BRADFORD Bulls currently find themselves without a head coach for 2025 and beyond, with many fans now eager to find out who the next man could be to take them forward.
It is a situation few would have envisaged just two weeks ago, off the back of Bradford’s excellent 25-12 win over Featherstone in the pair’s Betfred Championship eliminator.
That result marked Bulls as genuine contenders to win the play-offs, which would possibly have given them an outside chance of making Super League for 2025, or at the very least, set them up nicely in their attempts to make the top-flight for 2026.
But it has all gone rather pear shaped since then.
A devastating defeat by one point to Toulouse in the play-off semi-final, a game in which Bradford held a 12-8 advantage with less than 25 minutes to go, ended Bulls’ season in brutal fashion.
Just four days later, head coach Eamon O’Carroll made the shock announcement that he was leaving the club to take up a role in Super League, despite having a contract with Bradford until the end of 2027.
Bulls have a platform to build from, but in terms of which head coach will take them forward, all eyes are on the club’s next move.
Several publications have linked Andrew Henderson to the vacant position at Odsal, so with that in mind, the T&A have taken a look at his track record.
The high point of Henderson’s playing career came at Castleford in the mid-2000s, where the hooker guided them to Super League promotion twice as captain.
He also made over 100 appearances for Sheffield, while also coaching their community side, Sheffield Hallam Eagles, winning 16 of his 17 games in charge as they claimed the Conference League South title.
After retiring from playing, Henderson moved to London Broncos as Joey Grima’s assistant.
He took interim charge after Grima resigned in March 2015, before quickly being named as permanent head coach.
Henderson took them into the Super 8s twice, while he was named Kingstone Press Championship Coach of the Year in 2017.
The former Scotland international, who confusingly, was born in Devon but speaks with a thick Australian accent having moved there at the age of nine, moved to Warrington in 2018.
He was Steve Price’s assistant for four years, before moving to Keighley Cougars in a head of rugby role.
Henderson was instrumental in Cougars becoming just the third ‘invincible’ team of the summer era, as they won every game on their way to the League 1 title in 2022.
He left at the end of that season, signing a five-year deal to become York’s head coach in the Championship.
Henderson led the side to the play-offs in 2023, where his battered and bruised squad lost an eliminator against Bradford at Odsal, before moving upstairs in June 2024.
Mark Applegarth took over as head coach, while Henderson became head of rugby operations.
That set-up worked nicely, as York reached the play-offs again, beating Widnes in an eliminator before almost pulling off a seismic semi-final victory.
Incredibly, York were winning 13-12 at runaway league leaders and overwhelming Grand Final favourites Wakefield with less than 15 minutes to go, before a couple of late tries for the hosts sealed them a 22-13 victory.
York seem to have found a great balance with Applegarth and Henderson working in tandem, and it remains to be seen whether Henderson wants to, or will be asked to, give that up to become Bulls’ new head coach.
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