Off the Record: Rugby League Rumour and Gossip #69
Keen to coach
Rumour has it that a well-known NCL coach who had a successful playing career with Bradford, and has never been far way from controversy, has thrown his hat into the ring for a coaching position once the wheels start turning at Odsal. We understand this former Bull wants to lead the new and reformed outfit and has teamed up with one of the four bidders for the club. Bulls coach Rohan Smith is a free agent along with the rest of his players.
Naming rights
Has the name of a new Bradford club already been exposed? It seems as though ‘Bradford Northern’ is the preferred moniker of the revamped Bulls post-liquidation. A @BradfordNorth Twitter account has been set up while the website www.bradfordnorthern.co.uk is under construction. The domain name has been created by a Christoper Hallas from Bradford, who is a director of a number of companies in West Yorkshire.
More departees?
Word comes to us that former Bradford utility Colton Roche is trailing at Wakefield. Trinity haven’t offered him a contract, but he is training with the Super League side for the next couple of weeks. Fellow Bradford free agent Alex Foster is believed to have three Super League clubs interested in him. The second-rower, who only joined Bradford a few months ago from London, has tasted Super League before with Leeds.
Norths mafia
The Wests Tigers have become a refuge of former stalwarts of the North Sydney Bears. Ex-Bear Dave Warwick has just joined the Tigers as their recruitment manager after leaving St George Illawarra. Already the Tigers have former Norths halfback Jason Taylor as their head coach and another Norths old boy Kelly Egan as their new general manager of football. Egan and Warwick both worked together at Manly under Des Halser. The Tigers also have Paul Stringer, a former Bears prop, as an assistant coach. North Sydney might have dropped out of the NRL with the end of the Northern Eagles more than a decade ago, but they are living on in spirit at Concord Oval right now.
Bulls hit
More on the Bradford situation, and the grapevine tells us that Marc Green had been haggling with the RFL for the past two years (since he took over the club) over the Odsal lease. Green was keen to get his hands on the valuable real estate. Our source muses that the RFL were desperate to keep hold of Odsal as they see it as the perfect place where they could build a national academy, to become what St George’s Park is to football in England.