Fresh from attending John Adams’ wedding on the Friday night there was a few players with sore heads in the Bulls camp when they arrived on Saturday.

Without offering that as an excuse Kelly said he felt it contributed to the somewhat lacklustre performance.

“Six or seven of the boys were hungover and hadn’t had much sleep, but we were happy to get in and get out.

“I know a lot of the boys slept well on Saturday night.”

Goal kicking nearly proved the difference in the 27-24 victory which Kelly conceded was a lot closer than it should have been.

The Red Devils took the lead in the shadows of half time before the Bulls regained control just after the break.

They then held on in the frantic final minutes.

“We scored four or five tries to their two. They were just kicking penalty goals all day,” he said.

“We always contest the ball at the breakdown and that’s why we get penalised a lot.

“We could have played a lot better and defensively we weren’t good. Conceding 20 points is not our go, but every time we were in their 22 we scored or made massive in-roads.”

Kelly said he was encouraged by the performances of Mat Wannan who was awarded man of the match, and said Henry Noble provided plenty of direction.

Sam Bacigalupo was again solid in defence.

“He looked like an under eights bloke with his jersey down to his knees that looked about 10 sizes too big,” Kelly laughed.