EAMON O’Carroll would take a short week for the Bulls to still be in the Challenge Cup.

His side have extra time to build up for next Friday’s Championship opener at favourites Wakefield.

Trinity head to Featherstone in the fifth round on Sunday but the Bulls are without a game following their Odsal exit to Widnes a fortnight ago.

O’Carroll said: “It would have been a short week but I’m still disappointed to be out the cup.

“I think we need to play games to get better.

“You can see some areas of our game that are good but we’ve got a lot of work to do. You can’t replicate a game situation in training.

“But it’s a long season, we’ve had a long pre-season with cup competitions as well. It’s the nature of the beast and we’ll prepare the best we can.”

Full back Aidan McGowan is still undergoing concussion protocol following his HIA against Swinton and others were feeling the effects of last week’s physical encounter.

“It’s about balance,” added O’Carroll. “We’ve played eight games now, including friendlies, so we have to energise the group the way we can.

“We need to use this time well. This is for preparation for round one, it’s not necessarily for rest.

“We’ll get that the week after the Halifax game. I’ll look to give them some time off.

“We’ve clearly got some work to do but we’ve got some busted bodies as well.

“We’re playing on a Friday night as well, which is something we don’t do. Obviously as a part-time team there are a few things we have to look at and take into consideration with our preparation.

“We’re excited about the season. We’ve got a really challenging start and the group’s excited about getting into it.”