Bulls v Wildcats: Teams
Steve McNamara is determined to put Bradford's troubled first half of the season behind him, starting with a win against Wakefield.
Last Updated: 05/06/09 2:54pm
Bradford Bulls head coach Steve McNamara is giving his players a fresh start as the Super League season moves into its second half.
The Bulls have been surprise strugglers over the first part of the season, currently lying 13th in the league table and having been eliminated from the Carnegie Challenge Cup.
But McNamara believes his side can mount a resurgence as the season reaches its mid-point when Bradford face Wakefield on Sunday.
"It's the second half of the season for us," he told the club's official website.
"We are thirteen games in with fourteen left and we intend to play very well and pick up lots of points in this period."
"In terms of what we are looking to achieve this season we have set ourselves some targets and some goals and, whilst it's a clean slate for the players, the rest of the season starts now.
"Some of them have shown what they can and what they can't do at this time and like I said there is now competition for places. People will be judged on how they play in games - as they always are - but also in practice as well."
Dropped
Tom Olbison is dropped from the match-day squad, being replaced by 19-year-old forward Elliot Whitehead.
Glenn Morrsion's return to the first-team has been put on hold as he has not yet fully recovered from a wrist injury.
Wakefield Wildcats head coach John Kear has named an unchanged 19-man squad to take on their West Yorkshire rivals
The Wildcats handed out a 50-6 thrashing to Super League's bottom club Celtic Crusaders last Saturday and will travel to second-from-bottom Bradford with an identical set of players.
The two sides have already met twice this year, with Wakefield edging the first encounter and Bradford winning the second during Magic Weekend at Murrayfield.
Bradford squad: Cook, Langley, Sheriffe, Burgess, Sykes, Scruton, Menzies, Newton, Whitehead, Rinaldi, Halley, Nero, Lynch, Kopczak, Jeffries, Tadulala, Worrincy, Platt, Deacon.
Wakefield squad: Blaymire, Martin, Atkins, Petersen, Rooney, Brough, Demetriou, Drew, Snitch, Wilkes, Grix, Obst, Stosic, Bibey, Winterstein, Gleeson, Leo Latu, Korkidas, Ferguson