Jayden Myers targets Super League with Bradford Bulls

Back in July, the Odsal academy product signed a new two-year deal – keeping him at the club until at least the end of 2025.

Now, with Bradford fighting for promotion in the season’s closing stages, the lure of reaching the promised land with his boyhood club was something that Myers couldn’t pass up.

Speaking to the T&A, he said: “My main goal is to help get this great club back to where they belong; that’s why I stayed at Bradford despite getting a couple of offers to go elsewhere. It’s been a dream of mine since I’ve been in the academy.

“We didn’t finish where we wanted to last year but knowing what we know around camp and how well we are going to do moving forward, it’s something that I really want to be a part of. Getting promoted would be class and I think that this year we have a great chance. On paper, obviously some might disagree, but I think we’ve got the best team in the league.

“To get promoted with this group of lads would mean a lot to me and my family. I’ve spoken to Jason (Hirst) about this, but I want to go into fulltime rugby and getting promoted would allow us to do that. Everyone is on the same page, so I think we’ll push to get the win on Sunday and then we can turn our focus to two very tough away games against London and Sheffield.”

Reflecting on the Featherstone game on Sunday, Myers admitted that Bulls have gained belief that they can compete with the very best teams in the Betfred Championship.

He said: “It’s given us a massive amount of encouragement ahead of a potential playoff showdown with not just Featherstone, but teams like Toulouse. There are things to work on, while people also forget that we were missing a few key players like Ben Blackmore and Jorge Taufua, two players who are very strong runners in this team.”

He added: “There are definitely positives to take from the performance and I think that if we get Featherstone in the playoffs, then we’ll go after them.”

Despite defeat on Sunday, Myers revealed that the mood in the dressing room after the game was one of optimism rather than regret.

He said: “Obviously, we went into the fixture wanting to win but we knew it was going to be a big challenge because they are at the top of the table and they’re the team that everyone wants to beat. Each player displayed a great amount of effort and for 60 minutes of the game, we were exactly where we wanted to be, however we fell off in that last 20 minutes.

“At half-time, we felt that we were comfortable and we knew what we needed to do, so to lose in the end was disappointing. However, I feel the overriding feeling in the dressing room after the game was positive because it’s exciting knowing that if we play them again this season, then I think we’ll do a job on them.”

Jayden Myers scoring his try against Swinton Lions in the previous fixture (Image: Tom Pearson)

Myers occupied the right-wing spot on Sunday, with both Blackmore and Connor Wynne absent from the matchday 17, while dual registration winger Liam Tindall wasn’t needed despite making the original 21-man squad.

Discussing his starting birth in an unfamiliar position, Bradford’s academy star said: “It wasn’t a surprise to be fair (Lee Greenwood naming Myers on the wing). Nobby (Brian Noble) and Greeny (Lee Greenwood) kept me in the loop, and we all knew that Ben Blackmore would be out with a back injury.

“So, the decision to start me on the wing was based around Tindall coming in or not, but the coaches have said since their arrival that they’d avoid picking other players over their own if they didn’t need to. So, he gave me the shot to play instead of Tindall and he trusted me to do it. I’d been training there during the week, so it set me up better for Sunday.”

Myers added: “It’s not a position I’m usually familiar to, but I enjoyed it. When you have players like Brad England, Lee Gaskell and Joe Arundel supporting you it makes life so much easier. I felt fairly comfortable because of that. For me, I’ll play wherever the manager tells me to play because it means I’m getting gametime.”

Not only did Myers impress on the right wing, but he also got a try of his own to make it two-in-two following his scoring effort at Swinton Lions a week earlier.

“It was really nice to get a try,” the youngster said.

“It’s a big moment for me because when you play against Featherstone, you’re playing against some legends of the game, so to be able to score against them was great fun.”

As his gametime increases, Myers admitted that he’s feeling the connection between him and his teammates grow week-by-week.

He said: “Watching the game back, for my try Gaskell didn’t have to make a call for me to make the run. When you play more often, you get to know when the half backs are going to kick the ball and they sort of give you that eye for when to run. The more I play, the more I’ll get to know my teammates’ game and it’s only going to get better.”

Myers added: “I’m loving my rugby at the minute. My confidence is growing every week and I’m really starting to feel part of this team. I’m only young, so playing in the Championship is huge for me as it’s a very competitive division. I need to make sure that I don’t get too confident, I stay grounded and just enjoy it.”

Lee Greenwood has hailed Jayden Myers in recent weeks (Image: Tom Pearson)

Despite only being young, Myers feels that a starting birth ahead of the final run-in is his to lose, as he admitted: “Definitely (mine to lose). Lee and Brian have both said that to me and said it publicly. There’s a lot of stuff that I need to work on, but I’m also learning at every training session because we have a lot of quality experienced players.

“Unfortunately, I won’t be playing this weekend because of the one-match ban I got against Swinton, so I might miss out in the future dependant on how the boys go against York, but it was my fault for getting the ban. Every game, I go into it knowing that I need to play my very best and that’s what I will continue to do.”