themselves in the midst of financial meltdown.
“We’ve just got to get over the hurdle of a cash-flow problem and it happens to most businesses, whether that’s through mismanagement or recession,” he said.
“I’ll leave it for external people to pass judgement and comment on that. But as a group of players, we’ve been here before and we’ll get on with it by doing our job to the best of our ability.
“The only things we can influence are the way we perform in training and on the field come February.
“We have to cut this money from somewhere and it’s not a nice position for anyone to be in.
“We probably all thought it was over but we are still building towards a longer-term goal over the next five years.”
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