BRADFORD Bulls centre Kieran Gill insists Sunday’s repeat of last year’s Betfred Championship play-off semi-final means just as much to he and his teammates as it did 12 months ago.
That is despite the fact that the IMG grading system means, of the final four, York have no chance of promotion, Toulouse and Bulls look to be outsiders, while Wakefield are seemingly nailed on for a Super League spot regardless of what happens in the play-offs.
But Gill said: “It doesn’t diminish Sunday’s game whatsoever.
“There’s a trophy on the line for being the best in the Championship and something like that for me would be a great achievement, especially being a part-time player against full-time opposition.
“I’m a big fan of us getting to go up against those sides in Toulouse and Wakefield, and it drives me physically and mentally.
“I’d love the opportunity, if we got to the Grand Final and won it, just to relish it more than anything.
“It would allow me to prove people wrong who wrote me off when I was younger, who said I couldn’t get to where I wanted to be at.
“I’d want to put in a really good individual performance if we made the Grand Final, but it all comes down to Sunday to start with.
“We’re aiming to do as well as we can in Toulouse and hopefully put on a good performance.”
It was certainly a good performance last weekend from Bulls in their 25-12 play-off win over bitter rivals Featherstone at Odsal.
It was a world away from their sloppy home defeat to the same opposition a few weeks prior and Gill admitted he and his team-mates were driven on by the consequences of losing the eliminator.
He said: “It was amazing last Sunday, and we all said weeks ago that we didn’t want our season to end straightaway in the first play-off game.
“We started training for this season last November and we’re still playing nearly 12 months later.
“Even though that has a real effect on our bodies, every single person at the club doesn’t want this to end.
“We’re riding a high and it feels good to be around the boys, the coaching staff and everyone involved with the club at the moment.
“It’s great to see the results on the field at the same time, as that allows the fans to appreciate what we’re doing.
“They don’t always see a lot of what goes on behind the scenes, but we don’t want to just take part in these play-offs.
“We want to do as much as we can for everybody, including the fans, the directors and for ourselves as players.
“Like I said, we don’t want this season to end, we just want to keep going.”
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