My hopes for Bradford teams and individuals in 2023

It was not always the best of times for some of our main sports teams and individuals in Bradford back in 2022, so it would perhaps be fanciful to expect huge improvements in 2023.

So setting myself a brief of being positive, but somewhat realistic, here are my sporting hopes for the new year.

BRADFORD CITY

I joined the T&A in February 2018, during which time Simon Grayson, Michael Collins, David Hopkin, Gary Bowyer, Stuart McCall, Mark Trueman, Conor Sellars, Derek Adams and Mark Hughes have all had a go at being permanent manager of the club.

There was plenty of turbulence last year, with Adams' tactics and attitude impressing few fans, leading to his bitter exit in February.

Hughes steadied the ship, but 2022 still had some real low points, like just two wins in the Welshman's first 10 games, and then a run of three months without a home win between September and December.

But the Bantams currently sit in that coveted top seven heading into the second half of the season.

Andy Cook nets a brilliant winner for City in their 2-1 victory over play-off rivals Mansfield Town in November. (Image: Thomas Gadd.)

A lack of consistency, added to a runaway top two surely leaving only one automatic promotion spot free, means the play-offs look the most likely bet for City.

That's what I'm predicting for the Bantams, and if they do get there, let's hope for Northampton 2013 rather than Millwall 2017.

Given Hughes' successful big game experiences at Wembley with Manchester United and Chelsea, don't be surprised if it's the former.

BRADFORD BULLS

I feel like I bang on about Bulls' rubbish 2022 season all the time, but it really was bad.

A play-off outfit from 2021 collapsed into average mid-table fodder, with long-serving head coach John Kear losing his job and the club winning just 11 Championship games out of 27.

Tense fans' forums only added to the bad vibes, but there were signs of positivity at the back end of 2022, with marquee new signings like Jack Walker and Michael Lawrence really catching the eye.

It is a new-look Bulls for 2023, which was probably just what was needed after the deep-rooted malaise that infected last season.

Now it is time for Bradford to prove that was just a blip, rather than a downward trajectory.

The Bradford fans witness another dispiriting result for Bulls at Odsal in July 2022, a 30-12 defeat to lowly London Broncos. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

It is probably too soon for Bulls to get promoted, but sneaking into the play-offs seems a realistic aim.

Toulouse, Featherstone, Halifax and Batley seem likely to fill the top four spots, but Barrow over-achieved last season, and York have lost inspirational head coach James Ford, though Andrew Henderson is hardly a bad replacement.

He came in from big-spending, high-achieving Keighley Cougars, who will have their own designs on a play-off finish.

But if those new signings click and that new attitude the Bulls players have insisted exists now comes through on the pitch, I'm backing them for a fifth-place finish in 2023.

BRADFORD (PARK AVENUE)

I'd love the Horsfall outfit to get promoted, but there are some huge teams and big wage bills in National League North still, making that task difficult.

Avenue regard themselves as an underdog in the sixth-tier, and know their main aim is to avoid relegation.

They struggled in 2021/22, but were helped by the fact only one team went down, surviving fairly comfortably in the end.

But with four sides getting relegated this season, that main objective of theirs has become that bit trickier.

They sit outside the drop zone currently though, and will be buoyed after recovering from being rock-bottom after 10 games to win seven and draw two of their final 13 league matches in 2022.

Oli Johnson (left) runs off to celebrate his late winner against Curzon Ashton in October, Avenue's first victory of the season. (Image: John Rhodes.)

Boring as it sounds, I'm backing Avenue to finish in mid-table, somewhere around 13th to 18th in the 24-team league, with the hope that they can push on to greater things in the coming years.

JOE CULLEN

If the teams above underwhelmed at times in 2022, the same could not be said of Wyke darts star Joe Cullen, who won his first TV title in the Masters and reached the Premier League final in his debut season.

The Masters is not classed as a major though, so that will surely be Cullen's main aim, and my hope for 2023.

Joe Cullen kisses the Masters trophy last January, but can he add a major title to that in 2023? (Image: Taka Wu/PDC.)

Cullen has already admitted that he enjoys the leg format of the Masters, which suggests his best chance of a major in 2023 might be the World Matchplay in July.

Surprisingly, he has only reached one quarter-final at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, which came in 2018, where he checked out 170 twice before losing a sensational last-eight clash 19-17 to eventual winner Gary Anderson.

But he was unlucky last year to run into one of the sport's all-time greats in the second round, Michael van Gerwen, having dismantled Damon Heta 10-2 in his opener.

If Matchplay success is my main hope for the 33-year-old in 2023, the other is that I'd love to see him earn another crack at the Premier League.

Surely he has earned that chance after coming a match dart away from winning the whole thing last year?

JONNY BAIRSTOW

The Bradford native was enjoying a sensational 2022, hitting six Test centuries, including England's fastest since 1902 in a win over New Zealand at Trent Bridge.

Jonny Bairstow jumps for joy after his blistering century against New Zealand back in June 2022. (Image: PA.)

The 33-year-old was also a key figure in the middle order of their T20 side, scoring a mind-blowing 90 off just 53 balls against South Africa in July, his highest-ever score in the format.

But Bairstow's year was blown completely off-course when he broke his leg in a freak golfing accident back in September.

Since then, he has seen England win the T20 World Cup without him, and complete a stunning 3-0 Test series victory in Pakistan.

Ironically, it is another player from the Bradford District who has replaced him in both formats, Keighley-born Harry Brook, and the 23-year-old has done such a good job, in the Test arena in particular, that he has made himself virtually undroppable for the time being.

Bairstow has gone from being a shoo-in in both formats to now needing to fight for his place when he returns.

Hopefully, given his sensational form before his injury, he gets that chance he deserves.

The Test series in New Zealand next month comes too soon for him, but we can all hope for him to explode back into life in his expected return at the IPL with Punjab Kings in March.

It is a competition he has excelled in in the past, and beyond doing well in that, he and I are hoping for him to star in the 2023 Ashes, as well as be a key figure in England's attempts to retain the 50-over World Cup crown this autumn in India.