BRADFORD Bulls ace Jarrod Sammut admits his current link-up with Jordan Lilley has been about five years in the making, as he backed his partner in crime to the hilt.

Lilley has been running it tough all year, spending most of the year as the team’s sole half back due to the long-term absences of Lee Gaskell and Billy Jowitt.

That has led to teams targeting the 27-year-old, knowing he has been having to do twice the workload.

When the experienced Sammut returned to Odsal after 11 years away at the end of last month, many expected the partnership to thrive, especially with much of the burden being taken off Lilley.

But in the 37-year-old’s three games so far, a big win over crisis club Whitehaven has been sandwiched by a dire draw at Barrow and a naïve late defeat to Featherstone.

Sammut reflected: “That’s the level of the competition now, nothing is a given, but you want a big game every week.

“It’s funny, because Jordan and I have been in conversation about being half back partners for the best part of five years now, so to finally get that over the line is good.

“He’s had the weight of the world on his shoulders for most of the season being the only half back playing.

“We’re excited for our partnership, but it’ll still take a bit of time for us to get used to our combinations and to how each player around us operates, and for them to understand us two as a pairing.

“I’m trying to free up Jordy and allow him not to have to overthink and manage everything.

“He’s in a transition period though, where that had become almost second nature to him.

“For him to suddenly just get used to leaving everything on my shoulders, letting me dictate the team around the field, he’s still coming to terms with it.

“But the other weekend against Whitehaven, I felt that was some of the best rugby he’s ever played, and he looked so free out there.

“That’s the aim going forward, and I don’t believe we’re going to come unstuck in the run in.

“I think we’ve got a great squad and the right personnel that will take us all the way.

“It’s just about us now managing to put in an 80-minute performance, as opposed to a 70-minute one.”

Lilley has been Bulls’ kicker on and off since first arriving at the club seven years ago and is prone to inconsistency in that facet of his game.

He was not as his best last Sunday at Odsal, missing a couple of good opportunities for two points, while Featherstone’s Ben Reynolds was perfect from the tee, which was key to the away side pinching a last-gasp 22-21 victory.

Some fans this week have therefore been calling for Lilley to hand over kicking duties to Sammut for the remainder of the season.

When that possibility was put to the veteran Australian, he said: “I absolutely love the responsibility of kicking goals.

“I’ve been doing it my whole life and that added responsibility sort of gives me a little bit of extra focus.

“But while Jordy may not have been the out and out kicker throughout his time here, he’s not done a bad job given those circumstances.

“Against Whitehaven, he kicked nine from 10 goals and was unlucky not to be perfect.

“It’s unfortunate that we lost the Featherstone game through less conversions, but while Jordy’s our goal kicker, by no means do I feel he’s to blame for that loss.

Jordan Lilley did not have his best afternoon against Featherstone last Sunday, but then so many of his team-mates were below-par too.Jordan Lilley did not have his best afternoon against Featherstone last Sunday, but then so many of his team-mates were below-par too. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“There were multiple areas where we let ourselves down, where we didn’t quite hit the standards that we deem acceptable.

“Besides, with the game on the line, he nailed a one-pointer.

“He’s a very confident player, he can make goals, so before anything like a change in goalkicker happens, I think he would be the one to have to say he’d had enough of doing it.

“But if I know Jordy, I think he loves kicking and that’s something that boosts him as a player.

“I don’t believe what happened against Featherstone will knock him back, and I think we’ll see some better performances out of him coming up to the back end of the season, especially with everything to play for.”

Sammut was bursting with positivity throughout his conversation with the T&A, and is seemingly still on a high after returning to Odsal as a Bulls player for the first time since 2013.

He enthused: “I absolutely love it here.

“It still holds that same emotional connection for me as it did all those years ago.

“I have a lot of memories embedded in me from my first spell with Bradford and at Odsal, so it’s really great to be back.”